Food Politics

by Marion Nestle
Oct 11 2021

Industry-funded study of the week: artificially-sweetened sodas and calorie intake

The study: Effects of Unsweetened Preloads and Preloads Sweetened with Caloric or Low-/No-Calorie Sweeteners on Subsequent Energy Intakes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Controlled Human Intervention Studies.  Han Youl Lee, Maia Jack, Theresa Poon, Daniel Noori, Carolina Venditti, Samer Hamamji, Kathy Musa-Veloso.  Advances in Nutrition, Volume 12, Issue 4, July 2021, Pages 1481–1499.

Methods: Review and meta-analysis of previously published studies.

Conclusions: Unsweetened or LNCS-sweetened preloads appear to have similar effects on intakes when compared with one another or with CS-sweetened preloads. These findings suggest that LNCS-sweetened foods and beverages are viable alternatives to CS-sweetened foods and beverages to manage short-term energy intake.

Funder: “The American Beverage Association provided funding for the work presented herein.”

Author disclosures: MJ is a paid employee of the American Beverage Association. Intertek Health Sciences, Inc.(HYL, TP, DN, CV, SH, KMV), works for the American Beverage Association as paid scientific and regulatory consultants.”

Comment: The great puzzle about artificial sweeteners is that they are not strongly associated with reduced calorie intake in most studies, perhaps because sweet tastes encourage people to eat more calories.  This industry-funded study is designed to counter that idea.  It concludes that low- or no-calorie sweeteners have no special effect on calorie intake.  The American Beverage Association represents soft drink companies, predominantly Coke and Pepsi, most of them manufacturing drinks sweetened with sugars or high-fructose corn syrup (with calories) or chemical sweeteners (no or low-calorie).  These companies are happy to have you buy either kind, and they don’t want you worrying about all the things you’ve heard about artificial sweeteners.

The Association’s rules for research are here.   But it is unlikely to fund proposals for research that might come up with inconvenient conclusions.

Reference: For a summary of research on the “funding effect”—the observations that research sponsored by food companies almost invariably produces results favorable to the sponsor’s interests and that recipients of industry funding typically did not intend to be influenced and do not recognize the influence—see my book, Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat.

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Oct 8 2021

Weekend reading: Selling salad in China

Xavier Naville.  The Lettuce Diaries: How a Frenchman Found Gold Growing Vegetables in China.  Earnshaw Books, 2021. 

The publicist for this quirky book sent it to me and I have to admit being charmed by it.  The French author started out in international corporate food, managing canteens in 70 countries for the Compass Group and based in Paris.

At age 27, almost on a whim, he went to Shanghai to sell salads to the Chinese (who didn’t eat salads) and oversee the production of vegetables for KFC and other fast food places.

He was, to say the least, ignorant of Chinese language and culture but learned a lot during the twenty years or so he spent there.

His book is about how his naivete and uncertainty got in the way of getting small farmers to grow lettuce and other vegetables consistently and safely, and how he slowly and painfully learned to speak and write Chinese, and learn the importance of guanxi (personal relationships essential for getting anything done in China).

He is so modest, so hard on himself, and so likable that I wanted him to succeed—which he did, and quite well.

Among other things, his company produced bagged salads for Chinese supermarkets.  Food safety maven that I am, I won’t even buy bagged salads in the U.S.  His descriptions of small-scale food production are terrifying.

He reports no outbreaks due to his products, although he talks about plenty of others, including the melamine-in-infant-formula scandal predicted by the earlier melamine-in-pet-food scandal I wrote about in Pet Food Politics.  

I liked his thoughtfulness about his experience.

All these years, I had viewed the microscopic farming plots as a barrier to the modernization of China’s agriculture.  But after a few hours with my Chinese friends, I was beginning to see things differently.  Where would all these seasonal foods come from if there were fewer farmers?  Would there still be regional differences?  If China follows the developmental path of the West, the number of farmers will shrink while operations increase in size.  Farms will focus on scale and productivity, specializing in fewer crops, breeding the most productive ones and neglecting some that have a higher nutritional content but lower returns per acre.  Is that really what Chinese consumers want?

