Spinach or Cheetos? You Decide!
Found an interesting website today. I'm not quite sure whether I approve of it or not but I certainly think it's worth a look. The site is called
Center for Consumer Freedom and basically campaigns for people to use their common sense regarding health choices as opposed to "nanny" policies by the government. It vents a lot of wrath on the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Robert Wood Johnson foundation, and PETA. Check out their
Tarnished Halo Awards, in which the CCF...
awards prizes annually to America's most notorious animal-rights zealots, environmental scaremongers, celebrity busybodies, self-anointed "public interest" advocates, trial lawyers, and other food & beverage activists who claim to "know what's best for you."
The Tarnished Halo Awards highlight the winners' use of misinformation, duplicity and even violence to further a political agenda or fatten their own wallets.
Now I don't think the answer for obesity is to eradicate McDonald's from the earth, and if the Center for Science in the Public Interest is relying on flawed studies to make its claims (as the CCF claims it does) then I certainly don't approve of such tactics. On the other hand, it's true that diabetes, hypertension, and other lifestyle-related diseases are skyrocketing and that a large part of the population is making bad food choices. While I agree -- in theory -- with the CCF's position that people can make intelligent choices and that it's not the place of government to be your mother, the fact is that in many cases those intelligent choices are not being made. Some prodding from Big Brother might be a good idea. Then again, I think patients are more likely to pay attention to one-on-one counseling from a health care provider than to a billboard telling them to eat their peas.
Your thoughts?
posted by Dr. Alice at #
