Target, Walmart Selling Fake Ginkgo, Garlic, Ginseng Thanks to Political Loophole

This week, the New York State Attorney General charged Walmart, Target, Walgreens and GNC with selling "mislabeled" and "adulterated" dietary supplements.  

No surprise, at least to Fake Food Watch readers.  (See below for my list of other dietary supplements that should also be investigated by authorities... ) 

Many health supplements are fakes. Most, actually. Frauds. Bogus, pricey bait for consumers.  Neither effective, nor worth the billions Americans waste annually in vain hopes of improving their health. 

That's because "These drugs are not subject to the F.D.A.’s approval because of a loophole in a 1994 federal law (spearheaded by Utah Sen Orrin G. Hatch who received funding from supplement makers), fraudulent products can easily reach consumers without accountability or oversight," per Salon.com.    

Republican Sen. Hatch berated 2012 proposed legislation created to force greater accountability in the lucrative dietary supplement industry. 

Sen. Hatch bitterly railed against an amendment that would ..."require facilities engaged in the manufacturing, processing, packing, or holding of dietary supplements to register with the FDA, provide a description with a list of all ingredients, as well as a copy of the labeling for each dietary supplement product.  Additionally, the facilities must also register with respect to new, reformulated, and discontinued dietary supplement products. 

While I appreciate my colleague’s commitment, his amendment is based on the misguided presumption that the current regulatory framework for dietary supplements is flawed..."  (Source - U.S. Senate website of Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah)

Findings of the New York State Attorney General?  Of 390 DNA barcoding tests performed on 78 samples of 24 generic products sold at the four retailers: 

• At Walmart, "4 percent actually contained the ingredients listed on the label."
• At Walgreens, 18 percent contained the listed ingredients.
• At GNC, 22 percent contained the listed ingredients.
• At Target, 44 percent contained the listed ingredients.
• (Source - Food Safety News)

Each sample was tested five times; samples were selected from all regions of New York state. The dietary supplements tested were garlic, ginseng, gingko biloba, St. John's wort, echinacea, valerian root, and saw palmetto.

Even I'm amazed at the incredible array of fake fillers found in these supplements in lieu of ingredients listed on the labels. "In many cases, the authorities said, the supplements contained little more than cheap fillers like rice and house plants, or substances that could be hazardous to people with food allergies," per the New York Times.

Specific ingredients found in supplements tested often included:

• Dracaena, a houseplant (right photo)
• Rice
• Wheat
• Spruce
• Pine
• Palm
• Wild carrot
• Grass
• Allium, from the garlic family
• Radish
• Daisy
• Mung bean

Friends, don't waste your hard-earned money on dietary supplements. The industry is barely regulated. And profiteers, of course, prey on this regulatory loophole to line their rich pockets at your expense and the expense of your health hopes.

Among other products I urge state and federal regulators to also investigate for misleading consumers about the health benefits and/or ingredients are:

Raspberry ketones - See "Raspberry Ketones: Another Industrial Food Quasi-Scam?"

Olive leaf extract - See "Olive Leaf Extract: Industrial Food Quasi-Scam with Clever Story"

Ensure - See "Ensure Drink: Sugary Fake Food Pseudo-Wonder Tonic by Vicodin Maker"

Coconut water  - See "The Coconut Water Fad: Hucksterism, Health Elixir or Quasi Fraud?"

Ballpark Food: New Gluttony and County-Fair Grotesqueness

Is ballpark eating now a grotesque indulgence akin to county fair gluttony?  

American tradition embraces juicy hot dogs and cold, cold beer at the ballpark, but when did a stadium visit become another exercise in over-the-top, self-destructive gastronomy?  

Call me naive about stadium food, because the ballpark in my neighborhood, Anaheim Stadium, emphasizes healthy choices including:

• salads at 8 stadium locations
• veggie dogs at 6 locations
• vegetarian panini sandwiches

Joining Anaheim Stadium concessions last year was Melissa's Fresh for You, offering "healthy wraps, salads, fruit cups, hummus and pita chips, gluten-free hot dogs, and gluten-free beer" in four locations. I hear Melissa's black bean burger is scrumptious.  