…family farmers weren’t necessarily just an obstacle on China’s path toward modernization; they might actually be its cultural gatekeepers, protecting the local food industry and underpinning a renaissance of Chinese beliefs that will be key to the health of both the Chinese people and the safety of the foods they cherish.  (p. 246)

Quirky?  Definitely for a business book, but in a good way.  I enjoyed reading it.

[The author is now a food business consultant in Oakland, CA].

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Oct 7 2021

Yes, you can make ice cream from infant formula and breast milk

Last week, I posted a list of articles about odd ice cream flavors, mostly Lithuanian.  Several readers pointed out that the links all went to the same article (oops, my bad).

They particularly wanted to see the ones about ice cream made from infant formula and breast milk.

Really?  People do this?  Yes, they do.

Especially in the UK.

If you are in the UK, you can buy commercial products, like one “made with love in the Lake District.”

Or you can make your own with breast milk or formula.  A company tried this in 2011, but got into trouble over safety issues.

It’s pretty easy to do this at home.

Have on hand:

  • A banana or other fruit, sliced.
  • 2 ounces of breast milk or formula.
  • A blender.

Freeze the fruit.

Place frozen fruit in the blender.  Slowly add breast milk or formula.

Blend until the mix reaches a soft serve texture.

Serve immediately or store in freezer.

Note: no unhealthy additives.  Teething babies might like it.

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Oct 6 2021

What’s up with African Swine Fever?

What got my attention was this headline: The World’s Deadliest Pig Virus Creeps Closer to the U.S.

The Western Hemisphere registered its first outbreak of African swine fever virus in almost 40 years on July 28 at pig farms in the Dominican Republic. By September the devastating disease had been found in neighboring Haiti. Now the U.S., the world’s largest pork producer after China, is scrambling to keep the malady from washing ashore and shutting down its $7.7 billion pork export industry.

Unless you are a pig farmer, you probably don’t know much about this disease.  According to the USDA, 

African swine fever is a highly contagious and deadly viral disease affecting both domestic and feral swine of all ages. ASF is not a threat to human health and cannot be transmitted from pigs to humans. It is not a food safety issue…It has never been found in the United States – and we want to keep it that way.

Why?

ASF is a devastating, deadly disease that would have a significant impact on U.S. livestock producers, their communities and the economy if it were found here. There is no treatment or vaccine available for this disease. The only way to stop this disease is to depopulate all affected or exposed swine herds.

“Depopulate” is a euphemism for slaughtering the pigs.  Hence the concern about its likely entry into the U.S.

I get an almost daily newsletter, African Swine Fever Update with frequent updates on where the virus is doing its worst.

But now hopeful news: USDA’s ASF vaccine candidate successful in tests

USDA has been working on a vaccine and just announced its success.

Newly published USDA research, as highlighted in the journal Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, shows that ARS scientists have developed a vaccine candidate with the ability to be commercially produced while still maintaining its vaccine efficacy against Asian ASFV strains when tested in both European and Asian breeds of swine…The onset of immunity was revealed in approximately one-third of the swine by second week post-vaccination, with full protection in all swine achieved by the fourth week.

So, Covid vaccines for us, ASF vaccines for pigs. Let’s go for both!

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Oct 5 2021

Toxic metals still a big concern in baby foods

The House Oversight Subcommittee has just issued another report on neurotoxic heavy metals—arsenic, lead, cadmium—in baby foods: New Disclosures Show Dangerous Levels of Toxic Heavy Metals in Even More Baby Foods.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-funded testing conducted by the State of Alaska found that multiple samples of Beech-Nut’s and Gerber’s infant rice cereals contained more inorganic arsenic than FDA’s 100 parts per billion (ppb) limit (an  already dangerously-high standard that FDA is now lowering). Beech-Nut issued a recall but limited it to product codes associated with only two of the six samples that Alaska’s testing found contained over 100 ppb. Its recall was therefore too narrow. Gerber failed
to recall product associated with either of its two infant rice cereal samples that tested over 100 ppb.

The FDA, it says is not doing enough—it is absent without leave-–on this issue.

