The possibly amazing walnut

That bag of walnuts you buy could be getting bigger, not to accommodate more nuts but to fit an elaborate health claim recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It will read: "Supportive but not conclusive research shows that eating 1.5 oz. of walnuts per day, as part of a low saturated fat and low cholesterol diet, and not resulting in increased caloric intake, may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease."

Translation: "Some studies suggest a handful of walnuts, but no more, could help those with heart disease but only if they cut back on other food, and then again maybe it won't."

The law says that the FDA is supposed to allow health claims on food only after a rigorous process in which the statement is supported by "significant scientific agreement" and the public is allowed to comment. Under the Bush administration, however, the FDA has decided to allow health claims that may not even be true, as long as the language is equivocal enough, and to reduce public involvement in the proceedings to a formality.

"The FDA is illegally putting consumers' health at risk and allowing food companies to turn the supermarket aisle into a Tower of Babble," said Bruch Silverglade with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, plaintiff in a suit to stop the misleading labeling.

While that suit is going forward, shoppers might want to consider the FDA's own conclusion about walnuts: The correlation between walnuts and reducing coronary heart disease is based on science that is "very limited and preliminary," the FDA noted, yet that didn't stop it from approving the health claim.

Opinion

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright