Panic in the Pantry: Facts & Fallacies About the Food You Buy (Consumer Health Library) - Softcover

Whelan, Elizabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0879757329 ISBN 13: 9780879757328

Publisher: G38-Prometheus, 1992

Synopsis

"Panic in the Pantry" was written to help consumers become fully aware of the real facts behind news about the safety of our food supply. Whelan and Stare examine the power wielded by health food lobbyists who band together and exert political pressure to protect their profitable ventures. They discuss the concept of "relative risk" and why it should be used to place information about food additives and preservatives into proper perspective, as well as why the Delaney Clause - a law intended to protect us from cancer causing chemicals in our food - cannot fulfil the noble purpose for which it was drafted and therefore should be repealed. Also examined is the research behind the banning of cyclomates and the attacks on saccharin and aspartame that left many Americans wondering whether they are doomed to be chubby or develop cancer.A lengthy discussion of California's Proposition 65 provides insight into the chaos that can result when fearmongers are able to secure legislation based on panic about food supply. The authors also address the flight to "natural" products, which may lead to serious health problems as well as added consumer expense. The contemporary back-to-nature mania is rejected as a hoax perpetuated by opportunists intent on taking advantage of frightened and impressionable consumers.

About this title

Synopsis

"Panic in the Pantry" was written to help consumers become fully aware of the real facts behind news about the safety of our food supply. Whelan and Stare examine the power wielded by health food lobbyists who band together and exert political pressure to protect their profitable ventures. They discuss the concept of "relative risk" and why it should be used to place information about food additives and preservatives into proper perspective, as well as why the Delaney Clause - a law intended to protect us from cancer causing chemicals in our food - cannot fulfil the noble purpose for which it was drafted and therefore should be repealed. Also examined is the research behind the banning of cyclomates and the attacks on saccharin and aspartame that left many Americans wondering whether they are doomed to be chubby or develop cancer.A lengthy discussion of California's Proposition 65 provides insight into the chaos that can result when fearmongers are able to secure legislation based on panic about food supply. The authors also address the flight to "natural" products, which may lead to serious health problems as well as added consumer expense.

The contemporary back-to-nature mania is rejected as a hoax perpetuated by opportunists intent on taking advantage of frightened and impressionable consumers.

Edition details

• Publisher: G38-Prometheus
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0879757329
• ISBN 13: 9780879757328
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 223