This subcommittee issued its first report on this issue in February this year.  Then, the press release included a statement from Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi:

Baby food manufacturers hold a special position of public trust.  But consumers mistakenly believe that these companies would not sell unsafe products.  The Subcommittee’s staff report found that these manufacturers knowingly sell baby food containing high levels of toxic heavy metals.  I hope companies will commit to making safer baby foods.  Regardless, it’s time that we develop much better standards for the sake of future generations.

This new report says baby food manufacturers aren’t doing enough, and neither is the FDA.  The subcommittee recommends:

To the FDA:

  • Issue Maximum Toxic Heavy Metal Levels Sooner
  • Mandate Finished-Product Testing

To Industry:

  • Adopt Finished-Product Testing
  • Voluntarily Phase Out Toxic Ingredients

Really?  That’s the best they can do?

This is either a serious problem or it is not.

If they think it’s serious (it sure sounds serious to me), more immediate and tougher actions are needed.  Now!

This has gone on long enough.

I’ve been posting about this issue since 2018.  This year, it looked like the FDA was going to take firm action, but no such luck.  Maybe this congressional subcommittee will get some action at long last.

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Oct 4 2021

Industry-sponsored study of the week: glyphosate (Roundup) in food

Thanks to Tufts Professor Sheldon Krimsky for sending me this gem.

Residues of glyphosate in food and dietary exposure.  John L. Vicini,Pamela K. Jensen,Bruce M. Young,John T. Swarthout, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety.  First published: 16 August 2021.

The study: A review of existing data on amounts of glyphosate residues in foods as compared to maximum limits or tolerances set by European or American regulatory agencies.  The study also reviewed data on levels of glyphosate in urine samples.

Conclusion: “Exposures to glyphosate from food are well below the amount that can be ingested daily over a lifetime with a reasonable certainty of no harm.”

Conflicts of interest:  “The authors are all employees of Bayer Crop Science, a major manufacturer of glyphosate.”
Comment: Glyphosate is used to kill weeds on fields of genetically modified crops, most notably corn and soybeans, but also other crops engineered to resist its action.  US farmers use a lot of it—300 million pounds a year on average.  Glyphosate has been linked to cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in people exposed to large amounts.  Its maker, Bayer Crop Science, settled these cases for billions of dollars last year.  It also said it would stop selling glyphosate for home use.  Bayer wants you to stop worrying about glyphosate residues in your food.  Hence, this publication.
Here’s what the FDA says about what it’s doing to protect us from glyphosate in food.
Here’s what a law firm says about which foods have glyphosate residues.
What can you do to avoid glyphosate?
  • Don’t use it in your garden or around your house.
  • Eat a wide variety of minimally processed whole foods; most are unlikely to have been sprayed directly.
  • Minimize intake of highly processed foods made with soy and corn ingredients.

And encourage the EPA to set firm standards and the FDA to continue to monitor foods for glyphosate residues.  Its last report was in 2017.

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Oct 1 2021

Weekend reading: the food system and water use

I am happy to see that USDA’s Economic Research Service is back on the job and recovering somewhat from its forced move to Kansas City.  I was especially interested to see this report: U.S. Food-Related Water Use Varies by Food Category, Supply Chain Stage, and Dietary Pattern.

It has three main conclusions:

  • The U.S. food system, which provides the majority of domestically purchased foods and beverages, requires about one-third of the Nation’s total freshwater use.

  • Crop production uses over half of the water for food, while later supply chain stages also require a substantial amount of water.

  • Freshwater usage varies by the food categories that make up U.S. diets. If the U.S. population were to adopt healthier dietary patterns, food-system water use could substantially increase or decrease, depending on the dietary patterns realized.

Something to consider.  But all this is why PepsiCo is making such a big point about trying to reduce its water use (it takes many gallons of water to make one gallon of a bottled drink).

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Sep 30 2021

Recent food items of interest

Here is my latest collection of accounts of unusual or unexpected food items.  Ice creams are high on the list.

You are wondering what Clitoria ternatea looks like?  Good enough to eat, I guess.

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