Sure, the home of the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles (future 2013 World Series champions!) offers heavy, satisfying fare for fans as pastrami, cheese steak, and meatball sandwiches, and gigantic, deliciously greasy pizzas by-the-slice.  And like every ballpark, Anaheim serves heaping piles of  "nacho" chips dripping with hot, yellow, liquid "cheese" topped with jalapeno peppers and God only knows what else. (Why my husband craves ballpark nachos, I will never, ever know...) 

My point is that, in my recent stadium experiences, the direction of food concessions has been toward healthier fare, less to conspicuous gluttony.

So imagine my delighted surprise when I recently read a headline in my father-in-law's morning newspaper, the Reno Gazette-Journal, touting "Aces Chef to Debut Tasty Treats."  Terrific, I thought. Healthier foods at the stadium for the Reno Aces, a popular Triple-A baseball team affiliated with the Arizona Diamondbacks.  A ballpark with an actual chef on staff! 

Delighted surprise until I read the article, that is. Among the new tasty treats? A foot-long hot dog smothered in chili and Fritos.  Pretzels slathered with "beer cheese." (Liquid beer cheese? What is beer cheese?) And sweet potato tater tots, deep-fried of course.  

A single Google search of stadium foods turned up, at the Texas Rangers' ballpark, a $26, two-foot hot dog weighing a full pound, dripping with that yellow liquid cheese substance, jalapenos, onions, and likely whatever else suits your food fantasies.  (See photo above.)

Has ballpark eating become the newest venue of rebellious, indigestion-inducing indulgence akin to county fair in-your-face gluttony as entertainment?  If so, shouldn't hungry fans at least be told the calorie, fat, salt, and sugar content of their food options? 

I believe in freedom of individual choice, yet recognize that in a responsible, safe society, individual freedoms must be balanced with public responsibilities and privileges. In the case of stadium foods and similar, public health concerns must be weighed against individual choice.  

The fast food industry is required by law to disclose the nutritional content of its menus, so that the public can make informed choices.  

The time is overdue to also mandate nutritional content disclosures of the tens of millions of meals and snacks sold annually at U.S. stadiums and ballparks.  Take me out to the ballpark, but please, tell me what I'm eating.  

Hurricanes, Earthquakes: Stocking Delicious Real Foods, Not Fake Foods

Planning for natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, forces us to focus on real foods, not fake foods. Nonperishable foods that will satisfy and nourish us and our loved ones, sometimes for seven days or longer. 

But what real foods should we buy that will strengthen us, not spoil, and yet not taste like over-priced sawdust or freeze-dried shoe leather?

 Here are suggestions for easily-found staples to get your family through the worst of days without power or transportation:

Beverages- Stock-up on bottled water. Two cases, maybe three. And how about extra for a neighbor? Also individual boxed fruit and veggie juices.

Canned beans - A terrific source of protein, fiber, other nutrients, and most don't taste half-bad. Think kidney, cannellini, garbanzo, and black beans. Caution: avoid salt-drenched pork-and-beans and chili beans in sauce. Salty foods induce extra thirst, creating an unpleasant cycle in confined conditions.

Canned meats - Tuna in either oil or water. Other canned meats or fish, to taste, but most are highly processed and often ghastly. 

Peanut butter and jelly - Yummy anytime, but a real treat in power-free times. Enjoy on crackers, preferably low-salt. Buy jellies in smaller containers or those little restaurant servings. 

Canned fruits - In their own juices rather than heavy syrup. The healthier, the better. You'll feel better. Save sugar highs for an occasional candy bar. 

Canned veggies - Some aren't detestable. Look again at the market, and you'll see what I mean. Buy low-salt canned veggies for all times, not just for earthquakes and hurricanes. 

