by Dr.Harald Wiesendanger– Klartext
What the mainstream media is hiding
The federal government finally has a great health policy idea: we should eat less sugar, salt, and fat. But Focus contradicts this: there is a lack of “causal evidence.”
According to Cem Özdemir, we should eat less sugar, fat, and salt to live healthier lives – especially children. The Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture just explained this when presenting the “Nutrition Report 2023“. What does Germany’s self-professed “facts-facts-facts” supplier Focus do with this noble project? He has it torn apart.
To do this, the run-down news magazine enlists an “expert” named Uwe Knop, an “evidence-focused nutritionist, book author, and speaker for lectures at professional associations, companies and medical training courses.” Knop explains: “The term’ unhealthy’ food is not officially defined and is often used ideologically. (…) There is a lack of causal evidence.” Furthermore, “current data shows that the majority of German children are not obese.”
How Özdemir’s suggestions affect the health of the population, “no one knows,” Knop said, “and no one will ever find out because there will be no scientific evaluation (“effectiveness analysis”) to determine the health-relevant effects to evaluate (such as effects on heart attacks, strokes, cancer, lifespan). Why? These analyses are practically impossible to perform. (…) Nutritional science cannot provide any evidence in the sense of real causality – neither for healthy eating in general nor whether food is generally healthy or unhealthy. (…) Nobody knows whether and what such a government requirement will bring – neither in a positive way nor whether it might be harmful.”
There is undoubtedly a lack of sufficient causal evidence to show that nutritionists who are neither identical to Uwe Knop nor on Big Food’s fee list have every hair left standing on end because of Knop’s statements.
And if, after decades of chips and cola, pizza and gummy bears, Knop, born in 1972, were to experience arteriosclerosis and high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer, heart attacks and strokes, he would certainly resist the temptation to interpret this as a “false causality.” “Maybe” it’s even harmful to stop eating junk food.
The fact that Knop, according to Wikipedia, is “active as a medical PR consultant for various companies” – including the “medicine and health industry” himself – has no bearing on the matter. Which companies have an interest in venal desk clerks accusing the state of “paying for the spread of pseudo-scientific fantasies” and saying slogans like “Eat what you want – everything else is cheese!”? Meanwhile, food companies are investing billions to find the perfect blend of salt, sugar, and fat to keep us addicted.
In all seriousness, Focus counts this “evidence-focused” causality guru as one of the “best and broadest selection of experts.” (The editorial team apparently couldn’t find experts for correct German plural formation.) At this point, if any remaining trust hasn’t already been lost during the Corona crisis, you’ll have to be worried about the expertise of Germany’s experts.
(Harald Wiesendanger)
Foto Özdemir: Von © Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons), CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86905057
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