You do not need to be dealing with anti-evolutionists to be facing attempts to unravel simple knowledge for the all important, glorious cause of private interest. From the BBC today comes backlash against that well-known falsifier "Sid the Slug":
The Salt Manufacturers' Association has complained about the FSA's [Food Standards Agency] use of the animated slug to front its £4m campaign. The industry says the TV and press campaign's assertions that too much salt is unhealthy are incorrect. It claims salt supports life and there is no evidence to show it has ever been responsible for death.Maybe on Venus. Coming from a clan of Britons who offed themselves dietarily in their mid-50s on the far side of the Atlantic in part due to the salt lick on the table for every meal, this wacked out attack on knowledge should be offensive and not just laughable.
Who was it that figured out everything that took money out of the pockets of industrialists just needed to be labelled "unproven"? Cigarette manufacturers probably. Or thalidomide chemists. Maybe Union Carbide execs a few months before Bhopal.
Comments
Lisa Howard - September 21, 2004 4:06 PM
I hear saccharine is making a comeback as well. I thought it caused cancer. I guess it doesn't. Actually, you can buy it here in Hungary.
Alan - September 21, 2004 4:08 PM
I worked in Poland in 1991 and you could get a few things then that I was a wee bit surprised about.
SayNay? - September 22, 2004 10:29 AM
I thought Al, you might be interested that the Wackos refer to the Scottish Heart Health Study as one of the studies supporting their statements! It's number 8 at http://www.saltinfo.com/health3.htm.
The spin put on these "studies" is all very counterintuitive to our innate understanding that moderation in all things is best.
Alan - September 22, 2004 11:16 AM
I wonder who paid for Scottish Heart Health Study sixteen years ago? Just three years ago, the New England Journal of Medicine said the opposite. I note that it is not apparently referenced.
Alan - September 22, 2004 11:17 AM
But being from New England, it is probably "liberal" and therefore not trustworthy ;-)
Aaron - May 11, 2006 11:26 AM
yea, i agree with alan