A new journal is needed. It should be titled The Journal of Obvious Results and Unwarranted and Spectacular Conclusions. The readers of ACSH's webpages have by now seen headlines that read "Organically grown foods higher in cancer-fighting chemicals than conventionally grown foods." Like souls in a Hollywood hell, forced to sit through a bad movie for eternity, we will undoubtedly be having this "finding" thrust at us ad infinitum, as we are in the case of this latest article meant to prove the superiority of "organic" food.

Consumer Freedom (CF) is "a coalition of concerned individuals and businesses working together to promote personal responsibility and protect a full menu of consumer choices." Part of what they do is point out errors in science and tricky statistics that are used by activists to promote particular agendas. And usually they do a pretty good job. So this morning, when I received a list of their latest headlines and observations, I was surprised to see a decided misstep.

As a good lawyer, Joe Califano has bravely attempted to put the best face possible on the besieged report recently released by his Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), "Alcohol Consumption and Expenditures for Underage Drinking and Adult Excessive Drinking." However, he can't change the ugly fact that it is seriously flawed, with errors and misuse of statistics. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) criticized the study for making "inappropriate" assumptions, using CDC data to make an inflated claim about the extent of underage drinking.

Yet another young man has fallen victim to the American quest for a "magic bullet." A couple of weeks ago twenty-three-year-old Steve Bechler, a Baltimore Orioles pitcher, collapsed and died of heatstroke during spring training. The weather was warm eighty-one degrees but not outstandingly hot. Why would a young, strong, athletic man succumb like that? It is quite likely that at least part of the answer is Bechler's use of an herbal weight loss/energizing product containing the herbal stimulant ephedra.

The refiling of the lawsuit for two obese teen-agers against McDonald's Pelman v. McDonald's brings to mind an old Bill Cosby joke.
Cosby is awakened one morning by his tired wife, who tells him to go down and feed the children breakfast. He eventually does, grumpily, and spies a chocolate cake. His mind goes to the recipe for chocolate cake. There are eggs in chocolate cake. And flour. And milk. There's nutrition in chocolate cake!

You know, I've been feeling awfully tired lately. I haven't been sleeping well, and when I do sleep, I grind my teeth. Also, I'm feeling slightly nervous, forgetting minor details, and eating more than usual but not gaining weight. Should I be worried? According to the November 2002 issue of Secrets of Robust Health promoted as a "health newsletter for the thinking person," I should. Divulging information "you will probably never hear from your family doctor"(with good reason, as we'll see), the newsletter claims that all of my symptoms point to the same culprit: a parasite.

"You say tomato. I say tomato." It's not only a saying that fails to work when used in print instead of uttered aloud, it's also the wacky, devil-may-care opening line of a booklet promoting alternative medicine that Oxford Health Plans sent out a few days ago to all of their participants, including, ironically, us skeptics at the American Council on Science and Health.

One brief programming note:

Physicians and scientists at the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) called a second filing of a lawsuit against McDonald's Corporation "without scientific merit." Lawyers for two overweight and obese New York teenagers today filed a revised suit to replace the one which had been dismissed last month by Judge Robert Sweet in the U.S. District Court of New York.

As I write this, we're told to expect a possible attack from Al Qaeda and a possible war against Iraq in the next few days (naturally, I'll be in New York City and Washington, D.C.). The past few weeks saw scares involving ricin, bubonic plague, and anthrax, though such things happen so regularly these days, it's easy to forget about them.