From cereals that boost immunity to yogurts that regulate digestion and juices that keep heart disease at bay, grocery stores in the U.S. are brimming with packaged foods and beverages that claim to improve health. Such declarations are good for business: sales of “functional foods”—those that manufacturers have modified to provide supposed health benefits—generated $31 billion in the U.S. in 2008, a 14 percent increase over 2006, according to Rockville, Md.–based market research firm Packaged Facts. But consumers are getting a rotten deal. Although health claims for foods may appear to be authoritative, in many cases science does not support them and the government does not endorse them. Not only do these products, many of which are nutritionally bereft, fail to deliver on their promises, but they may also give consumers a false sense of security that discourages them from taking more effective measures to attain wellness, such as exercise or medication.
In March the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to 17 food and beverage manufacturers concerning false or misleading health and nutrition claims on their products. It was an unusually expansive crackdown for the agency, whose regulatory power over food companies has declined over the past decades, thanks to Congress and the courts, which have tended to come down on the side of the food companies. The FDA’s move, accompanied by an open letter from Commissioner Margaret Hamburg about the importance of accurate nutrition labeling, was a significant step toward halting the exploitation of science by food marketers, but it does not go far enough in protecting consumers from deceptive marketing.
The FDA currently issues guidelines for what claims companies can make about their foods. It allows statements about how products affect the normal structure and function of the body but prohibits unauthorized claims about disease. The agency, though, does not review compliance before food is packaged and shipped. Food products arrive at the stores emblazoned with questionable claims. Cheerios can lower cholesterol 4 percent in six weeks, asserted the box label, until the FDA sent General Mills a cease-and-desist letter in May 2009. Redco Foods’s Salada Naturally Decaffeinated Green Tea promised to tackle Alzheimer’s, rheumatism and cancer, until the March crackdown. The agency is then forced to play catch-up. Meanwhile the snake oil sits on supermarket shelves.
Holding health claims for food to the same scientific standards as those for drugs—and requiring manufacturers to convince the FDA of alleged benefits before releasing products for sale—would result in far fewer health claims on packaged foods, if recent developments in Europe are any indication. In 2006 Europe began holding food makers to rigorous scientific standards. Since then, the European Food Safety Authority has rejected, on the basis of insufficient evidence, a whopping 80 percent of the more than 900 claims they have assessed thus far. Among the rejects were claims about probiotic ingredients, which are commonly found in yogurt products and often touted for their alleged digestive benefits, and omega-3 fatty acids, which are frequently added to products ranging from orange juice to baby food and are often said to promote brain development. The simple act of asking for evidence is sometimes enough to reveal the shoddiness of a claim—some European firms drew supporting materials from Wikipedia, the American Heritage dictionary and the Bible.
Differences between the lenient U.S. system and the more restrictive European system are easily apparent. For instance, visitors to the Web site for Activia (www.activia.com)—a yogurt product from Dannon—will have a very different experience depending on which country they indicate they are from. The U.S. version prominently displays the product’s putative health benefits, asserting that it can “help regulate your digestive system by helping reduce long intestinal transit time.” (It does not say explicitly that the yogurt helps to alleviate constipation, which would be a clear violation of the FDA prohibition of unauthorized claims about specific medical conditions.) The U.K. version, on the other hand, says only that the yogurt contains an exclusive bacterial culture and, like other yogurts, is a source of calcium and vitamin B12.
