Worker Bees’ Daily Bites:
Here’s the sugar-free wrap up!
Run, Don’t Walk, to This Commentary
A terrific and compelling post that neatly sums up the arrogance and bias that is problematic in scientific research. Be sure to read it.
How Do Doctors Think?
Well, it turns out…pretty much like the rest of us. They are humans, after all, and they make plenty of mistakes. That shouldn’t be too alarming (though it’s certainly ringing bells around the web). It’s just further evidence that you need to get second opinions, do your research, and have confidence in your ability to take responsibility for your own health. Health doesn’t happen on autopilot.
Raising Healthy Kids
And it doesn’t include Nutripals. Catch this excellent and personal piece on the intersection of vegetarianism, fear-o-fat (a national pastime?), and raising truly healthy kids.
What’s Going to Replace the 5-a-Day Campaign?
That’s right, this festive medieval friend will now be showing up on anything that has a serving of fruits or veggies in it – including (drum roll please) processed foods. It’s all part of the new “More Matters” campaign. Hey, it beats Labelman. The idea is that marketing anything with fruits or veggies in it will work better if there is a brand identity attached. Like Nike, but not really.
Our take is that this is just one more way for processed food manufacturers to make misleading health claims. We debunked another meaningless marketing measure back in January – click it out and scroll to the bottom to find out what the U.S. government defines as “lean”.
Think about it: do we really need a juggler on a bag of apples, or a pack of lettuce? Of course not – people know this is produce. And evidence shows people already know they aren’t eating enough of it, and while they’re not getting enough – yet – there has been some modest improvement (an insightful comment on part of the problem: how we define the data affects how we interpret it).
So, why replace the ol’ fiver campaign with a simple icon, if not to give food manufacturers one more way to shill their processed faux food nuggets? Does anyone think the juggler is for the orange growers of Florida, or the onion farmers of Walla Walla? Or is it for the juice and popsicle and snack slingers? (As long as they keep the product’s sodium and fat under reasonable control, all bets are off.)
Sounds like a nice idea, but like the pretty, newish food pyramid, it’s so vague and high-concept, it’s meaningless.
[tag] More Matters, 5-a-Day, How Doctors Think [/tag]
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Ⓒ 2023 Mark's Daily Apple
