NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/sci/med/14373

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From: [e-mail] [Rich Young] (x37176)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: 60 Minutes-Heart Disease & The French
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 23 Jul 92 22:07:15 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
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Organization: Clinical Products Division, Eastman Kodak Company
Lines: 185
Originator: young@sasquatch

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Glenn Stone) writes:

>[e-mail] writes:
>>
>>    Actually, The_Tufts_University_Diet_and_Nutrition_Letter did an
>>    article on the "60 Minutes" presentation and pretty well shot it
>>    in the proverbial heart.  It turns out that Morley Safer's report
>>    left out a LOT of rather inconvenient contradictory information.
>>    Check out Vol. 9, No. 12, February 1992 for further details...there's
>>    quite a long critique entitled "'60 Minutes' - Not Enough Time to
>>    Tell the Whole Story".
>
>Be a mensch and give a few of the highlights.  I can't imagine when
>I'd have time to track down the Tufts newsletter.  Thanks...

   Awright, but ONLY because I'm in a relatively magnanimous mood.  :-)

   Here's the straight skinny on the "60 Minutes" report, quoted without
   permission from THE TUFTS DIET AND NUTRITION LETTER: Vol. 9, No. 12,
   February 1992.

    "Chances are good that if you watched '60 Minutes' last November 3,
    you came away feeling that MSG is bad for you.  And if you watched
    on November 17, odds are high you reached the conclusion that red
    wine is good for you, good enough even for teetotalers to consider
    adding some to their diets.  Odds are also high that you watched --
    or at least heard about -- the two broadcasts.  An average of 30
    million viewers tune in each week.  That's why it's particularly
    unfortunate that the popular television show presented such strongly
    one-sided, unbalanced stories on the two subjects."

    [MSG discussion deleted...I'm not the world's fastest typist.]

    WHAT ABOUT THE WINE?

    "Sometimes part rather than all of the story may be exactly what
    some people want to hear.  That certainly seems to be the case with
    the '60 Minutes' discussion on the potential health benefits of
    wine -- specifically, benefits to the heart.  _Food_and_Wines_from_
    France_, a promotional firm working in the interests of French
    exporters, liked the show's treatment of the subject so much it
    used it as the basis of a full-page advertisement in _The_New_York_
    Times.  'According to a recent news report on CBS 60 Minutes,' the
    ad states, 'the intake of fat in the French diet seems to be
    counteracted by their drinking of...red wine...  Platelets, which
    cause blood to clot, cling to rough, fatty deposits on the artery
    walls, blocking the arteries and causing heart attacks.  Moderate
    consumption of...red wine -- 1 to 3 glasses per day with your meals --
    flushes away these platelets, clearing the arteries!'"

    "The words are not far off the mark.  Most cardio-vascular experts
    agree that when you compare populations from one country to another,
    moderate wine intake goes hand in hand with a reduced risk of heart
    ailments.  '60 Minutes' host Morley Safer drives home the point in
    the November 17 broadcast when he says that middle-aged American
    men (who drink less than a tenth of the wine that the French drink)
    are three times as likely as French men to die of a heart attack."

    "Before you pick up your glass, however, consider that French men
    are three times more likely to die of cancer of the esophagus, that
    both French men and women are more than twice as likely to die of
    stomach cancer, and that both types of cancer are linked to alcohol
    consumption.  '60 Minutes' never makes that point.  Nor does the
    TV program point out that excessive alcohol consumption is also
    the cause of cirrhosis of the liver, which may have something to
    do with the fact that the French die of cirrhosis and chronic liver
    disease at almost two times the rate of Americans."

    "The show also neglects to say that the French are at higher risk
    of dying of accidents (almost five times higher in the case of
    women) and suicides.  It's an important point; 25 to 50 percent
    of accidental deaths and suicides in the United States are alcohol-
    related."

    FALSE FAT FACTS FURTHER THE FUDDLE

    "Unfortunately, the show's errors are not simply errors of omission;
    it gets the facts wrong, too.  Consider Mr. Safer's statement at
    the very beginning of the segment that the French "eat 30 percent
    more fat than we do."  That simply is not true.  The French eat
    about 35 to 37 percent of their calories as fat, very similar to
    people in the U.S."

    "Because the blunder comes so early in the program, its effects
    are particularly damaging.  It implies to the American viewer
    straight away that the French eat almost 50 percent of their
    calories as fat and, in essence, 'get away with it.'  Add in the
    calories from a few glasses of wine per day the average French
    adult drinks, and only 30 to 40 percent of daily calories are left
    to be distributed among carbohydrates -- breads, cereals, pasta,
    fruits, and vegetables -- and protein.  That's a diet that by any
    standard would be called not just strange but also downright
    unhealthful."

