April 24 - Perverting the language - The health establishment purposefully corrupts the language as a tactic to further its control over the population.  Epidemic no longer refers to a terrible outbreak of infectious disease but is unethically used to describe voluntary behaviors such as smoking and eating.  Addiction has been watered down to include smoking, shopping, gambling as well as other behaviors that used to be described as habits.  "Proof" quite some time ago joined the words that Big Health perverted for its own ends.

"Scientists prove that salty diet costs lives" screams the headline in the Times Online introducing a story about salt consumption.  Within not only is there no "proof" but a close reading provides evidence that the researchers, along with the media, have completely abandoned the epidemiological standards that should govern research such as this.

People who ate less salty food were found to have a 25 per cent lower risk of cardiac arrest or stroke, and a 20 per cent lower risk of premature death.

Add a zero to these percentages and this study would have warranted a news story.  Ethical epidemiologists are looking for at least 200% (relative risk 3) as the base to justify concern or intervention.  These puny percentages warrant nothing (especially when the data is gathered with questionnaires!), as the researchers well know and reporters covering these issues should know.  The reporter, a Health Editor, no less, should have informed his readers that 20 and 25 per cent indicate... nothing.  He does, however, midway down remark that the number of heart attacks and deaths supposedly caused by a salty diet are so small that they could have occurred by "chance."

Considering that the researchers are rehashing previous studies conducted one and two decades ago a more pertinent analysis should focus on why old research is dubbed "proof" of anything.  Obviously the researchers are cashing in on the obesity "epidemic", a fertile ground for profitable grants.  The United Kingdom, like other countries, is badgering its citizens to shape up and behave themselves.  Anti-salt messages there are becoming increasingly strident and this study will bolster the campaigns to alter consumption.  Like studies regarding the supposed bad effects from smoking tobacco, the salt and diet studies have proven only that Big Health long ago forgot why it is supported by a highly taxed population.

April 20 - Calling time out on the media’s weight obsessions: you tell ‘em, Tyra - Former supermodel Tyra Banks has come out as an unlikely (or is it logical?) spokesperson for the idea that our obsession with people’s weight is … nuts.  As various countries “crack down” on excessiveness skinniness in runway models (there have indeed been several anorexic deaths), Tyra Banks got called “fat” by the media for flashing a bit more flesh than usual in a bikini.  Now she’s calling BS on the whole schizophrenic body image obsession.  Take that, health Nazis.

“… there are models right now dying on the runway and people are saying that people are too skinny; then suddenly there are these pictures of me and they're saying I'm too big. And never mind me, I didn't really want to focus on that, but look, even if I had been 200 pounds, would that make me ugly and disgusting?  Because that's what they were saying I was.  And, if they're saying that, they're saying that to every woman: and so many women are 200 pounds, so many do have that shape, so that means that you're telling those women they're ugly and disgusting.'“

April 20 - Bacon causes lung disease - Busy junk "scientists" in the United States have found that eating bacon, as well as other cured meats, increases the risk of lung disease.  This report from the British Broadcasting Corporation wisely omits any percentages attached to the alleged increased risk so we can rest assured that the relative risk falls well below the threshold of concern.  If the "scientists" had found a 200% increased risk of lung disease from consuming cured meats we might concur with their call for "more studies."

The "scientists" attempt to cover their bases by invoking the incantation that "smoking remains the single most significant cause of [lung disease]" but will undoubtedly ignite the ire of the anti-tobacco pressure groups by concluding that smoking, as well as lower class status, insufficient vitamin C intake and bad diet, could not account for the increased risk of lung disease for the cured meat consumption.  Of course these days special interest benefactors, such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, have expanded their anti-tobacco ideology to include a bevy of "anti" stances, especially where food is concerned.  Having discovered the joys of behavior modification through anti-smoking propaganda the "anti" advocates are eager to increase control wherever hysteria roams.

