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ACSH Morning Dispatch: Buttery Goodness and Hyperactivity
By Corrie Driebusch
Soon, this daily does of ACSH staffers' conversations will be e-mailed to donors each morning, available to the public the next day.
You can become a donor at http://www.acsh.org/support/ or send a tax-deductible donation to:
American Council on Science and Health
1995 Broadway, 2nd floor
New York, NY 10023
For questions, please call Jeff Stier at 212-362-7044 x225 or e-mail Tara McTeague at McTeagueT[at]acsh.org.
--Quote to Note: "We need to remember that there are many factors associated with hyperactive behavior in children." --Dr. Andrew Wadge, chief scientist of the Food Standards Agency, on food dyes and additives causing hyperactivity in children.
--ACSH staffers were surprised yesterday to see a television commercial for Benecol chews, something we had never seen advertised or written about before. Benecol is a butter/margarine replacement that contains plant stanol esters, which are proven to reduce cholesterol levels. The chews are the newest form of this spread. The difference ACSH sees between the chews and spreads that also contain the plant stanol esters is caloric value: the spread is higher in calories, containing about fifty calories per tablespoon, while the chews have only twenty calories each. ACSH's Dr. Whelan said she's surprised we haven't heard more about these chews -- why has there been no news story on it yet?
--This morning, the Today show discussed the recent study showing food additives may contribute to hyperactivity in children. ACSH's Dr. Ruth Kava said she found the coverage pretty rational. The study is not conclusive, and it was not straight-forward, Kava notes. Since some parents opted their children out of the study, it makes you wonder about selection bias, and the characteristics of the people who opt into or out of a study contribute to the results.
Another concern Kava pointed out is the study's focus on preservatives. If you take out preservatives in food, you will get mold growth. Nonetheless, it would be interesting to do more studies on the issue. Dr. Whelan said this recent finding is reminiscent of Dr. Benjamin Feingold's book in the 80s on the Feingold Diet to treat hyperactivity, which was based in part on removing dyes from foods. She stated this book was also flawed by poor experimental design.
--ACSH staffers re-addressed a topic they talked about last week: the controversy surrounding PSAs, prostate-specific antigens. Elevated levels of the antigen may indicate an increased likelihood of prostate cancer. A commentary in the American Journal of Medicine posed a powerful argument against the current overuse of the PSA test, Whelan said. While there are many prominent advocates for PSAs, such as Rudy Giuliani, what these advocates fail to mention is that there has never been any evidence the screenings save lives.
ACSH's Dr. Gil Ross said that while he agrees that many men get the results of PSA tests and may irrationally jump to the conclusion that they must get surgery to "get the cancer out," he had a slightly different take on the issue than Whelan. In Dr. Ross's opinion, if a man in his 50s or 60s never had a PSA test before, and the man's prostate exam showed no abnormalities, he'd recommend the man not get a PSA. On the other hand, if a man has normal PSAs over the years and then one year his PSA jumps to a 10, well, that is cause for some concern. In other words, charting PSAs over time could prove beneficial, suggests Ross.
Corrie Driebusch is a research intern at the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH.org, HealthFactsAndFears.com).
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