It’s easy to feel superior reading stories of our ancestors buying worthless potions from snake oil salesmen.\u00c2\u00a0 But a stroll though the aisles of any warehouse style store proves that nothing much has changed.\u00c2\u00a0 Every other end cap features a small TV making a pitch for some magic pill or potion that’s long on hype and short on effectiveness.<\/p>\n
I don’t keep close track of health woo, but it appears to run on fads just like pop music. A while ago Melatonin was the Britney Spears of their psudo-science.\u00c2\u00a0 Acai berries are now Lady Ga Ga.<\/p>\n
The ingredients change but the claims remain the same.\u00c2\u00a0 On a recent trip through BJs Wholesale club I was subjected to videos claiming some secret combination of herbs and spices would:<\/p>\n
I find this nonsense more amusing than upsetting, figuring that a fool as his money were lucky to get together in the first place.\u00c2\u00a0 The law on supplements tells the FDA to ignore these clowns as long as their packaging contains a disclaimer buried somewhere in the tiny print saying that the claims aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t verified.\u00c2\u00a0 So the FDA ignores these blatant charlatans to go after dangerous stuff like walnuts.<\/p>\n
Yep, walnuts.<\/p>\n
The FDA notified<\/a> Diamond Walnuts they’ve classified their nuts {insert your own juvenile testicular joke here*} as a drug.\u00c2\u00a0 Diamond made a few true statements about the health benefits of walnuts on their website (not on their packaging), which got the FDAs undies in a bunch.\u00c2\u00a0 Among them:<\/p>\n “Studies indicate that the omega-3 fatty acids found in walnuts may help lower cholesterol; protect against heart disease, stroke and some cancers; ease arthritis and other inflammatory diseases; and even fight depression and other mental illnesses.”<\/p>\n “The omega-3s found in fish oil are thought to be responsible for the significantly lower incidence of breast cancer in Japanese women as compared to women in the United States.”<\/p>\n Note the careful working \u00e2\u20ac\u201c studies indicate, may help, are thought to be . . . unlike bold claims on the modern day snake oil.\u00c2\u00a0 Even without the careful weasel wording the statements are true.<\/p>\n But the FDA says those true statements transforms walnuts from tasty snack into a drug.\u00c2\u00a0 I feel I need to repeat that, because it’s so ridiculous and stupid you might think I was joking the first time.<\/p>\n So if you want to sell ridiculous crap like this<\/a> on a web site that doesn’t contain a single true statement, you have nothing to worry about.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you want to talk about the real benefits of your real healthy food, you better watch your nuts.<\/p>\n *I figured I’d save you the trouble.<\/p>\n