Presumably, Ellis Conklin was trying to be funny when he reported in the Seattle Weekly that “Sushi Could Make Us Dumber Than Breadsticks.” What’s really dumb is believing that a notorious activist group with a single-minded anti-mercury agenda is an objective authority on anything involving science.
The Doctors television show hopes to “supply viewers with critical information to make informed and intelligent health care decisions.” But can the program, which is hosted by former Bachelor reality TV star Dr. Travis Stork and features three other telegenic professionals, really be considered a serious authority if it all too frequently promotes the latest diet trends, health fads and bogus medical claims?
It’s not clear how anyone actually becomes a celebrity fitness guru. There are no classes to attend or tests to pass that we can find. So any advice you hear from a celebrity fitness guru is best kept in the same category as a National Enquirer headline: Interesting, but Don’t Bet Your Life On It. Case in point: “renowned fitness and nutrition expert” Harley Pasternak’s advice on eating fish.
“His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge.” -- Sherlock Holmes, “A Study in Scarlett” (1887) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes series, must have been turning in his grave Thursday night when the latest episode of “Elementary” aired on CBS. The character of “Watson,” played by Lucy Liu, remarks: “I was thinking sushi tonight.”
Mainstream researchers, doctors and dietitians agree that fringe eco-gurus who promote mercury in seafood scare-stories are more and more exposed by ground truth science these days. When the extensive scientific review that went into the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines concludes that “the benefits of consuming seafood far outweigh the risks, even for pregnant women” the debate is pretty much over.
It doesn’t surprise me anymore when people get information about seafood wrong and tuna in particular. But it does surprise me just how wrong they get it.Let’s take for instance Andrew Freeman on TakePart, he’s an apparent expert on nutrition whose degree in history from UCLA and recent posts on prison overcrowding and a house in the UK made entirely of waste seem to back that credential up.
NFI will host its annual Spring Political Conference at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel May 14-17, 2013. Hill meetings will be scheduled for ay 15th and the NFI Board Meeting will be held on May 17th.
Watch highlights from the seafood community ranging from the latest in social media to important developments in efforts to repeal the USDA Catfish Inspection Program.