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Add CommentIn "Snake Oil in the Supermarket" the processed food industry is indirectly blamed for "skyrocketing rates of obesity...". I submit that the pharmaceutical industry's quest for an anti-obesity drug warrants a companion article "Snake Oil in the Drug Industry". What a perfect symbiotic relationship - the food industry makes billions of dollars selling fatty foods while the drug industry makes billions of dollars selling drugs to combat the fat. All the while the population of the earth can eat Twinkies and sit around playing video games without gaining an ounce.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisH. Goldenberg
Martinsville, NJ
NEVER ingest anything on blind faith, just because a company making money out of it tells us it's "good for us"! Too often it does nothing but empty our wallets & give us a feelgood placebo glow--like bottled garlic capsules--or cause harm--like St Johns Wort for everyone & iron tablets for older people. The FDA was founded to get filth, alcohol and opium out of grocers and drugstores, but hasn't kept up with either the technology or the Congresseional connections of modern crooks. I can personally attest that the inspectors have good intentions, but. . . . as Tech Administrator of Process Automation for a pharma company my work was inspected by the FDA for 6 years, and they came by for inspections no more than once a year. THE FDA DOESN'T HAVE ANYWHERE CLOSE TO ENOUGH INSPECTORS OR FUNDING FOR IN-DEPTH SNOOPING! Their regulatory power, only fair to start with, has been chopped down to very poor, especially since Reagan.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMost of us are well aware that when someone screams against government rules & regs it's usually because they're peddling something bad. Or because the producers or their customers have been blinded by wishful thinking based on anecdotes, which provide no evidence of safety or efficacy. We trust unregulated private enterprise only at our peril. "Health" food stores are some of the worst fakers. I haven't done business with them for years, but instead have been campaigning for full disclosure of ingredients and processes (as well as FDA monitoring of "organic" and "health" claims) since I was co-manager of a NYC health food store in 1970-71. There's been some success: labeling of some contents on outer packages, clamp-down on direct claims of health improvements and fining of false "organics, but it's not enough. The supplements industry has escaped monitoring. I was so suspicious of "health" food before I got pregnant with my only child (end of 1970) that I was making my own cottage cheese, yogurt & skim milk. I trusted the FDA more in those days (naively) but even so, once a week we drove out in the country and bought whole milk directly from a clean dairy, and greens, veggies and non-red meat from reliable farmers. For fish every so often, we went to NYC's fish market. However, as investigators for our food co-op, we knew which producers were reliable and which were liars. Due to US paranoia about government, plus hypochondria and New Age gullibility, the Europeans are way ahead of us in government oversight. What we need to do is in this article. We need it for pill manufacturers, fresh produce, and everything ingested, but let's start by cleaning up the so-called "health" supplement industry.
Snake oil has been proven to be higher in omega-3s than many other oils. So, if you are deficient in omega-3 oils, snake oil may help you. But the snake oil salesman makes claims that usually cannot be substantiated.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am far more worried about the food industry using cheap shortcuts that put our health at risk without correctly informing us about those risks just for the sake of profit.
The food industry says fructose is just as safe as sugar. In small doses it is. But not in the large doses the food industry is currently using. People eating the large doses currently in the American diet are experiencing the negative side effects that go along with an overdose of fructose. Most of the health problems we are currently experiencing today are coming at an earlier age thanks to too much fructose in our diet.
We should be placing health first in our diet starting with the food industry. Most people are ignorant of the dangers in their diets and the food industry should not be blatantly taking advantage of that ignorance.
It's one of my biggest fears and frustrations that, in today's world, a much higher emphasis is placed on profitability than integrity. Its as though society has tacitly agreed to be lied to, exploited, deceived, and ultimately harmed by itself. We don't seem willing, as a whole, to make the extra effort to keep our society honest, with science being the best way to do so (at least in areas such as health care, food products, etc.)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI usually try to avoid bemoaning the foibles of society -- after all, what does it accomplish? -- but this piece struck a nerve. An excellent, much-needed wake-up call (pardon the cliche).
Thanks, Editors!
http://laist.com/2010/07/25/guns_drawn_in_raid_on_raw_food_stor.php#comments
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs this what our country is coming to, food Nazis
The LAPD went in Guns Drawn, lined up the workers and took all the goats milk and yogurt.
I am for one, very tired of people telling me to what to eat and what I am allowed to purchase. We are now living in a Military state. The FDA is now giving local Police the means to draw guns and take milk from a co-op. I am so tired of Monsanto decit to our consumers.
Our Soy, Corn, Cottonseed and Canola are now not to be trusted by the people due to Monsantos insatiable greed along with 4 major corporations run our food. If you take the herbicide that they use to injected in the seed and spray on the crops, to it's most basic molecular level it has the same proberties as Anthrax.
Our rights to honestly, organically grown food are being taken from us by the day.
Scientists say it's no problem we can feed the world, as Dr Jeffery Smith, a whistleblower from Monsanto says: We are creating genetic roulette. Read the seeds of deception.
Pesticides are a 35 billion dollar business and they are endagering the health and human saftey of humans.
We better wake up, I am educated well on the dangers of food.
Now we have the Gulf Spill and they are saying the oil has magically disappeared, If people believe this delusion of the oils companies, just wait a few years until the Gulf Becomes a complete and utter DEADZONE. The Corexit companie and BP are systematically deprograming our sheephole government that this is true.
