Culture and Misinformation

Culture and Health-Related Misinformation

(Confusion, Inertia and Illness)

We see the misinformation issue throughout our culture, and increasingly so. As we distance ourselves from moral guidelines, we see an increasing amount of lying, deception, exaggeration and confusion about right and wrong. So, we are talking about one of the many evidences of cultural moral decline. Where in our culture do we see this going on? Well, most everywhere; we see it in the medical industry, the pharmaceutical industry, in all levels of government, in all the food industry, in graduate schools of marketing and in most other areas of our educational system. It is easy to rationalize the issue away because it has become so ingrained in American culture. Some of it is hard to believe, especially when high-level Government officials feel free to lie in court as if their personal integrity is a non- issue. What an example for our youth  …

It is now indisputable that nutrition and consumption of toxic, unhealthy foods is the major player in our disease epidemic; it is not the only issue, but it is likely the main issue, together with several other lifestyle factors. It follows that probably 60 to 70% of our chronic disease epidemic is preventable. There are many issues that contribute to the behavioral inertia and keeps people stuck in unhealthy lifestyle practices; this is the thrust of our first book, Health, Inertia, and Information: Why Are We Sick? (Zahler, 2018)

Dr. T. Colin Campbell emphasizes that governmental health agencies practically ignore nutrition as a factor in public and individual health. These governmental agencies clearly mislead the American public in favor of profits for the pharmaceutical, medical and junk food industries. Given this, we have the best government that money can buy! With easy access to government officials at all levels, industry applies a mix of carrots and sticks to keep the pro-disease policies in place even though it contributes tremendously to our chronic disease burden; so, industry gets rich and the rest of us get sick. Misdirection and misinformation is everywhere and is seldom talked about. (Campbell, 2015)

Being an advocate for lifestyle medicine and its inherent focus on having control over our own lifestyle practices and our health, I am an inclined to agree with Dr. Campbell’s overview of governmental misdirection in the management of our healthcare system. It is hard to believe, but nonetheless true, that while we have more scientific research, and a more sophisticated medical system than ever before in human history, that we are also likely sicker than we have ever been; well, we could scrutinize statistics but that skirts the point that our disease burden is very significant. Our healthcare system is focused on disease maintenance, not disease prevention. Confusion and misinformation is at the core of it all. There are major efforts underway to not level with our citizens about the cause of most disease.

Overdiagnosis as Bias and Lead-Time Bias

Overdiagnosis bias means you picked up evidence of cancer via screening and that the cancer would have never caused a problem, or even would have disappeared on its own. Since the cancer was harmless, five years later, the patients are still alive—assuming their unnecessary cancer treatment didn’t kill them. Disease screening does not necessarily save lives. And, one’s survival rate does not predict a decrease in one’s mortality rate, the rate at which patients were dying of a particular cancer.

As an example, let’s say that without screening, a thousand people had progressive cancer and only 400 lived for five years; that is a five-year survival of 40%. But let’s hypothesize that with screening, an additional 2,000 cancers are over-diagnosed, meaning that screening detected cancers that would never have caused the problem because the cancer was harmless; five years later they were all still alive, the same number of people die from cancer, and you doubled the five- year survival rate. The misinformation here is that all cancers require treatment, if not aggressively treated. There is no correlation at all between “increases in survival rates,” and “decreases in mortality rates!

Lead-Time Bias: Lead time is the length of time between the detection of a disease (usually based on new, experimental criteria) and its usual clinical presentation and diagnosis (based on traditional criteria). Studies indicate that the majority of primary care physicians did not know which screening statistics provide reliable evidence on whether screening works. There is no way to disentangle the lead time bias and the overdiagnosis bias from screening survival data. That’s why these statistics are meaningless when it comes to screening. Yet, that’s what you see in the ads and the leaflets from most of the cancer charities. That’s what you hear coming from the government. Even prestigious cancer centers, like M.D. Anderson, have tried to hoodwink the public like that.

What’s the Beef?

Texas doctors with the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) filed a legal complaint on March 13, 2018 to stop the Texas Beef Council from publishing false and misleading health claims about beef products. Despite clear scientific evidence linking red meat to an increased risk for heart disease, the Texas Beef Council publishes brochures claiming that beef is a safe choice for patients with high cholesterol and other cardiac conditions. The Council then distributes the brochures to Texas physicians and their patients. Studies clearly show that beef and other red meats, which are packed with fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, toxins and calories, can increase the risk for heart disease. (Barnard, 2017)

The Status of Milk

A Federal Petition submitted by a doctor’s group, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, urges the USDA to ditch dairy products in the ‘My Plate recommendations. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) created MyPlate, an easy-to-follow food guide, to help parents to figure out how to feed their kids nutritious, balanced meals. Unfortunately, however, the recommendations are to consumed dairy products as a source of protein, even though dairy has been shown to fuel diet-related diseases; scientific evidence shows that dairy products offer little if any protection for bone health and increase the risk of breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers, cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and early death. Dairy products also harm a significant portion of the U.S. population who suffer from lactose intolerance, which causes bloating, diarrhea, and gas. The National Institutes of Health estimates that 30 million to 50 million American adults are lactose intolerant, including 95 percent of Asians, 60-80 percent of African-Americans and Ashkenazi Jews, 80-100 percent of American Indians, and 50-80 percent of Hispanics.