April 20 - Peril in the post trans fat world - Proving yet again that they are never satisfied, the behavior engineers, despite their successful campaign to demonize trans fat, are now singing the blues that the proletariat faces new, perhaps insurmountable, challenges in a trans-fat-free environment. The elimination of trans fat, dubbed "heart-damaging" and "artery clogger", although no actual evidence exists that this cooking material warrants such terms of opprobrium, leaves a void that is being filled by animal fats, such as butter or lard, or tropical oils such as palm or coconut oil.  Oh, the horror!  Coconut oil, for those who remember the genesis of the modern food policing effort, should ring a bell since it was the evil substance that food ideologues successfully removed from movie house popcorn.  As for butter, could there be anything more insidious to good health?  The "good" substitutes for trans fat, such as olive, canola or soy bean oil, are useless for cookies, pastries and pizza crusts.  It's no coincidence that these foods top the list of "unhealthy food" deplored by the food police.

"You need to find a replacement for a solid fat that doesn't have the health implications, and that's the tougher battle," says Susan Borra of the International Food Information Council.  "We are changing the entire fatty acid profile of the food supply, and we're not sure we know what it's going to look like at the other end."

We are changing the food supply and we're not sure what will be the result.  Could any statement be more arrogant and more reflective of the mantle of superiority with which the behavior engineers enwrap themselves?  Historically any entity that proclaimed it was altering the food supply for entire populations with no concern as to the results wrought by its alteration would have been considered an enemy of the people and harshly curbed, if not eradicated.

In our emasculated era, unfortunately, food supply manipulators are treated as indispensable, integral components of the community rather than noxious meddlers.  This article provides propaganda space for the American Heart Association, an organization that lies deliberately and continuously about the effects of smoking, to dispense its nonsensical diet recommendations to a public that has fewer choices now than it had before the social engineers became a blight upon the nation.

April 19 - Racial component of fat - Researchers investigating why Europeans are so fat have unearthed a racial component that undoubtedly will lead to many, fatter grants for further research.  The numbers are quite precise:  half of white Europeans carry a defective gene that causes a 30% increased risk of obesity while 16% percent carry two defective copies of the same gene, which carries a 70% risk of obesity.  We'll accept the researchers word on the percentage of white Europeans saddled with the defective genes and concentrate solely on the risks they assign to carrying that disease.

Even without looking at the data of the study one can easily figure that we are talking about inferred causality and not about a scientifically established one. “McCarthy notes that the function of FTO remains a mystery. It is unclear if people with the gene simply burn calories less efficiently or if they consume more food.” These researchers know this, of course, but they also know how incompetent is the reportage of the media, even in something called NewScientist.com.  Junk scientists also know how to follow the hype and capitalize on the political class's need to "do something."  Obesity is the hottest “health threat” going, although tobacco research still rakes in the dough.  Combining fat with racial differences is a two-fer in our obsessive culture where social engineers constantly seek to boil down human behavior into predictable equations that can be dealt with by an overbearing therapeutic health.  As to the majority of Europeans who have these "defective" genes, no need to worry.  The numbers cranked out mean nothing. But what is sinisterly meaningful is the approach – once again identical to anti-tobacco: people who are fat (like people who smoke) are defective. Next to what? Next to a defective ideology concerning itself with the “perfect, healthy man” who is compared with assorted computer models.

We have been down that defective path before, haven’t we?... And walking down that path with or without computers makes no difference. We discovered then that this is not the logical way to go and -- even less -- the human way to go. We have to discover it again -- because to err is human, but to persevere is diabolical.

April 12 - Soft drink tax - Norway is poised to raise taxes on soft drinks and sweets.  The country has a history of taxing "luxury" products such as alcohol and cigarettes and now is going after products that are considered "unhealthy."  While refreshing to read a news story that veers off script by mentioning cigarettes and soft drinks in the same paragraph but labelling just the soft drinks as unhealthy, it is disturbing that governments throughout the world are basing policy decisions on pseudo "scientists" who crank out junk studies that are more hype than research.  The government is keeping its cards close to its vest on how high the taxes will go and on what they will be imposed but the ubiquitous "activists" hope for at least a doubling of the tax rate.  The activists also are clear on why taxes must be raised:

"The problem is that we eat much too much sugar... too little fruit and vegetables, and too many processed foods like potato chips."

