Food & Beverage (page192)

Remember the old adage that a lie will travel around the world before the truth even gets it shoes on? An op-ed writer from Brigham Young University joins the ranks of those blaming restaurants for obesity by repeating anti-restaurant claims made in USA Today Weekend ten days ago.

Irish author Mary O'Donnell goes on an anti-American, anti-choice diatribe, calling America a country full of fat "wobblies" where restaurants "plaster anything fresh with high calorific sauces and dressings" to help fulfill Americans' desire to "stuff just about anything into themselves."

In her new book (which appears to be a catalog of anti-food junk science rhetoric), syndicated radio show host and author Carol Simontacchi says today’s food is driving us nuts,…

An increasing number of newspaper writers can’t resist blaming the so-called “obesity epidemic” on restaurants. Today, it’s influential New York Times food writer Marion Burros, who says: “[R]estaurant portions…

British supermarket chains Tesco and Iceland were forced by the British Advertising Standards Authority to withdraw advertising that claimed organic food tastes better than conventional food and that genetic engineering may have caused deaths in the U.S.

For years, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has used its newsletter to volley broadside attacks at food producers who make tasty and convenient foods and snacks, vilifying these popular consumer choices as "food porn." Now CSPI is elevating this ridiculous rhetoric to a media campaign, complaining in The Ottawa Citizen that people "just find it increasingly difficult to eat better," because food producers are offering more food choices. So are we to assume choice is bad? ("Companies roll out high-fat 'food porn,'" The Ottawa Citizen, 5/9/00.)

Jean Carper, writing in USA Weekend, repackages the ridiculous ranting of the anti-restaurant obesity report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest's Michael Jacobson and New York University's Marion Nestle. Without attempting to balance any of the outrageous assertions laid forth, Carper concludes, "The fact is, the more you eat out, the more calories you eat and the fatter you get."

The idea that coffee and caffeine are addictive drugs along the lines of heroin and crack continues to get press, this time at the Pennsylvania State University school paper.

With its usual scowl, The Center for Science in the Public Interest is rummaging in your pantry again, attacking everything from good ol' Campbell's Soup to granola to chicken franks.

Columnist Tony Gabriele pokes fun at the ever-changing diet advice from the "experts."