Red meat that makes you skinny,
and a story that will make you see red
Nearly every consumer and mass market news organization is attempting to cash in on the growing popularity of food and cooking information. Yahoo posts a blog called Beauty Eats, which is "about how specific foods — from green tea to vitamin C — can help fight everything from aging and acne to serious skin disorders, and make hair and nails super-healthy too." Last week, Beauty Eats posted a story — "Red meat that makes you skinny?"— which provided a guide to lean meats, including bison and wild game.
In the Beauty Eats guide to "the slimmest, trimmest cuts and kinds," bison or buffalo meat was called "the big winner." The article also seized the opportunity to mislead consumers about beef with this statement: "Bonus: With bison (wild game, too), you aren't exposed to the cancer-linked growth hormones and antibiotics administered to farm-raised cows." But the article — and its unproven statements about beef — weren't just the ramblings of a cub reporter whose knowledge of food production is limited to a stint as a fast-food restaurant employee or a drive down an Interstate highway through farm country. That damning statement about the cancer-causing products administered to farm-raised cows was apparently approved by Beauty Eats' Scientific Advisory Board, which is touted as "a group of amazing doctors, scientists, food experts and researchers. In one way or another, they guide, direct and check everything we do at RealAge — books, Web site, international TV shows, even our recipes. They're the best." The best? Hardly. Amazing? Absolutely. It's amazing how misinformation — repeated often enough — eventually becomes reality. — G.H.
and a story that will make you see red
Nearly every consumer and mass market news organization is attempting to cash in on the growing popularity of food and cooking information. Yahoo posts a blog called Beauty Eats, which is "about how specific foods — from green tea to vitamin C — can help fight everything from aging and acne to serious skin disorders, and make hair and nails super-healthy too." Last week, Beauty Eats posted a story — "Red meat that makes you skinny?"— which provided a guide to lean meats, including bison and wild game.
In the Beauty Eats guide to "the slimmest, trimmest cuts and kinds," bison or buffalo meat was called "the big winner." The article also seized the opportunity to mislead consumers about beef with this statement: "Bonus: With bison (wild game, too), you aren't exposed to the cancer-linked growth hormones and antibiotics administered to farm-raised cows." But the article — and its unproven statements about beef — weren't just the ramblings of a cub reporter whose knowledge of food production is limited to a stint as a fast-food restaurant employee or a drive down an Interstate highway through farm country. That damning statement about the cancer-causing products administered to farm-raised cows was apparently approved by Beauty Eats' Scientific Advisory Board, which is touted as "a group of amazing doctors, scientists, food experts and researchers. In one way or another, they guide, direct and check everything we do at RealAge — books, Web site, international TV shows, even our recipes. They're the best." The best? Hardly. Amazing? Absolutely. It's amazing how misinformation — repeated often enough — eventually becomes reality. — G.H.
