Are walnuts drugs?

[Guest guest]

Are walnuts drugs or did Diamond Foods overstep communications of study

results on Walnuts?

http://www.fda.gov/iceci/enforcementactions/warningletters/ucm202825.htm

The article below is from

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/8294-walnuts-are-drugs-

says-fda

Seen any walnuts in your medicine cabinet lately? According to the Food

and Drug Administration, that is precisely where you should find them.

Because Diamond Foods made truthful claims about the health benefits of

consuming walnuts that the FDA didn't approve, it sent the company a

letter

<http://www.fda.gov/iceci/enforcementactions/warningletters/ucm202825.ht

m> declaring, " Your walnut products are drugs " - and " new drugs " at

that - and, therefore, " they may not legally be marketed ... in the

United States without an approved new drug application. " The agency even

threatened Diamond with " seizure " if it failed to comply.

Diamond's transgression was to make " financial investments to educate

the public and supply them with walnuts, " as Faloon of Life

Extension magazine

<http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2011/aug2011_FDA-Says-Walnuts-Are-Illega

l-Drugs_01.htm> put it. On its website and packaging, the company

stated that the omega-3 fatty acids found in walnuts have been shown to

have certain health benefits, including reduced risk of heart disease

and some types of cancer. These claims, Faloon notes, are well supported

by scientific research: " Life Extension has published 57 articles that

describe the health benefits of walnuts " ; and " The US National Library

of Medicine database contains no fewer than 35 peer-reviewed published

papers supporting a claim that ingesting walnuts improves vascular

health and may reduce heart attack risk. "

This evidence was apparently not good enough for the FDA, which told

Diamond that its walnuts were " misbranded " because the " product bears

health claims that are not authorized by the FDA. "

The FDA's letter continues: " We have determined that your walnut

products are promoted for conditions that cause them to be drugs because

these products are intended for use in the prevention, mitigation, and

treatment of disease. " Furthermore, the products are also " misbranded "

because they " are offered for conditions that are not amenable to

self-diagnosis and treatment by individuals who are not medical

practitioners; therefore, adequate directions for use cannot be written

so that a layperson can use these drugs safely for their intended

purposes. " Who knew you had to have directions to eat walnuts?

" The FDA's language, " Faloon writes, " resembles that of an

out-of-control police state where tyranny [reigns] over rationality. " He

adds:

This kind of bureaucratic tyranny sends a strong signal to the food

industry not to innovate in a way that informs the public about foods

that protect against disease. While consumers increasingly reach for

healthier dietary choices, the federal government wants to deny food

companies the ability to convey findings from scientific studies about

their products.

Walnuts aren't the only food whose health benefits the FDA has tried to

suppress. Producers of pomegranate juice and green tea, among others,

have felt the bureaucrats' wrath whenever they have suggested that their

products are good for people.

Meanwhile, Faloon points out, foods that have little to no redeeming

value are advertised endlessly, often with dubious health claims

attached. For example, Frito-Lay is permitted to make all kinds of

claims about its fat-laden, fried products, including that Lay's potato

chips are " heart healthy. " Faloon concludes that " the FDA obviously does

not want the public to discover that they can reduce their risk of

age-related disease by consuming healthy foods. They prefer consumers

only learn about mass-marketed garbage foods that shorten life span by

increasing degenerative disease risk. "

Faloon thinks he knows why this is the case. First, by stifling

competition from makers of more healthful alternatives, junk food

manufacturers, who he says " heavily lobb[y] " the federal government for

favorable treatment, will rake in ever greater profits. Second, by

making it less likely that Americans will consume healthful foods, big

pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers stand to gain

by selling more " expensive cardiac drugs, stents, and coronary bypass

procedures " to those made ill by their diets.

But people are starting to fight back against the FDA's tactics. " The

makers of pomegranate juice, for example, have sued the FTC for

censoring their First Amendment right to communicate scientific

information to the public, " Faloon reports. Congress is also getting

into the act with a bill, the Free Speech About Science Act (H.R. 1364),

that, Faloon writes, " protects basic free speech rights, ends censorship

of science, and enables the natural health products community to share

peer-reviewed scientific findings with the public. "

Of course, if the Constitution were being followed as intended, none of

this would be necessary. The FDA would not exist; but if it did, as a

creation of Congress it would have no power to censor any speech

whatsoever. If companies are making false claims about their products,

the market will quickly punish them for it, and genuine fraud can be

handled through the courts. In the absence of a government agency

supposedly guaranteeing the safety of their food and drugs and the

truthfulness of producers' claims, consumers would become more

discerning, as indeed they already are becoming despite the FDA's

attempts to prevent the dissemination of scientific research. Besides,

as Faloon observed, " If anyone still thinks that federal agencies like

the FDA protect the public, this proclamation that healthy foods are

illegal drugs exposes the government's sordid charade. "

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/8294-walnuts-are-drugs-

says-fda

S. Kalman PhD, RD, FACN

Director, BD - Nutrition & Applied Clinical Trials

Miami Research Associates

6141 Sunset Drive

Suite 301

Miami, FL. 33143

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Email: dkalman@...

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