"We always hear that motherhood and apple pie was something we respected...But any speech about apple pie would be punished by a tax penalty because I'm sure they feel it is too high in sugar."
Dan Jaffe, a v.p. of the Association of National Advertisers, reacting in an October 15 Adweek article to a proposal by the American Obesity Association that would end business tax deductions for the advertising of foods low in nutritional value.

Most people know that a diet high in saturated fat can increase blood cholesterol and thus increase risk of heart disease. What they don't know is that so-called "banned foods," foods high in fat or cholesterol, including red meat, high fat dairy products, nuts, and eggs have wrongly been indicted as culprits in increased risk for stroke. While a diet high in saturated and trans-unsaturated fatty acids has been shown to be a predictor for heart disease, scientific support is lacking for extrapolating this finding to stroke. New findings from a major study released in the Oct.

Executive Summary 

On the second anniversary of the use of anthrax as a bioweapon in the US, physicians and scientists associated with the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) today alerted government officials and the public that the risks associated with another anthrax attack should not be underestimated.
ACSH scientists noted with concern that the hypothetical threat of a smallpox attack has overshadowed the threat of anthrax, even though we have already experienced a domestic terrorist attack with anthrax.

Robert Palmer died suddenly of a heart attack last week at the age of fifty-four, which is a bit young to die of a heart attack -- at least for non-smokers. But Palmer, who performed "Addicted to Love" and other hit songs of the 1980s, was a smoker.

Last month, a company called Freedom Tobacco International, Inc. offered celebrities lifetime supplies of their cigarettes and paid women to smoke the brand in hip Manhattan bars and nightclubs in an effort to draw attention to the brand.

Proposition 65 is the California law that requires a label on any product containing "known carcinogens" or chemicals that could be a reproductive hazard. Multitudes of warning labels litter the California landscape, since virtually any chemical, natural or synthetic, can probably be either toxic or carcinogenic. But now, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) wants even more labeling.

It's the first day of autumn, which is a good time to ask whether you suffered any shark attacks or nuclear power plant accidents this summer. Probably not, though that's the sort of outlandish risk the media love to do stories about rather than familiar but greater risks such as overexposure to the sun.

At a press conference in New York City, the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) released two new books on terrorism preparedness and response.

As one might have expected, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is taking a wrong-headed approach to solving the problem of the increasing obesity of American youth. According to their latest press release, CSPI thinks that "Replacing soda and junk foods with healthful drinks and snacks...can help combat the skyrocketing rates of obesity in children and teens." Would that it were true.