More Q and A’s about food politics

More responses to questions that came in last week:

Q3.  Have you seen Dannon’s new campaign for their Greek yogurt?  I’m a nutritionist and received a huge package of collateral promotion material they wanted me to distribute.  The tagline for the product is, “Too delicious to be nutritious.”  Are they kidding?  They want a nutritionist to ratify the idea that healthy food is expected not to be good tasting? 

A.  I’m so with you on this one.  Of course healthy foods can be delicious and should be, every time.  Yogurt, especially the Greek kind, is a hot-selling product these days.   The advertising agency gets a hand slap for this one.  Of course Dannon will argue that the advertising worked.  Ink is ink and you and I are writing about it.

Q4.  There’s a recent op-ed in Forbes Magazine entitled, “Top Science Journal Rebukes Harvard’s Top Nutritionist” written by Trevor Butterworth. Could you respond to what’s going on around the controversy surrounding this Harvard professor?   

A.  Sure.  I already did, in comments posted last  January.  The controversy centers on disputes over the interpretation of research showing little effect of overweight on mortality except for the extremely obese.  The article in Nature discussing the controversy does an excellent job of explaining the inevitable uncertainties in nutrition research and the need to leave wiggle room—in case the science changes—whenever discussing new studies.