As usual the operative speaks for the population at large, deciding with his use of the royal "we" what will be done with the taxpayers who pay his salary.  The newspaper moves back on script as it reports that Norwegians are firmly behind the government's plan to raise taxes.  Never before have there been so many people who want their taxes raised, at least according to those who live to bilk the public.

April 12 - Salt, the new Plutonium - Who would have thought it?  Apparently in Canada there are 15,000 dead bodies found each year, every last one of them done in by salt.  The numbers come from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the American shakedown organization that wants everyone everywhere to adopt its austere diet of self-denial.  CSPI is not above lying to stir up hysteria while pressuring governments to crack down on the consumer.  For some reason salt consumption is an inordinate concern of this group even though at the moment "research" has been exonerating salt after years of demonization.  America may not produce any goods that people would like to buy these days but it sure is successful in peddling junk science throughout the world, no matter how fraudulent the claims.

April 12 - Eat drink and be merry for dieting is no use - The experts for years have been hectoring us to loose weight since we are too damned fat.  The message is relentless and accompanies the drumbeat of countless "studies" proclaiming that the industrialized nations are undergoing an epidemic of obesity.  Governments have of course gotten in the act by re-defining obesity and heaviness so that more people fall into that category without having to gain a pound.  Dieting has become a chronic condition for a huge swath of people.

So what are to make of the latest research that seems to say "give up and pork up?"  At least that is one message coming from junk science central, the University of California where "scientists" analyzed dozens of studies involving thousands of dieters.  The university's conclusion?  Dieting doesn't work.  This is an odd message to proclaim during an epidemic of obesity and speculations on the university's motives are just that.  One explanation is that the university is preparing to pave the path for the pharmaceutical industry to enter more aggressively the weight loss game.  Just as those who successfully quit smoking are those who do so without using smoking cessation products those who lose weight and keep it off do so on their own using will power.  Will power cannot be patented but weight loss aids can be.  Pharmaceutical money is behind the studies that discovered an obesity epidemic just as pharmaceutical money financed "research" that discovered that smoking leads to all manner of illness and an early, inevitable death.  Based on its behavior regarding tobacco, expect a flurry of studies recommending professional help and pharmaceutical aids to lose weight successfully.  It worked with tobacco so why change a con job that brings lots of money to Big Drugs.

April 5 - A breath of fresh air - Every day scads of health-related stories hit the newsprint and airwaves bringing the latest study to the public.  These studies warn against newly-discovered risks or tout the benefits of a particular diet or a special regimen designed to promote longevity.  Attentive readers and viewers over time often experience dejà vue.  Haven't I heard this before, they ask themselves.  Well, yes you have heard it before and sometimes you've heard some food or activity touted to the sky only to be damned later as suicidal.  Wine bad, red wine good, carbs out, carbs in.  What's a consumer to do?

Listen to an actual expert whose job depends on results, not deceptive hypotheses.  Speaking at an American College of Sports Medicine-sponsored health and fitness summit Wendy Repovich, an exercise physiologist, spoke of the health myths that mystify the public.  Eggs, for instance, got a bad reputation because researchers, aware that the yolk contains the highest amount of cholesterol of any food, transformed that fact into a panic attack that frightened people away from a food that mankind had enjoyed for thousands of years.

"Most people avoid eggs and probably if they have any kind of cardiovascular risk their physicians tell them to avoid eggs," Repovich said. "But really, there aren't a whole lot of studies that show that one or two eggs a day really make a difference to cholesterol levels."