    [...]

    "The diet many French actually follow, it should be pointed out,
    contains much smaller portions of red meat and other flesh foods
    than many Americans are accustomed to.  And in many regions, it is
    relatively high in fiber- and vitamin-rich fruits and vegetables
    as well as grains.  Even in areas where people indulge rather
    frequently in such fatty delicacies as pate, serving sizes often
    tend to be what many people in the U.S. would most definitely
    consider to be on the small side.  Thus, the dietary 'paradox',
    as Mr. Safer refers to the ability of the French to eat a lot of
    fat yet not succumb to heart disease, is not as paradoxical as
    it may appear at first glance."

    "Another inadequately dealt with matter is the implication made
    during the program that all the fat the French take in with the
    cheese they eat is harmless.  The French consume, on average,
    40 pounds of cheese per person every year, almost twice the 23
    pounds per person averaged annually by Americans.  But the calcium
    in cheese 'neutralizes the fat' and 'combines with it' Mr. Safer
    says in discussing the belief of a French researcher he interviews
    on the show, so that 'it is then excreted by the body rather than
    absorbed.'  And he refers to a rat study conducted by the researcher,
    Dr. Serge Renaud, to substantiate his point."

    "But what he is suggesting with his explanation -- that neither
    the calcium nor the fat in cheese is digested when eaten and there-
    fore cannot be taken up by the body -- is a claim the majority of
    nutrition scientists would consider unproven, if not downright
    absurd.  University of Texas heart researcher Margo Denke, MD, who
    has looked into how dietary calcium interacts with fat, notes
    that some evidence indicates that the calcium in cheese can reduce
    the absorption of saturated fat, 'but it's an extremely small
    effect.'"

    WINE WITH SCHOOL LUNCH?

    "Just as '60 Minutes' absolves cheese, it points an accusing finger
    at milk.  'Whole milk...promotes heart disease because the calcium
    will not combine with the fat, which is absorbed into the blood-
    stream,' researcher Dr. Renaud says.  Mr. Safer casts an even darker
    shadow over milk when he explains that 'a number of American
    doctors, none of whom would go on record, told me that if it was
    up to them, they would get rid of milk in school lunchrooms and
    exchange it for watered wine.  The American milk habit, they said,
    is priming out 12-year-olds for heart attacks at 50.'  Of course, it
    must be wondered why none of those doctors would come forward and
    present the data that would lead them to make such a suggestion."

    Certainly Dr. Kurt Ellison, a cardiologist at Boston University
    interviewed by '60 Minutes' because he is familiar with the French
    'paradox' and is presently launching a study to compare the French
    diet to deits in other countries, doesn't agree that American
    school children should give up milk.  'We need calcium, and milk
    is our main source of that nutrient,' he says.  In fact, Dr. Ellison
    explains, calcium is more important now than ever.  The reason is
    that Americans are living longer and therefore are at greater risk
    of developing osteoporosis in their later years, which calcium
    early in life can help stave off.  Moreover, Dr. Ellison says,
    evidence is coming to light that dietary calcium may help keep
    down blood pressure, which at high levels is a proven risk factor
    for heart disease."

    "Dr. Ellison does believe, along with the majority of health
    professionals, that the milk our school age children drink should
    be skim or 1 percent fat rather than 2 percent fat or whole milk.
    But, he says, 'I would not support the statement that we should
    give wine over milk in schools."  He adds, too, that the French
    'have more alcohol abuse than we do.'"

    "His point is an important one because it highlights the fact that
    while alcohol may have been presented by '60 Minutes' as something
    of a magic bullet, its influence on health is far more complicated.
    That's something to think about before deciding to add wine to the
    diet for medicinal purposes.  It's also something to consider the
    next time you read or hear a statement suggesting that the dietary
    pattern of another culture is linked to reduction of a single
    disease without making reference to how the diet affects disease
    rates and mortality in that culture overall."

   I certainly hope you appreciate this!

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Rich Young                             | Phone: [phone]
Eastman Kodak Company                  | FAX: [phone]
Clinical Products Division             | Internet: [e-mail]
100 Carlson Road                       |
Rochester, New York, USA   14653-9122  | These are MY opinions, not Kodak's!!!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>|<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Don't get angry, get accurate information.