Death by Food Pyramid Quotes

“Asking the Department of Agriculture to promote healthy eating was like asking Jack Daniels to promote responsible drinking.”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.”4”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

“The reality is that most of us grow up strapped in an educational system that favors obedience over independent thinking. We’re rewarded for trusting authority, and punished for challenging it. We focus on memorizing the stuff other people came up with—formulas in math, grammar rules in English, theories in physics, cell functions in biology—rather than grasping the logic behind our most important breakthroughs and tracing the footsteps of their discovery. We answer test questions with what we think our teacher wants to hear. We chase grades instead of knowledge. And worst of all, we leave the classroom woefully unequipped with the thinking skills that matter most: how to balance open-mindedness with skepticism, how to identify bias, and how to challenge assumptions—including our own—in a way that’s truly objective.”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

“Sadly, even when we think we’ve finally broken free from the pack and are thinking independently—questioning, exploring, examining—we often find ourselves sinking back into a new ideology that demands a prompt re-closing of an otherwise open mind.”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

“There are a few clear themes that emerge when we synthesize all the findings we’ve looked at so far, and those are jewels you should pluck out of this book, place in your pocket, and carry with you for as long as they serve you. Here are the biggies. Eliminate or drastically reduce your intake of refined grains, refined sugar, and high-omega-6 vegetable oils. No healthy human population has thrived on these items, and the bulk of the evidence points toward their harm. Secure a source of those precious fat-soluble vitamins—whether from shellfish, fish eggs, high-quality dairy, bone marrow, organ meats like liver, or cod liver oil.”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

“The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association), for instance, has a long list of corporate sponsors including General Mills, Kellogg’s, Mars, PepsiCo, and SoyJoy—and its “official partners” include Hershey’s, the Coca-Cola Company, and the National Dairy Council.15”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

“Science is still evolving. So is our understanding of what it’s dredged up. And most importantly, there’s no magic-pill diet that will work equally well for all people. It’s a reality just as frustrating as it is liberating, and one many health gurus will never admit to you (or to themselves, perhaps). After all, uncertainty isn’t very profitable.”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

“One of the more disturbing examples of “credential fraud” is that of Henrietta Goldacre, who received a diploma from the American Association of Nutritional Consultants (AANC) in 2004. Although she might sound plenty qualified to steer you toward a healthier diet, you’d want to think twice before enlisting her services. Not only did Henrietta earn her certification while dead; she was also a cat. Her owner, UK journalist and bad-science buster Ben Goldacre, applied for AANC membership on behalf of his deceased pet while investigating phony credentials—and soon found that the AANC would gladly dole out certificates to applicants of any species or mortality status, as long as they had $60 and a valid mailing address.”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

“With her science-based food guide looking like it had just been rearranged by Picasso, Light was horrified. She predicted—in fervent protests to her supervisor—that these “adjustments” would turn America’s health into an inevitable train wreck. Her opinion of the grain-centric recommendations was that “no one needs that much bread and cereal in a day unless they are longshoremen or football players,” and that giving Americans a free starch-gorging pass would unleash an unprecedented epidemic of obesity and diabetes.”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

“Sometimes you do have to take someone else’s word for it. And sometimes you will want to defer to an authority with a greater science background than yours. Still, that doesn’t mean you should forfeit your critical thinking skills. Consider the source always.”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

“The problem was one Yerushalmy and Hilleboe were all too aware of, and one that continues to pollute science more than half a century later: associations can seem like certainties if they’re repeated often enough.”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

“grains,”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

“FACTOID: Today, food manufacturers can still slap a “zero trans fat” label on their foods even if it contains up to half a gram per serving. While that might not seem like a lot, it can add up quickly in products like cooking sprays, whose serving size is even less than half a gram—making it legally possible for the product to consist of nothing but trans fat and still be marketed as free of it.”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

“And for those valuing their brainpower, low cholesterol turned out to be a startling bummer: a 2005 analysis found that folks with the lowest total cholesterol—even in “desirable” ranges up to 200 mg/dL—scored the worst on measures of verbal fluency, attention, concentration, abstract reasoning, and a composite score for multiple cognitive domains.14 Those with higher cholesterol, on the other hand, exhibited strikingly better cognitive performance.”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

“de novo lipogenesis can happen even on low-calorie diets that include an excess of high-glycemic carbohydrates.”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

“We’re locked in a global food fight that’s as personal as it is political—one we as consumers stand no chance at winning unless we stand up and demand, through the votes of our dollars and ballots and words, the freedom of choice. The burden is on our own shoulders to stay educated, informed, shrewd, critical, proactive, and unyielding in the face of the Goliaths that loom before us.”
― Denise Minger, Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health