Junkfood Science has just turned one month old!

Thank you to everyone for your heartwarming letters of appreciation and encouragement. And I sincerely thank all of my old and new blogger friends whose support has helped nearly 13,000 visitors discover this blog and read 22,000 pages in its first month! Special thanks to Steve and Barry, as well as Trevor, Karen, Emily, John, Mike, Dick, Joycelyn, Jean, Dr. A, Laura, Dr. Stacey, Sydney, Jim, Dave, Jon and so many others!

It’s great to know that people really do crave information they aren’t getting in mainstream media. I hope this website continues to help you and your loved ones enjoy the very best health and happiness.

Here are some of your favorite posts:

We saw first hand that when good research debunks pop science or popular beliefs and agendas, the media and special interests flurry into action with stories attempting to confuse us, spin the science, or simply restate their beliefs more emphatically. That was most strikingly when the CDC reported that obesity was actually not a major cause of death and that being thin was more dangerous than being fat.

We saw just how powerful our minds can be. We read of wacky diet gimmicks that play on false hope, even using biomagnets and false memories. We learned about collective delusions and cases of mass hysteria, and about placebo and nocebo effects common in many of our beliefs about good and bad foods, alternative modalities and obesity.

Junkfood Science readers got the full story on the new miracle weight loss drug that no other media would publish. We learned that the evidence is a far cry from the marketing, although the efficacy and side effects appear to be concerning the FDA now, as well.

We read multiple studies disproving claims of special health benefits from vegies or anti-oxidants. We discovered they don’t have anti-aging benefits; help prevent heart disease, stroke, cancer or type 2 diabetes; or prevent vision problems or cognitive decline.

We learned the evidence does not support claims that sodas contribute to childhood obesity. We found juices and sweetened drinks do not make kids fat, and even that the kinds of milk children drink are not associated with their weights. Bottom line, kids naturally come in all shapes and sizes unrelated to their diets.

We looked into how media and researchers often distort information, bombard us with hypothetical dangers, and overstate risks to support popular beliefs and agendas.

We saw that the evidence shows that neither red meat nor any type of dietary fat is associated with breast cancer.

We discovered that the actual toxic environment today may be healthism, as a multitude of special interests get on the health bandwagon, eager to promote “healthy eating,” fitness and exercise to prevent “obesity.” And we seen how our children are unable to escape this national obsession from the age of 6 weeks. We read the evidence suggesting four times more children are being harmed by it than ever might be helped.

We read the powerful words of two beautiful women who exemplify body and size acceptance.

We learned that hunger and food insecurity in our country mean real suffering that’s more life threatening than having enough to eat.

We’ve examined the other side of well-meaning, but unsound childhood obesity initiatives, weighing of children, “healthy eating” messages and “healthy” school lunch agendas. Not only do they have no effect on “obesity” rates, but they have left most children and many adults fearing any fattening foods and equating healthy eating with dieting and eating low-calorie, low-fat foods. Such fears have even become deadly.

We learned that the evidence does not show our food to be less safe today.

We saw that the evidence does not support that being fat decreases our chances of living a long life.

We expanded our understanding of the scientific process and how it’s different from pop science and learned about meta-analyses and odds ratios.

We discovered countless “obesity paradoxes” showing that most fat people actually live longer than thin people and that being fat actually has health benefits!

We discovered that low-salt agendas are not evidence-based and might even be harmful for most of us.

We learned of a study showing that being fat does not increase risk for miscarriages.

We read of numerous examples of how the media’s depictions of thin bodies, promotion of “healthy eating” and fitness, scaremongering about junk food, and glamorizing unrealistically thin bodies are affecting young people.

We’ve seen the many faces of eating disorders in children as young as five, among bulimics, little boys, young dieters, among those over-exercising, and among those trying to eat healthy.

We learned how the internet is being used by special interests for marketing, even creating and infiltrating mock patient support groups, such as dieting and bariatric surgery groups, message boards and forums.

We learned how insurance providers and companies are collecting personal information and medical data into massive electronic databases and that HIPAA does not protect us from that information being used and disclosed without our consent.

We saw the distortions in research being used to scare women about the dangers of gaining weight between pregnancies and learned that fat has important benefits for promoting healthy pregnancies and fertility.

We learned that many of the compulsory “wellness programs” and healthy lifestyle initiatives being imposed on growing numbers of employees have not been shown to be effective, have no clinical evidence of health benefits, and have actually been shown to jeopardize health.

We saw how fears over hormones in milk are marketing efforts to take advantage of fears and are most hurting the poor, but are based on junk science.

We discovered surprising facts and rarely-mentioned dangers in homeopathic preparations and pondered their place in medicine.

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