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Title: Panic in the Pantry: Facts & Fallacies About the Food You Buy (Consumer Health Library) by Elizabeth M. Whalen, Fredrick J. Stare, Stephen Barrett, Elizabeth M. Whelan, Frederick Stare ISBN: 0-87975-732-9 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: July, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00

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Average Customer Rating: 1 (1 review)

Rating: 1
Summary: Brings its own set of panics and hysteria
Comment: In its various editions, this book has always been a jumble of mixed messages. It is intended partly to dispel myths propounded by food faddists. The authors hammer away at unscientific views on food additives, "natural" foods, over-the-top food supplement claims. This is not hard labor since the claims they attack are often ridiculous. However, it seems a bit odd that these "quackbusters" and "junk science" critics don't provide footnotes for their own assertions. They apparently fancy themselves such revered experts that readers are to take their declarations at face value. Or they are too lazy to provide documentation. These authors should know better.

To a disturbing extent, the book reads like a legal polemic. There are countless references to the legal plights of those who they consider to be quacks. Often these legal issues have nothing whatever to do with the merits of the scientific issues. Do we really learn anything about the value of, say, chelation therapy, by being told that one proponent has been prosecuted for tax evasion? Because of these frequent asides, the book has a sleazy, even authoritarian tone. The authors, and editor Barrett, are known to favor relentless government action, both legal and regulatory, against people with whom they disagree. Barrett has even advocated changing the laws so that consumers can sue publishers who publish articles with (what Barrett considers) erroneous and harmful health advice. So much for freedom of the press.

The authors give us clues on how to recognize a "health quack." One of these clues is that quacks "display credentials not recognized by responsible scientists or educators." This is said to be the insight of editor Barrett. But Barrett, who is referred to by the patently unscientific term, "consumer activist," is actually a psychiatrist! Is that a recognized credential for expertise on nutrition or biochemistry? Not a few people would counter that psychiatry itself is the quintessential "junk science."

Another quality of quacks, says Barrett, is that "They encourage patients to lend political support to their treatment methods." This is disingenuous in light of the fact that author Whelan is director of a group, The American Council on Science and Health, among whose purposes is to influence government policy. These self-styled experts are allowed to engage in politics, while "quacks" are not. The "quacks" are supposed to just lie there while the government gives it to them good and hard.

But are these authors infallible? In the 1975 edition of this book, Stare and Whelan wrote that "an accumulation of lycopene following daily consumption of a half a gallon of tomato juice for several years can pose a hazard."Again the book is poorly referenced, so we cannot verify this claim. On its face it seems silly since few people would drink that much tomato juice. And now we know that lycopene is very likely a cancer preventive, so the authors were apparently wrong. The reference to lycopene is missing from the current edition. Are these authors quacks for making such an outlandish assertion?

The authors have no sense of humor. They go about the business of attacking "quacks" with grim-faced determination, when a horse-laugh would often be more effective. It is obvious that the authors do not limit themselves to countering false ideas, they want those ideas, those who promote them, and those who sell "unproven" health products to be defenestrated. It never occurs to them that people have the right to sell and buy products without the approval of health experts or the government. Hence, there is a hint of Big Brother throughout the book. Like most "consumer advocates," they care nothing for the choices of consumers, they want to DICTATE to consumers.

The authors are essentially Chicken Littles who think the sky will fall if Americans don't follow the health practices they endorse. So, the book does every bit as much to spread panic as to squelch it. Like so many health writers, they don't doubt that the most important value in life is GOOD HEALTH, and that anyone who gets in the way of that should be stamped out. Liberty is not accepted as a value of competing importance.

Finally, I have personal knowledge that one example of "evidence" supplied in the book is completely false. The casual way that this false information is used casts doubt on the authors powers of discernment.