You are What You Eat and I Eat Nuts

I have this message for the FDA today;

My mom told me that it's rude to give people the bird, but she never said anything about writing it out in walnuts!

 

This may be old news, but it was new news to me, so I thought maybe other people hadn’t heard about it either. 

On February 22, 2010 the FDA wrote a letter to Diamond Nuts telling them that they either needed to remove statements saying that walnuts are beneficial to health, or they would have to apply to classify their nuts as drugs. 

They also had this to say, “Your walnut products are also misbranded under section 403(r)(1)(B) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 343(r)(1)(B)] because your firm's website also contains several additional unauthorized health claims. The following are examples of the claims made on your firm's website:

• "Studies have also shown that omega-3s may lower the risk of stroke ..."

• "[T]here's good evidence that omega-3s can increase HDL (good cholesterol), further reducing the risk of stroke and heart disease."

 
They also said this, “Further, your "Diamond of California Shelled Walnut" product is misbranded under section in that your product bears health claims that are not authorized by the FDA. The front and back of your product label bears the phrase "OMEGA 3 2.5 g per serving." Within the context of this label, the heart symbols adjacent to information about the amount of omega-3 in the product, constitute implied health claims about consumption of omega-3 and a reduced risk of coronary heart disease.” 

So there you have it, the dirty bastards at Diamond Nuts are trying to poison our minds with hearts.

I found a study done in 2002 on the FDA’s website showing another walnut run-in.  The walnut growers wanted to show that the Omega 3 found in walnuts was beneficial in reducing the risk of Coronary Heart Disease.  They worked with 16-49 people over 6 weeks, and found that all of them had lowered their LDL (bad cholesterol) levels.

There were other studies done on walnuts as well that included Adventist Health Study, the Nurses Health Study, the Iowa Women's Health Study, and the Physicians Health Study that all found walnuts to be beneficial in heart health.  The FDA also hired three separate scientists to conduct blind tests, which all found walnuts to be beneficial in lowering LDL. Despite this evidence, the FDA determined walnuts to have no signifigent evidence in being “heart healthy” because you would have to eat “a significant” amount of walnuts to get the benefits.  I wonder how many Lay’s potato chips it takes to get heart health benefits, because they have been approved by the FDA to label their foods heart healthy.

So then I went to Lay’s to get their point of view on heart health.  They had this FDA approved message, “The good news about all our chips is that we make them with “good fats”—polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, which have heart health benefits because they can actually lower bad cholesterol as part of a balanced diet, so long as the total calories consumed do not increase.”

So in conclusion, according to the FDA walnuts are not heart healthy, but fried potato chips are. 

Despite the FDA refusing walnut growers to label their product heart healthy, they put this video out for consumers.  WARNING:  This video contains walnuts!

If they keep this going, people are going to start to think that the government is corrupt....

The letter from the FDA to Diamond Nuts can be found here for you to read for yourself.