Real 10 foods to not eat-NCAHF - EFR 6-6

The article below from the National Council Against Health Fraud's Bulletin Board insert to their newsletter shows that we can provide rational information to the public without the excesses shown by some purported advocates for the consumer. As nutrition educators, we have to stick to the science if we are going to be believed.

From: NCAHF Bulletin Board, Nov/Dec 1995

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has been in the news lately condemning the new no-calorie fat substitute olestra. Are CSPI's warnings credible, or is this just another Chicken Little tactic to create the illusion that "CSPI is looking out for the public so send in your money"? Occasionally, CSPI does something worthwhile, but too often its strident messages are just another source of misinformation for the public. For instance, CSPI has been sending out a promotional flyer for Nutrition Action for years that banners "10 Foods You Should Never Eat". NEVER really sounds serious. Upon reviewing CSPI's list it became clear that this was nutrition nonsense that reinforces the widely-held misconception of "good foods/bad foods". A study done by the American Dietetic Association, Good Housekeeping Institute, and Kraft-General Foods (reported in Good Housekeeping in November, 1991) found that this was American's #1 nutrition misconception (held by 77% of the public). One would expect a consumer group dedicated to nutrition education to correct, not capitalize upon, nutrition misconceptions. Although CSPI might justifiably list the 10 foods it so thoroughly condemns among those to be eaten only occasionally, it makes no sense to say that they should never be eaten. A small group of us decided to list 10 foods that really should NEVER be eaten. Here's our list. We welcome additional suggestions from readers.

10 Foods you should really never eat (risks noted in parenthesis):

1. Raw milk, including Certified Raw Milk (Salmonella dublin).
2. Raw hamburger (E. coli)
3. Raw road-kill (you never know how long it has laid there).
4. Raw shellfish (hepatitis)
5. Organically-grown lettuce (Listeria from sheep manure)
6. Polar bear liver (vitamin A poisoning)
7. Live goldfish (its cruel)
8. Food from a swollen can (botulism)
9. Home processed sausage (botulism if prepared without nitrites); pork (trichinosis if not properly cooked)
10. Poorly identified wild mushrooms (mycotoxin)

Additional candidates for the "never-eat" list: Moldy peanuts, or rice (aflatoxin B); moldy rye (ergotism).

For Your Information - Certified Raw Milk has been promoted as a "health food" for years. It took a successful lawsuit in California to force a warning label in 1985, and federal court action to force the FDA to ban interstate shipment in 1987.

- Raw ground beef and other raw meats (liver, brains, bone marrow, tripe, gelatin, sweetbreads, kidneys, heart) were dubbed "super foods" by the International College of Applied Nutrition (ICAN) in its publication Nutrition Applied Personally (c.1973). ICAN was founded by the late Carlton Fredericks and Adelle Davis, among others. It merged with the International Academy of Preventive Medicine in 1987 to form the International Academy of Nutrition and Preventive Medicine (IANPM). IANPM has listed among its board of trustees such mavericks as Emanuel Cheraskin, MD, DMD, Warren Levin, MD, and Lendon Smith, MD, among others. IANPM published the Journal of Applied Nutrition which promotes exaggerated notions about the value of nutrition and the need for dietary supplementation.

- CSPI has promoted the use of "organically-grown" foods in the past. Some vegetarians advocate eating unwashed foods in order to obtain vitamin B12 from the soil. We're not saying that CSPI advocates eating unwashed organically-grown lettuce, but health behavior specialists understand that health and nutrition zealots are drawn to off-beat information sources and can be expected to combine odd-ball ideas of their choosing.