Why if it is safe are people becoming ill to this day, they are opening waters and saying to fishermen, "You can fish but if a restaurant patron gets sick, thats your problem."
The EPA didn't even demand to know what was in that dispersant, it just goes on a list. Chemicals kill and mixed with oil kills the precious etuaries and marshlands where small fish breed on plankton. One ingredient in the first Corexit they sprayed contained proyplene glycol and benzine a known carcinogen.
I spent 3 days up on that coast obtaining specimens and was ill for almost a month, that was no coincidence. I almost was arrested for taking samples without BP authorization.
If that isn't a Military State and a reflection on the Government stomping the heck out our freedoms. I don't know. History is repeating its self, Riki Ott at www.rikiott.com is here in Florida trying to help these people becaue of her experience with the Exxon Valdex Debacle.
As someone who works for a company (http://www.SCScertified.com) that provides third party verification of claims about food nutrition and safety, I’m glad to see the FDA taking action. Aside from meeting regulations, food marketers can gain consumer trust by making sure their claims are backed up by data.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Nutriceuticals", or so called "functional foods," have too little of the active ingredient in them to do much good. There are countless examples of this, ranging from the plant sterol/stanols to probiotics. In addition, the number of servings needed to achieve therapeutic amounts are generally not consumed. And, sometimes when they are, the amounts of other nutrients may not be suitable for the intended population. For instance, increasing sugar and calories in fortified orange juice in an overweight diabetic. Vitamin D in milk is another example, with only 400 IU and commonly with D2 rather than D3. Since overwhelming recent evidence shows over ten times this amount may be necessary to achieve optimum levels, consuming sufficient milk to keep vitamin D levels up to par, as advised my most professionals, would raise calorie, fat, and sugar (lactose) intake to intolerable levels in most consumers. Further, many people mistakenly have the impression cheeses are fortified, when in fact most are not. Masking of symptoms, for instance, of serious vitamin B12 deficiency by taking in folate. Because illness is complex, it is highly unlikely that a small amount of a nutrient with potential benefits will actually do what a "patient" wants it to do, and constitutes a real danger. Variations in quality and doses also add unknowns. Most people need professional advice with nutrient supplementation, whereas the food and supplement ads give the opposite impression.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe European system as it exists now is also not ideal. They too have an agenda, which is subject to personal beliefs of the constituents, and political influence. Their view of the efficacy of the shorter omega-3 in flax (alpha linolenic acid) compared to fish oil (EPA and DHA) is obtuse. On the other hand, the FDA here simply cannot, at the moment, handle this huge task for several reasons.
Instead of processing foods highly, then trying to fortify with a small amount of another nutrient, occasionally the same one they removed during refining, the food industry might consider providing more "real" food, and less "fake food."
With JAMA reporting that over 150,000 Americans die each year in hospitals from properly prescribe, FDA approved prescription drugs, and while there is no significant scientific agreement that natural food products (as opposed to factory farm "food") kills anybody, perhaps the regulatory emphasis should be on the public harm caused by pharmaceutical products, including vaccines, and not on foods intended to supplement the diet.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe WHO tells us that under-nutrition and malnutrition are the primary causes of the preventable noncommunicable diseases that are so prevalent in the "developed" world: diabetes, cancer, heart disease, obesity.
It is precisely "snake oil" and other natural products that can prevent and reverse these diseases by supporting normal structure and function. They are not dangerous drugs that need to be subjected to the "significant scientific agreement" standard, but just foods that merely need to show some reliable and competent scientific evidence for the claimed benefits.
@Ralph Fucetola JD: None of these products have ever been tested for either efficacy or safety. In this case the problem is not so much one of safety as it is one of false advertising. They're making claims that are totally unsubstantiated and making lots of money in the process.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's the act of supplying false information that's the problem here, and the reason we need someone like the FDA (which would probably be far more effective if not for interference from Congress and big-moneyed corporations) checking these claims.
"Natural" is a wallpaper word. These foods are no more natural than anything else on the shelves. A chemical is a chemical, whether it's a synthetically created vitamin or a plant sterol.
As for pharmaceutical reactions, that's a totally different animal. Any substance can cause harm, and there's no way to be certain how a given person's biochemistry will react. For those 150,000 reactions, probably 100x that number experience significant relief (cured or symptoms ameliorated) because of those evil pharmaceuticals.