There are, however, a passel of studies, rendered into overwrought prose by our lazy press, that imply (but never prove) that eating eggs is asking for a heart attack.  The sheer number gives the accounts a patina of authority that then becomes the Truth.  Years later the same grant junkies crank out "studies" that exonerate the egg and the cycle is complete and ready to begin anew at an opportune time.  Critics of this process, like Repovich, have far more credibility than the study-for-hire gang that produces results that please those who fund the research.  Repovich, after all, makes her living advising sports franchises on how to keep the players healthy.  Better still, just follow the wisdom of "moderation in all things" and ignore the hysterics of the media.

April 2 - Trans fat in restaurants: “at least as serious as the menace of smoking” - The rhetoric of  Public Health continues to exhibit the same cookie-cutter tediousness day after day, week after week, year after year.   Another day, another crisis as bad or worse than smoking!

This time it’s trans-fats used in restaurants in Calgary, Canada, where the intrepid Dr. Brent Friesen, the Calgary Health Region's medical officer of health is gunning for promotion by playing the menace-of-the-moment game in the typically cynical fashion of his kind.

But with Albertans starting to wonder about virus and bacteria-laden bone chips in the instruments used for internal medical exams (see story above) his talk of high standards of restaurant hygiene ring a little hollow: “We require them to have utensils in a sanitary condition, we're talking about a similar approach to preparing food -- there are alternatives to trans fats,"  he blathers.  Does that mean that trans fats are unsanitary now?  Maybe if it’s low-priority, we could get talked into the notion that unsanitary in hospitals and clinics is the “new” sanitary? See, we can do it, too – play the bad faith topsy-turvy word spin game.  Are these guys actually getting MEDICAL training these days, or are they all just appalling PR flaks in white coats?

March 9 - Would Cass Elliot have a career today? - Readers of a certain age will certainly remember Cass Elliot, the full-throated singer from the ‘60s vocal group the Mamas and the Papas (“California Dreamin”, etc). The header above links with a YouTube duet between Elliot and John Denver, two now long-dead figures from what, in retrospect, seems a much gentler and humane era.

We digress. We’ve put the link up on FORCES not only to give our readers a break from the bad news, but to pose a question: as a fat woman, what would the wonderful Cass Elliot’s chances be of having a career today? Would she be publicly harangued (as Barack Obama is over smoking) to lose weight in order to be a presentable or “suitable” performer for public consumption? Would she be told off by newspaper columnists for being a “bad role model”? Would there be discussions amongst the shriller “health advocates” about setting up government-imposed “standards” to regulate who can appear on federally-regulated airwaves on the basis of whether or not they appear “healthy”?

Anyway, for the moment, sit back and enjoy a nice moment from free 1972 …

March 7 - Fat good, fat bad, fat happy, fat sad - So now, for about 10 seconds, let’s raise concerns about whether people are getting enough fat in their diets. Yes, notwithstanding the obesity epidemic that’s engulfing the world and the threat of ravaging psychological devastation posed by thin runway models, it’s time to focus on whether modern low fat diets are causing infertility. According to this ONE study from the United States, ovulation-related infertility goes up by a whopping 85 per cent if a woman eats five portions weekly of low-fat foods.

Of course, it’s being reported as if it were information that general readers could actually use, when it’s not. One study simply does not give us anything that should be readily translated into “advice” for individuals about their specific habits and practices. But undeterred, one of the study’s authors wades in to tell women what they should be eating. It’s the fashionable thing to do, and the university’s Public Relations office probably expects it: “Dr Chavarro said that his advice to women wanting to conceive would be to change their diet. ‘They should consider changing low-fat dairy foods for high-fat dairy foods; for instance, by swapping skimmed milk for whole milk and eating ice-cream, not low-fat yoghurt.’ ”

In British coverage of the same story, another health professional gives the opposite advice: “I'm not convinced that there is any reason for women who are trying to conceive to alter their diet, unless they are obese,” says Dr Richard Fleming.