We guarantee you won’t ever look at FDA the same way again.
It’s pretty obvious the agency lives in the pocket of the food industry. The biggest and most profitable companies get away with just about anything as long as they’re willing to write a check.
That’s bad enough. But when the FDA tries to keep you from improving your health, that’s when things get really dangerous.
This attempt to secure profits seems especially crazy. They’re calling a natural, healthy FOOD a “new drug” that has to be subjected to the full FDA approval process.
Under the rules, it is illegal for food makers to share certain information with consumers. Whether or not it’s true. And whether or not it can save lives.
If a food product even looks like it’s making a medical claim, it can bring fines and legal problems. It can even lead to jail time. But if you are willing, you can pay the FDA to go through the approval process. When the dust settles, we’re talking billions of dollars in costs.1
It doesn’t matter if the food has been around forever and its health benefits are backed by clinical science.2
So what’s this dangerous drug that the FDA wants to “protect” you from?
Walnuts.
Sound the alarms!
We wish we were kidding. The FDA went after Diamond Foods for claims they made on their website about why walnuts are good for you.
The health benefits are fairly common knowledge. Walnuts can help prevent heart disease and cancer. Not exactly controversial or groundbreaking.
The FDA responded to these claims with a ridiculous and threatening letter. Here are some of the highlights:
“Your walnut products are also new drugs … they are not generally recognized as safe and effective for the above referenced conditions. Therefore … they may not be legally marketed with the above claims in the United States without an approved new drug application.”3
What the FDA is saying is that if a food can support your health, it’s a drug. This means that the FDA needs to test and approve it. They even need to set the “directions for use” so that people know how much is safe to take. And of course, this process isn’t free.
Again, we’re talking about walnuts here. They grow on trees!
As if that wasn’t crazy enough, they are blatant hypocrites…
Companies like Frito-Lay, owned by PepsiCo, claim their snacks have all sorts of benefits to your health. This somehow includes strong bones and muscles. But the most insulting—and crazy—claim is that their potato chips support heart health because they use sunflower oil to fry them.4
Someone should tell the FDA the difference between “good” for you and “slightly less awful” for you.
Unlike potato chips, walnuts are actually good for you. Walnuts reduce LDL cholesterol levels over six years by nearly 50 percent.5 Studies show walnuts improve your heart health in other ways too.
Men in one study who ate a Mediterranean diet replaced 30 percent of their fats, like olive oil, with walnuts. After just 30 days, they found their vasodilation improved by more than 60 percent. They also lowered their cholesterol by 10 percent.6
So science actually proves that walnuts fight heart disease and high blood pressure. It’s irresponsible to try and keep this information from the public. By not allowing Diamond Foods to talk about the amazing things walnuts can do to support heart health, it keeps people in the dark. But it also keeps them relying on dangerous heart medications instead of nature to lower their blood pressure.
If the FDA was really concerned with your health, they would want to do everything in their power to share this information about walnuts. Instead, they want to force them to be regulated as a drug.
Our recommendation? Keep eating up these scandalous nuts. (Just be sure to buy organic.) And spread the word! Walnuts are not drugs. Yes, we feel silly even writing that.
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References:
1 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/03/07/fda-says-walnuts-are-drugs.aspx
2 http://www.realfarmacy.com/walnuts-are-drugs-says-fda/
3 http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm202825.htm
4 http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2011/aug2011_FDA-Says-Walnuts-Are-Illegal-Drugs_01.htm
5 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8357360
6 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15037535