I understand your point Ralph but the foods that this article is speaking about are those packaged and processed food substitutes that food corporations are spewing out with health claims to line their own pockets with money. True health comes from eating basic fruits, vegetables and meats that are organic and MINIMALLY processed. It is better for people to support organic farming, or grow their own foods. And as far as herbal supplementation, many of the problems there would be solved if people would go to trained herbalists such as Practitioners of Traditional Oriental Medicine who are licensed medical professionals who have extensive knowledge of proper usage of herbs along with counter-indications and drug-herb interactions, instead of believing hype. As a degreed and licensed Oriental Medicine practitioner, 75% of my training focused on safe usage of herbal medications. Whereas company x selling "Amazing herbal product to cure anything" is merely a get rich quick scam using a few anecdotal bits of lore at best. In the case of ephedra, so much grief and pain could have been avoided if anyone had bothered to look up what it is traditionally used for. It's original use is for Asthma or bad flu conditions with excessive phlegm and NOT TO BE USED for more than 1 week at a time as stated in herbal manuals that are almost 2000 years old. So my profession suffers from the greed and stupidity of get rich quick scammers. Many of these "New" superfoods are also from my repertoire of herbal products and it pains me to see how they are marketed. I'm waiting for these Snake Oil salesmen to start hyping apples and apple juice, because traditional lore states "an apple a day keeps the doctor away".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAre we, the masses, so predisposed to follow? We love to blame the government and the food companies for all of our problems. What happened to personal responsibility in this age? The individual must educated him/herself to the knowledge that is available.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNobody is forcing me to go to the local market and buy a 30-pack of processed chicken patties and cheese puffs. Nobody decides what I put into my mouth but me.
That being said, the problem I see is that our current system makes the nutritious food much more expensive. Therefore, the family that is in financial trouble is forced to buy the cheap "unhealthy" food. Good, wholesome food should be made available.
The point still remains however, that we must seek the correct information ourselves and not be so quick to blindly follow the words of a company or a government because neither one is always in the best interest of us.
Ralph trusts the privateers that sell "health" food, but he probably thinks vaccines CAUSE disease rather than what vaccines actually do, which is prevent it. What nonsense. I am so tired of these paranoids! I fear them, too. My granddaughter just entered 2nd grade in public school in California, where Americans used to think all the kooks lived; nowadays they are everywhere. My son and daughter-in-law are sensible, so Adela's vaccinated, but the panicky True Believers who scream against vaccination will end up causing massive school-wide epidemics. The kooks are killing us, and the junnecessary deaths of children wll be just another nail in America's coffin.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOf course Big Pharma needs serious, firm regulation with back-breaking fines -- even a few arrests -- for deviating from safety standards, whether affecting their workers or the general public. I'm an old-fashioned Keynesian. My motto is "re-regulate, de-privatize!"
This article is so wrong in so many ways. For instance, treat health foods the same way the FDA affirms drugs. The FDA has not approved a drug since 2001 that did not have "death" as a side effect. Therefore if any food will not kill you, it cannot be on the shelves. If you get neuropathy the medical version is when your feet die they get removed. Cost to consumer is over $220,000 for the full run of the disease. The herbal fix for the same problem cost $12 and prevents a recurrance of the disease. See the difference. Follow the money and, as with the medical establishment backed by the FDA, always treat symptoms, never the cause. This is the worst article I have ever seen in Scientific American--who got paid off to put it in the magazine.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe editors have unfortunately been misled by the near-constant drumming from Big Pharma—that food and supplements should be treated like drugs. What proponents of this argument do not realize is that it both defies logic and tramples free speech about science.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDrugs are new-to-nature substances which are patentable, and therefore pharmaceutical companies can pay a billion dollars on average to get FDA drug approval. Natural substances, being generally not patentable, cannot be put through the FDA drug approval process and are shut out of this FDA system—but for that very reason foods and supplements are much cheaper.
As for their efficacy—not to mention their safety—scientific research has been conducted on supplements and functional foods the world over: it is the FDA that will not allow such scientific evidence to be cited. Just ask the cherry and walnut growers who received official warning letters from the FDA because they provided peer-reviewed scientific studies on their companies’ websites.
Do we really want a system where we have to go to our doctor for a food or supplement prescription, and then pay $5 per cherry or $100 for a bottle of vitamin C?
Alliance for Natural Health USA
Why does Colgate toothpaste in Europe have sodium monofluorophosphate missing in its ingredients list? Is it related to differing food and drug advertising politics or is it really absent?
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