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February 27, 2007
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Punchline Press Conference

You may catch more flies with honey than vinegar, but it takes a box full of cookies to attract the press. Never one to come to a party empty-handed, representatives from the Center for Consumer Freeedom attended a press conference held by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) on Monday and brought snacks to share.

To highlight the absurdity of CSPI's "Warning -- food has calories" message, we carefully labeled and passed out chocolate chip cookies with a cautionary sticker reading "contains lots of calories, plenty of fat, and tons of yumminess." And just in case our collective eye-rolling wasn't enough, a Consumer Freedom spokesman reminded several news outlets (Click here, here, here, and here) to "give consumers some credit. They already know the difference between a banana and a banana split, or a milkshake and a diet soda."

The activist group feigned shock over the fact that pizza, burgers, and cheesecake contain more fat, salt, and sugar than soups and salads. And CSPI's executive director, Michael Jacobson, channeled even more theatrics into a press release:

Burgers, pizzas, and quesadillas were never health foods to begin with, but many restaurants are transmogrifying these foods into ever-more harmful new creations, and then keeping you in the dark about what they contain.

The average person needs little more than common sense to read a menu and order a meal. But even if some Americans have difficulty discerning the fat difference between an order of nachos and a plate of steamed broccoli, they can acquire nutritional information from the very target of CSPI's wrath: restaurants.

The group's director of nutrition policy, Margo Wootan, failed to see the irony in citing information provided by eateries in order to condemn the same companies for supposedly hiding top-secret ingredient information. The restaurants mentioned in the "X-treme Eating" expose happily provide these details to their customers either on in-store pamphlets or their company websites.

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ActivistCash.com

Kelly Brownell
Background
Kelly Brownell is a Yale psychologist on a decade-long crusade against what he calls America’s “toxic food environment.” He is best known for having first proposed the infamous “Twinkie tax.” read more here »

Marion Nestle
Background
Marion Nestle is one of the country’s most hysterical anti-food-industry fanatics. She writes: “Sellers of food products do not attract the same kind of attention as purveyors of drugs or tobacco. They should.” read more here »

Op-Eds

‘Prevention’ at the New CDC: How Far Is Too Far?
Do Americans really share Frieden's ambition to prevent every disease at any cost? The doc's killjoy reputation strongly suggests that the answer is "no." read more here »

BMI 'report cards' won't keep kids healthy
In the campaign to eradicate childhood obesity, schools around the country have banned everything from birthday treats to vending machines. But when it comes to slimming down students, the so-called food police aren't making much progress. read more here »


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