Category: Nutrition

FDA & CDC find raw pet food unpalatable

The FDA recently announced it would send field staff out to collect samples of commercially-manufactured raw dog and cat food. The samples will be analyzed for Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes and E. coli, all of which have been found in raw pet food, in the animals who eat it, in their feces, on their bodies after eating it, in the areas they inhabit,...

/ June 25, 2015

Leaky Bowel

We are at a disadvantage. We have to rely on reality to validate the practice of medicine. Anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, chemistry, the basic sciences that made up the first two years of medical school education and a huge chunk of pre-med. And we have to rely on the truth, as slippery a concept as that can be. I can’t just make up...

/ June 12, 2015

Dubious MTHFR genetic mutation testing

Naturopaths, along with some chiropractors, acupuncturists and a few “integrative” physicians, are advising patients that they should be tested for MTHFR genetic mutations. Typically, the naturopath will start with the pitch that “conventional” medical doctors are ignoring your genes as a possible source of your health problems. (And it is mostly naturopaths who are doing this – just Google “naturopath MTHFR genetic mutation”...

/ June 11, 2015

The Rosedale Diet: Here We Go Again

Ron Rosedale, MD has devised a “powerful program based on the new science of leptin.” “Finally — the ultimate diet for fast, safe weight loss, lifelong health, and longer life…” He suggests it will prevent or improve high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, and a host of other ills. He repeats the CAM canard that “doctors only treat symptoms” and...

/ June 2, 2015

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food? The obsessive worship of “medicinal foods”

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. – attributed to Hippocrates Who said anything about medicine? Let’s eat! – attributed to one of Hippocrates forgotten (and skeptical) students   Who hasn’t seen or heard Hippocrates’ famous quote about letting food be your medicine and your medicine your food? If you have Facebook friends who are the least bit into...

/ June 1, 2015

Florida strikes out against Brian Clement

Brian Clement is a charlatan. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be a problem for the State of Florida. I made two (which turned into three) attempts to get the state to take action against Clement or the Hippocrates Health Institute, where he serves with his wife Anna Maria Gahns-Clement as co-director. All of them failed. Brian Clement slithered through the cracks in...

/ May 28, 2015

Vitamins and Cancer Risk

Vitamins have been promoted as a general panacea, as well as a means of preventing cancer. In reality, high doses of vitamins may even cause cancer.

/ May 6, 2015

Pepsi Removing Aspartame

Pepsi has announced that it will remove aspartame from its formulation of diet Pepsi products in the US this year. Apparently this is a reaction to a 5% drop in the sales of Pepsi. Seth Kaufman, vice-president of Pepsi, said “Aspartame is the number one reason consumers are dropping diet soda.” This move comes in the same week that Chipotle announced it...

/ April 29, 2015

The DC as PCP? Drug Wars Resume

Chiropractors are once again engaged in intra-fraternal warfare over the chiropractic scope of practice, a saga we’ve chronicled before on SBM. (See the references at end of this post.) Every time it looks like the warring factions have buried their differences, they come rising to the surface like zombies. The International Chiropractors Association (ICA), representing the “straight” faction, wants chiropractic to continue...

/ March 19, 2015

Evaluating milk and its substitutes

I knew milk alternatives were becoming mainstream when a new bakery/café appeared in my neighborhood. I ordered a latte and learned that they didn’t use milk. At all. Not only were the baked goods vegan, organic, “natural” and some were gluten-free, they were completely dairy-free for their coffee beverages. While everything looked and smelled great, I was shocked that they had no...

/ March 12, 2015