Nuts, granolas, and nut/granola bars - These are never detestable, but one can't live on semi-candy bars and high-carb granolas forever. Or even for seven days. But such goodies do make time go by faster. And nuts galore... high protein, good taste. What's not to like? Low-salt, though, or unsalted if you can bear it.

Dried fruits - Apricots, raisins, cranberries, banana chips, pineapple spears, mango slices. Take a stroll down Trader Joe's dried fruit aisle. But remember to save them for emergencies. 

If you have several days notice before a natural disaster, indulge your household with:

Fresh fruits - Apples, oranges, tangerines, pomegranates, other delicious fruits unlikely to spoil after a week without refrigeration.

Breads - Breadsticks, too. I'm not a believer in breads laden with preservatives. But shelf-life takes precedent over taste, texture, and aesthetics in emergency conditions. 

Others - Stock canned milk for those who require dairy on a daily basis, and pre-mixed formula for babies.  Don't forget salt, pepper, sugars, cinnamon, and other spices and herbs.  

And yes, tuck-away surprise treats to bring smiles to sullen faces... jelly beans, M & Ms, favorite candy bars, and bags of kettle corn. 

Then again, you could simply store what a former boss of mine kept in his desk drawer should an earthquake have trapped him in our downtown Los Angeles high-rise for three days: a bottle of whiskey, a deck of cards, and poker chips. 

Fake Food Fears, Circa 1965: Sound Familiar?

"The multibillion-dollar refined-food industry has gained such power that it keeps people in ignorance and literally controls the health of our nation.  Its relentless radio, television, newspaper, and magazine advertising reaches like the life-crushing tentacles of an octopus into every home.

"Half the space in our beautiful markets is given to health-destroying products which fill shoppers' baskets to a frightening degree. Hundreds of magazines and newspapers, depending on advertising income from the foodless food industry, have carried articles and syndicated columns --- clever mixtures of truth, misinformation, and propaganda--- particularly designed to prevent the slightest interest in nutrition from interfering with enormous profits.

"The refined-food industry, by giving untold million, also controls a vast amount of nutritional research. Much of it is valuable, indeed, but information that might harm sales goes unreported and problems whose solutions could decrease profits remain uninvestigated...

Ensure Drink: Sugary Fake Food Pseudo-Wonder Tonic by Vicodin Maker

Meet Ensure "nutrition shakes," one of the most spectacularly selling fake foods in America. $1 billion in sales in 2009, and growing. 

Bought by seniors in the millions as meal replacements. Used to supplement the diets of picky children. Hawked as a solution to build muscles, meet nutritional needs, fortify calcium, restore vigor, aid recovery from illness and surgery. 

The sapphire-and-navy plastic 8-oz bottle of vanilla Ensure Nutrition Shake (which retails for an exorbitant $1.33 per bottle!) here on my desk lures on the label:

• complete, balanced nutrition
• to help get strong on the inside
• #1 doctor recommended brand

"Ready to take charge of your health? Check out how Ensure ready-to-drink shakes and drinks can help you reach your goal," exhorts Abbott Nutrition, part of Big Pharma corporate giant Abbott Laboratories on their website. (Abbott Labs, the maker of addictive painkiller Vicodin and dozens of other highly profitable drugs...)

Problem is...

Fast Food Purposely Saltier in U.S. to Boost Sales

The purpose of industrial food corporations is to make profits from hawking edible products. Period. 

Health and public good are irrelevant concepts to this singular goal... unless hefty sales will result, of course.

In U.S. fast food, the lure to reeling in rich profits is salt. Loads and loads of salt. As much as it takes to ensure big bonuses for fast food executives. Sort of like using special lures to bait fish... 

Pizzas, burgers, fries, breakfast concoctions, even salads served in the United States are intentionally loaded with more salt than that sold by the same fast food companies in Great Britain, Australia, Canada and often France and New Zealand, per the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).

This week, the CMAJ released results of their salt comparisons in 2,124 fast food samples: