Comments on: Jane Brody Gets it (Really) Wrong “Debunking” Health Myths

By: The CLF Week in Links: Food Safety, Shortages, and More | Center for a Livable Future

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:45:56 +0000

[...] “Wise eating.” I was taken aback last Friday by Jane Brody’s blogpost on what she calls “wise eating.” For decades, I’ve considered Ms. Brody a comrade in the mission to promote healthy eating, mainly the consumption of whole foods and the rejection of processed products rife with chemicals, fats, sugar, and salt. But in this post, she got quite a few things wrong. Thankfully, someone at Civil Eats took her to task, in this fine rebuttal. [...]

By: mariam

mariam — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 17:43:22 +0000

Im so glad that I don’t consume meat/ flesh or fish or cow milk or any dairy…it saves me lots of headaches and I eat peacefully ….you all should try sometimes

By: Kris

Kris — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 03:51:45 +0000

Did you submit that to the Times as an op-ed? You SHOULD.

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 01:09:08 +0000

Nice job Kristen. I rely on your excellent sleuthing (and research abilities) to keep food news honest.

By: deb

deb — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 05:16:48 +0000

thanks for taking the time to pick Brody’s article apart. I happened to read the article when it came out, and unfamiliar with Brody’s past work, simply dismissed it as a blatant piece of big food propoganda. I couldn’t believe the flagrant misrepresentations I was reading. That Brody is a food/nutrition writer of any reputation is shocking to me!

By: Romy

Romy — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:53:34 +0000

While it’s true that genetic modification CAN be used to improve a crop’s nutritional content, the fact remains that this is NOT how it’s being used, a point Brody also misses. No GMO product on the market today benefits the consumer in that way. To date, GMO crops are used to sell more Roundup herbicide and convince farmers that they need GMO seeds in order to farm productively.

By: Kristin Wartman

Kristin Wartman — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:54:50 +0000

The dyes I am referring to are either astaxanthin or canthaxanthin (canthaxanthin has been linked to retinal damage when taken orally to simulate a sun tan.) Wild-caught salmon get their orange pink hue from their natural diet of pink krill, which are small, shrimp-like crustaceans (it also gives them their high levels of omega-3 fatty acids). Farm raised salmon do not eat krill which means their flesh would be a dull grey color without the added dyes. Salmon farmers add dyes to the fish feed in order to create the illusion of a healthy fish. Pharmaceutical company, Hoffman-La Roche is one company that makes the dyes and fish farmers choose the shade of their fish based on the company’s trademarked SalmoFan. The New York Times itself reported on this very issue in 2003 with the following: “Hoffmann-La Roche, one company that makes the dyes, canthaxanthin and the more expensive astaxanthin, from petrochemicals, offers salmon farmers the SalmoFan, a sort of paint wheel with assorted shades of pink, to help them create the color they think their customers want.”

By: Linda

Linda — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 19:40:09 +0000

This critique of Ms. Brody seems very rash and unsupported. What scientific training does Ms. Wartman have? What is the “petrochemical-based dye” referred to that is used in farmed salmon? Why would farmed salmon be a dull grey color without the dye? I have worked in the seafood industry and grew up eating wild Atlantic Salmon when it was still thriving. I have yet to see a salmon with grey flesh. As for pollutants in farmed salmon, when Ms. Brody uses phrases like “may be”, she is presenting information in a responsible manner in keeping with ever-changing scientific findings. Ms. Wartman might consider adopting a similar tone. Nutrition is a young science and dogma today is quackery tomorrow.

By: Robert Sullivan

Robert Sullivan — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 03:24:35 +0000

To the reader who wondered about the picture at the top of the article: We’ve all heard of pink slime (curious what Brody thinks of that), but that picture is probably the meat “glued” together that the author was referring to. The ABC news clip referenced in the article has some additional information on what exactly that stuff is, and how it requires some extra caution when preparing it.

By: Sharyn

Sharyn — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 02:38:06 +0000

McGill University recently hosted a public lecture featuring Jane Brody as one of the speakers. Joe Schwarz was the facilitator. The webcast can be viewed here: http://bcooltv.mcgill.ca/Viewer1/?rid=10322ba4-d04d-4a76-afe7-c7792b2e1f76 Her talk was quite self-absorbed as she spoke about the nutritious muffins that she baked from scratch for her sons and how she included the boys on trips to the grocery store. I think her sons are in their 40′s today. The low point of the evening, which entirely destroyed her credibility, was when she reassured the audience that potatoes are a nutritionally complete food and you could survive on a diet composed exclusively of potatoes; though she discouraged the audience from actually trying this. Ms. Brody’s background is as a science/health writer and she does not hold any recognized degree in Nutrition.