More Nutrition and Cholesterol Nonsense

I am really amazed by the nonsense littering the web.

Take for instance Julie Upton, a registered dietician, who has an article on POPSUGAR telling about food myths.  She lists diet soda as a product that doesn't cause you to get fat,

Myth 2: Diet sodas make you gain weight.

Fact: While you may have read that diet beverages make you gain weight, a recent clinical trial found just the opposite. In the 12-week study, published in the journal Obesity, dieters who drank diet beverages lost 13 pounds on average — 44 percent more than subjects drinking water only, who lost an average of nine pounds. What's more, the diet-soda drinkers reported feeling more satisfied. This study adds to a substantial body of research demonstrating that low-calorie sweeteners and the diet beverages that contain them do not hinder but can in fact help with weight loss. Two peer-reviewed studies published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by researchers from the University of North Carolina in 2012 and 2013 randomly assigned subjects to drink either water or diet beverages (without making any other changes to their diet). After six months, the diet-beverage group had a greater likelihood of reaching a meaningful amount of weight loss — five percent of one's body weight — compared to the control group. These studies reinforce that if you're trying to lose weight, diet beverages may help you peel off pounds, as they can help you achieve and maintain a lower-calorie eating plan.

Not only is this incorrect, because science has proven other wise, the artificial sweeteners in diet soda are very hazardous for your health.

Medical experts warn about the dangers of aspartame

"Aspartame is not a necessary nutrient, and neither is MSG. The weight of the evidence is overwhelming. If you want to avoid obesity, metabolic syndrome, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, and if you don't want to make your cancer more aggressive, then you need to stay away from these products. The damage affects pregnant women, unborn babies and newborns. It can produce changes in the brain that are irreversible, depending on when it is stopped. What we've found is that it reprograms the wiring of the brain, particularly the hypothalamus, so it doesn't function normally. These children are abnormal for the rest of their lives in terms of their physiological function." Russell Blaylock, M.D.

"So let me tell you what the European Food Safety Authority and the FDA won't, and that's the truth about aspartame: It's the most dangerous food additive ever approved for human consumption." Mark Stengler, NMD, America's Natural Doctor

"Lying and deceit on the artificial sweetener issue has been the FDA's Modus Operandi ever since Donald Rumsfeld broke everything decent in the U.S. government to put aspartame on the market as a "contract on humanity".  It has no commercial purpose other than a contract on humanity." James Bowen, M.D.

Sucralose (Splenda) is as bad as aspartame if not worse.  Then there is neotame and acesulfameK.

Be aware!

Another article that caught my eye was  "Is Your Cholesterol Really Too High?"

By Jean Bartlett Features Correspondent Posted:   01/20/2015 05:09:04 PM PST There is an International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics (http://www.thincs.org/) — a group of scientists, physicians, other academicians and science writers from various countries — who offer this food for thought. "For decades, enormous human and financial resources have been wasted on the cholesterol campaign," the Network notes, "more promising research areas have been neglected, producers and manufacturers of animal food all over the world have suffered economically, and millions of healthy people have been frightened and badgered into eating a tedious and flavorless diet or into taking potentially dangerous drugs for the rest of their lives," The Network also challenges the use of statins, popular cholesterol lowering medications which include such drugs as: atorvastatin (Lipitor), simvastatin (Zocor), lovastatin (Mevacor), pravastatin (Pravachol), and rosuvastatin (Crestor).

No where in her article does the writer mention that low thyroid makes your cholesterol level go up.  And I am sure your doctor did not even take this in to consideration.

The point is, cholesterol medications may not work as they claim and they can do you a lot of harm. Some even contain fluoride.

Patient and buyer beware.

Read More

Busted: Cholesterol Claims

Cholesterol Claims Confound

Cholesterol-battling plant stanol-based Benecol has been busted in the UK for exaggerating TV advert claims even though they were based on UK National Health Service, British Heart Foundation (BHF) and World Health Organization (WHO) data.

A veteran healthy foods consultant called the ruling “stupid” and advised Raiso-owned Benecol’s UK license holder, Johnson & Johnson, to sue the UK agency in question.

The ads for Benecol drinking yoghurt claimed, "two out of three adults have high cholesterol" in the UK, but the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the claim manipulated BHF and other data and,“therefore exaggerated the health benefit of the product.”

‘Stupid?’

Despite being approved by the broadcast approver, Clearcast, the ASA also ruled the ad had inappropriately used an EU-approved cholesterol reducing claim by stating Benecol was, “proven to lower cholesterol by up to 10% in just three weeks."

“This attack on a European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)-approved claim has to be one of the most stupid regulatory rulings that I have seen,” opined industry consultant, editor and analyst Julian Mellentin.

“The ASA panel who arrived at this decision must be composed of people with zero understanding of the regulation and the science. They should be called to account.”

ASA reasoning

The ASA said the Benecol ad had not been clear enough about what cholesterol levels of 5 mmol/l meant, even if WHO figures showed two thirds of people had raised cholesterol based on this measure. BHF data was similar.

In casting the ad as “misleading” and “exaggerated”, the ASA said some of the data was based on LDL cholesterol and not total cholesterol, and that some dated from five or more years ago.

Further, “While we acknowledged that the NHS Choices article submitted stated that total cholesterol of less than 5 mmol/l was advised for healthy adults, we noted that it did not state that all levels of over 5 mmol/l were considered to be ‘high’, rather than, for example, being considered raised or of moderate risk.”

“In addition, we were concerned that the BHF 2007 report gave blood cholesterol levels for England but that it did not include a UK figure.”

For the claim itself the ASA noted the European Commission backed claim wording flexibility but in this case was, “concerned that although the ad stated ‘LOWER CHOLESTEROL UP TO 10% in 3 weeks’, and ‘PROVEN TO LOWER CHOLESTEROL’, it did not include the required information about high cholesterol being a risk factor in the development of CHD [coronary heart disease].”

“We therefore considered the meaning of the authorised disease risk reduction claim was significantly altered.”

It said the supplementary information was not prominent enough in the ad compared to other information and concluded, “The ad must not be broadcast again in its current form.”

Challenge?

But this logic failed to impress Mellentin.

“The regulator is once again ignoring the fact that a company is using a legally permitted claim, that the wording falls very clearly within the boundaries of what is permitted by the regulation and that the product and the claim have been supported by eminent independent bodies such as the British Heart Foundation and several others.”
“It's time that companies resisted this type of ignorance and regulatory arrogance. If Benecol was my company I'd take the ASA to court where they would be subjected to a humiliation that they richly deserve.”

Benecol cholesterol-lowering claims were approved in many countries before the 2009 EU nutrition and health claim approvals that also included related plant stanols compounds.

That stated: “The Panel concludes that for an intake of 1.5 - 2.4 g/d an average reduction of between 7 and 10.5 % can be expected.”

A summary of those claims can be found here .