Pediatricians take aim at juice: It 'has no essential role in healthy, balanced diets of children'


(matt ) #1

Seems like a step in the right direction.


(Tom Seest) #2

The Juice Lobby must not have paid the bill…But, I’m just a tad cynical.


(Clare) #3

Best way to be - it’s harder to be disappointed by life that way.


(Mike Glasbrener) #4

Now if the FDA and the AMA can get on board. How about a warning label on every bottle:
Warning: The FDA has determined continued consumption of this product may contribute to type 2 diabetes.


(Mike Glasbrener) #5

Me too! I’m always looking at the reason why for things that’s not immediately apparent. This is one case where overwhelming evidence may be swaying the result though.


(Crow T. Robot) #6

You’re not being cynical if that’s the way the world is run – and it is.

It really gets me upset when people act like industry is not using every means at its disposal to promote its products. It’s the industry tactics that I get upset with, though, because they take advantage of people’s natural inclination to trust and believe.

It was actually a story years ago about the orange juice industry that opened my eyes the first time to what is really going on behind the scenes. It wasn’t anything particularly egregious, like falsifying research, but it made me realize that you literally have to verify everything you read and hear before you can trust it, and even then you need to keep half an eye open. Basically, the story went that the Orange Juice Council (or whatever it was called) was paying a notable health journalist about $20k per year simply to mention orange juice could help whenever putting out a story on colds and immunity. That’s it. It doesn’t seem like a big deal until you realize that there’s literally no science to back that up – it’s a completely astroturfed idea. Now multiply that by hundreds of articles over the years from who knows how many writers and people automatically think, “I’m getting a cold, I should drink some OJ.”

Anyway, sorry for the long-winded post, but when it comes to this sort of thing you should be cynical.


(Steak and iron) #7

FINALLY! Sugar water is no part of a healthy diet


(Clare) #8

This sort of wrap around marketing is so insidious.
My husband has a great eye for it and will often predict some future media stooshie or other based on him having noticed half a dozen different newspaper columns in the last few months mentioning whatever it is.
I’d love to see tighter controls on this sort of thing because frankly, it makes it so bloody hard to reason with people when they’re getting quietly brainwashed from a dozen directions.


(Arlene) #9

Many, many physicians are allowing themselves to be brainwashed right along with the rest of the people, probably because they have almost no nutritional training to begin with. The popular “buzz word or phrase”; like (healthy low fat, or high in fiber, or heart healthy) gets repeated over and over again, lastly by your physician so it must be true.


(Clare) #10

One of my best pals is a nurse and there’s no persuading her that what she thinks about this stuff is wrong.


#11

When my daughter was born, the pediatrician said she can have juice when she turns 90, but avoid it until then.