MyPlate could more successfully help Americans fight diet-related diseases if the U.S. Department of Agriculture removed the dairy group and replaced the protein portion of the plate with legumes, a safe and high-protein plant-based food. The USDA’s MyPlate is making Americans sick! It is a myth that protein is absent in vegetables, fruits, and grains and beans and that people must consume animal-based foods in order to have adequate protein intake. So, here we have a government-sponsored source of misinformation. (Barnard, 2017)

Advertising Targets Children

For ages now, food manufacturers have aggressively targeted children to consume sugary cereals that create food addiction, compromise immunity, and sets up food preferences for a lifetime. It’s interesting that these specific advertising initiatives are also targeting parents, the adults in the family, who have primary responsibility for these decisions. It takes a strong parent to cope with a demanding child who is addicted to Fruit Loops. Is this an important topic? You’ are darn right it is! It has to do with peddling misinformation in the sense that these sugary cereals are legal to sell, giving the impression that they are not harmful; this is deceptive misinformation that legislators behave as if they have no control over. Yes, I understand there is all kinds of politics and shenanigans going on here and that money is a big factor. However, it also remains true is that some of the most vulnerable members of our society, our children and their respective families continue to be targeted with products that contribute in a major way to our disease burden in this country. I wonder how many of these parents are also addicted to these sugary cereals?

Decades ago the Federal Trade Commission tried to intervene but the food industry lobbyists spent millions of dollars to counter opposition to these toxic foods. One of the tentative outcomes here was a suggestion that these cereals should not be marketed to children if they contain over 26% pure sugar; interestingly, not one of the top 10 breakfast cereals related to children would meet that standard! At every level of government, the food and beverage industries have prevailed in their efforts to prevent meaningful change. Agencies like the FTC, FDA, and USDA have been involved in the process and the White House has often been silent, sadly silent in this critical issue involving our children. (LoDolce, 2013) This process reminds me of the unethical maneuvering by the tobacco industry decades ago and all of the lying and misinformation that was part of that process.

Miscellaneous Comments About Misinformation

•      Carbs: To discuss carbohydrates without distinguishing between simple carbohydrates (cookies) and complex carbs (kale) adds to confusion and is probably irresponsible; now we have millions of people who are avoiding all carbohydrates, to their great detriment. Complex carbs are an essential food group for everyone. I eat about 80% of all my calories as healthy, complex carbs. This includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds and etc. So, this is another half-truth that adds to confusion and contributes to ill health.

•      Fast Food: Fast food is mostly a nutritional nightmare! Many of their unhealthy product ingredients are misrepresented, hidden in slick advertising, and it has taken aggressive food activists to uncover the truth. Dimethyl polysiloxane is a silicone with anti-foaming properties that is used in silly putty, breast implants and cosmetics; it has been found in Subway salad dressing, ChicK-Fil-A chicken sandwiches, McDonald’s French fries, KFC mashed potatoes and biscuits, Taco Bell cinnamon twists, Five Guys French fries, and on and on.  Other toxic ingredients might include artery clogging trans-fat, genetically modified ingredients, antibiotics, MSG and other excitotoxins, artificial food dyes, to name just a few. And yes, to be fair, some of the fast food chains are including some healthier options. (Fuhrman, 2017)

·        Diets: Another area in which we find much confusion and misinformation has to do with choosing a healthy eating plan. Millions of people are going gluten-free, or choosing Paleo or Ketogenic eating plans. We know that animal-based eating options have their disadvantages because poultry and eggs, fish, meat, and dairy products all can contribute to our epidemic disease burden. On the other hand, most of the science indicates that plant strong eating contributes to our longevity and helps us to avoid the chronic diseases. Even the Academy of Nutrition dietetics, and the American Heart Association are involved in misinformation at times about what foods are healthy or not. (Zahler, 2019)

References

Barnard Neal: The Physician’s Role in Nutrition-Related Disorders: From Bystander to Leader, AMA Journal of Ethics, published online,2013.

Barnard, Neal: ‘Strategic nutrition research program update,’ Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, published online, March 2017.

Campbell, T.C: ‘USDA Adds to Your Confusion About What to Eat,’ published online, July 2015



Campbell, T.C.: ‘Whole, Rethinking the Science of Nutrition,’ Ben Bella Books, 2013.



Fuhrman, Joel with Phillips, Robert: ‘Fast food Genocide: how processed food is killing us and what we can do about it,’ HarperCollins Books, 2017.

LoDolce, ME, Harris,JL, Schwartz, MB: ‘Sugar as part of a balanced breakfast? What cereal advertisements teach children about healthy eating’ J Heal Comun, 2013.

Zahler, William A.  ‘Health, inertia, and information: why are we sick?,’ Create Space and KDP, paperback and Kindle editions, 2018.

Zahler, William A.  ‘Synergy and the dynamics of lifestyle change,’ Create Space and KDP, paperback and Kindle editions, 2019.

William Zahler, MSW, ACLM

July 2019