Told you so

Submitted by Michael on Fri, 10/30/2009 - 16:21

Don'tcha hate people who say that? Yeah, me too, but it doesn't make me not one of those people sometimes. Anyway...

I don't have much time — I'm between feedings for my son, Joseph Fulton Prager, who was born about 22 hours ago — but I wanted to note that the so-called "Smart Choices" program, which was devised by the food industry allegedly to allow quick-glance assurance that a certain food product was based on sound nutrition, had suspended its labeling activity because the feds said they were intending to investigate programs like theirs.

I wrote back in August, when the program was unvelied, that it was laughably flawed and not so humorously cycnical. That is not, of course, what the SC people are admitting. In fact, they're saying something quite opposite: "Our nutrition criteria are based on sound, consensus science," said Mike Hughes, program chairman. (Link to their release.)

 "We welcome the FDA's interest in developing uniform front-of-package and shelf-labeling criteria," Hughes also prattled. "... We continue to believe the Smart Choices Program is an important step in the right direction."

Essentially, he's saying, "I don't expect anyone to ever give credence to anything I ever say again."

Speaking at Commonwealth Club

I will be speaking on the topic of food addiction at the Commonwealth Club of California, the oldest public affairs forum in the country, on Feb. 28. I'll be joining a fabulous panel of researchers and clinicians: Nicole Avena of Princeton and the University of Florida, Eric Stice of the Oregon Research Institute, Vera Tarman of Renascent Center of Toronto, abd Elissa Epel and Andrea Garber, both of the University of California at San Francisco. I am very excited to be part of the roster, not to mention to be appearing at such a great institution. Ticket information here; if you come, please stay afterward to say hello.

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