It's been a banner year here at The American Council on Science and Health. From fighting out of control activist to promoting important public health policies we have been very busy promoting healthy living and fighting junk science.
Yesterday we began a countdown of our most read stories of the year with stories #10 to #6 and now here's #5 to #1 of our most read stories of the year!
5. The False Fear of Toxic Breast Milk
A question we keep pondering heres is: Why do people keep trying to scare expectant mothers with false claims? ACSH takes apart this study from Harvard School of Public Health which tries to scare moms away from breastfeeding.
4. Homicide by Homeopathy
In what was quite possibly the saddest story we covered this year, an infant died of a seemingly innocuous ear infection. But tiny infections seem to find a way to get out of hand when they are treated with homeopathy and not medicine. Charges are pending against the parents.
3. Chipotle Takes The Stairway to Heavin
Has any company had a worse year than the burrito chain Chipotle?
They were railed against by science advocates for taking GMOs out of their food, then criticized railed by anti-GMO activists because they really didn't, they just used organic soybean oil, while the meat, cheese and soda were all GMO.
Then Science Karma, if such a thing can exist, hit them in the form of numerous foodborne illness outbreaks due to their food. Stock market analysts finally gave up believing that the company had this under control and their stocks has plummeted.
2. The 20 Reasons Not To Feed Your Family Organic
Guest writer David Zaruk was tired of seeing articles being passed around that were based on guilt-tripping parents with anti-science rhetoric - wealthy progressive elites insisting that if you care about your children you should only feed your children organic, or whatever else passed for "clean food."
After seeing a fallacious headline that read "The top 10 reasons to feed your family organic" he thought sound science can do them 10 better, and so came up with 20.
1. E-Cigarette Vapor Is Just Nicotine and Water In Test
The debate over e-cigarettes, smoking cessation tool or an add-on to cigarettes or, worst of all, a potential gateway, has been a hot topic in 2015 and the Council has been at the forefront advocating evidence-based decision-making. Our most read story of 2015 is about a study that investigated the contents of the vapors.
Other studies did find content in vapors that should not be there, such as aldehydes, and the popularity has led to a wave of unregulated small shops buying vats of diluted nicotine and entering into this unregulated market. Due to our even-handed look at the risks and benefits, the Council was asked by the U.S. FDA to testify on how to best regulate the market so shady companies with no standards do not put people at risk while the benefits of harm reduction are not reduced.
Chipotle and organic food Photo credit: shutterstock.com