Dear Reader, Let go of that stem and back away from the cherry.
It's for your own good.
You see, that cherry is officially an unapproved drug, at least according to the Einsteins at the FDA.
Obviously, that makes no sense. But it lead me to ask: If cherries are unapproved drugs, what does that make potato chips?
Also compliments of the geniuses at the Food and Drug Administration: Heart healthy, of course!
Fortunately, there may be a way out of this government-inflicted insanity.
Cherries contain antioxidants and other anti-inflammatory components. The scientific evidence behind that statement is irrefutable. But when owners of cherry orchards made those claims and backed them up with links to the evidence, the FDA ruled that the claims "cause your products to be drugs."
Needless to say, none of the orchard owners had submitted their cherries for approval as drugs, so they were not allowed to continue the claims.
Crazy? Oh...we're just getting started.
Last year, Dannon settled a dispute with the FDA by paying out $21 million to several states where they had advertised their Activia yogurt and DanActive dairy drink. In those ads they said the products, "help regulate your digestive system...naturally."
That claim is based on what we know about the benefits of living cultures in probiotics.
But the FDA decided that Dannon was actually claiming that "Activia provided consumers with bowel movements at fixed, uniform or normal intervals." Clearly, that was not the case, but the agency's absurd decision ended up costing Dannon millions.
And FDA officials were just as picky and difficult when it came to walnuts.
They told walnut distributer Diamond Foods that multiple studies showing heart health benefits of walnuts were not sufficient to allow such claims on the Diamond Foods website. Again, the FDA ruled that the health claims classified walnuts as drugs.
Now...if all that seems completely bat-house crazy, brace yourself -- seriously -- because here's what the FDA allows Frito-Lay to say about their products...
"You might be surprised at how much good stuff goes into your favorite snack. Good stuff like potatoes, which naturally contain vitamin C and essential minerals. Or corn, one of the world's most popular grains, packed with thiamin, vitamin B6, and phosphorous -- all necessary for healthy bones, teeth, nerves and muscles."
Potatoes and corn -- two of the WORST foods you can eat, even before the processing begins! But wait -- there's more...
"Our all-natural sunflower, corn and soybean oils contain good polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, which help lower total and LDL 'bad' cholesterol and maintain HDL 'good' cholesterol levels, which can support a healthy heart."
So you CAN'T say cherries provide antioxidants that benefit health, but you CAN clearly tell customers that corn chips help keep bones healthy and potato chips cooked in soybean oil "can support a healthy heart."
That is true lunacy! In any rational world we'd be able to storm FDA headquarters and take them all away in straitjackets.
As I said earlier, there may be a way out of this government-inflicted insanity. But to do it, we have to go through the government.
Two members of Congress recently introduced the Free Speech about Science Act that will require the FDA to let food producers and supplement makers state health claims when they're backed up by sound, science-based evidence.
You can help this important effort by contacting your representatives and senators through "Thomas," a Library of Congress website (thomas.loc.gov).
Let your Congressmen know how vital it is to change these absurd FDA regulations that withhold essential health information and cause companies and growers to spend millions defending ridiculous charges.
I mean, really...aren't there other "unapproved drugs" that are currently putting us at greater risk than walnuts and cherries???