my response to the Beverage Association's letter to me

Recently, I sent out a newsletter with the headline "Why Diet Soda Makes You Fat".

Evidentially, the esteemed naturopath Michael Murray, ND, must have written an article with a similar title, which accounts for why the following e mail from the American Beverage Association arrived in both Dr. Murray's and my mailboxes this morning.

I'm reprinting it here together with my response. It should pretty much speak for itself:

Here's the e mail in it's entirety. My response follows.

FROM:

Tracey A. Halliday
Director, Communications
American Beverage Association
1101 Sixteenth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
phone: 202.463.6718
cell: 202.271.5964

On Dr. Maureen Storey's behalf, below please find a letter in response to your recent e-mail article, "Why 'Diet' Soda Makes You Fat."

Dear Mr. Murray,

I recently read your article ("Why 'Diet' Soda Makes You Fat") and must respond to the erroneous information it contained about our industry's products and ingredients.

First, the Circulation study you referenced did not prove any link between soft drinks and increased risk of heart disease. In fact, the American Heart Association (AHA) issued a statement to make it clear that the report "does not show that soft drinks cause risk factors for heart disease."

While your article references a study from the University of Texas, it is important to note that this study has not been published nor subjected to the peer review process. Other published studies, in fact, have shown that diet drinks can be useful in controlling and managing weight. Further, the American Diabetes Association says that sugar substitutes help those who want to control their weight or have diabetes stick to a healthy meal plan. The American Heart Association also recognizes that diet soft drinks are a good option for those looking to cut calories in their beverages.

Additionally, there is ample evidence from the Monell Institute that humans are born, hence programmed, to like sweet.

Further, the safety of low-calorie sweeteners-- including aspartame-- has been affirmed by government and regulatory authorities worldwide. In fact, an expert panel of some of the world's leading toxicologists recently published the most comprehensive review of aspartame research to date and once again confirmed its safety.

The key to a balanced lifestyle is to consume a variety of foods and beverages in moderation in conjunction with regular physical activity. Quite simply, if you over consume any food or beverage with calories and do not balance it with being physically active, you will gain weight.

All of our industry's beverages-- including regular or diet soft drinks-- can be part of a healthy way of life when consumed in moderation and as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Sincerely,
Maureen L. Storey, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Science Policy
American Beverage Association


And my response:


Dear Ms. Halliday and Dr. Storey,

An interesting spin, but unfortunately not very convincing.

1. Of course no correlation study proves cause. That's true from cholesterol and heart disease to just about every epidemiological study (including the Nurses Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow Up Study and the original Ancel Keyes research on saturated fat). This doesn't mean that correlation studies are useless data. And might I remind you that the American Tobacco Institute used the identical argument against correlation studies on cigarettes and cancer.

2. The American Diabetes Association is hardly a model of forward thinking policy and nutrition information. They- like the American Dietetic Association- remain mired in antiquated notions about diet and supplements. Most forward- thinking researchers think they are irrelevant. Might I remind you that the American Diabetes Association still thinks high carb diets make a lot of sense for diabetics. That alone should make what they say fairly irrelevant.

3. People are indeed programmed to like sweet. But as the early research of N. Tinbergen shows, we- like all animals- also respond to "superstimuli", larger-than-life versions of the stimuli we would normally respond to in our native environment. Highly sweetened (artificial or not) beverages would certainly fall into this category and would be all the more destructive because of the superstimuli phenomena. As David Katz, MD, Director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Center has said, "Whatever sugar does to reinforce a sweet tooth, artificial sweeteners do even more potently". And finally, recent research by Susan Swithers, PhD at the Behavioral Research Center at Purdue (published in the International Journal of Obesity) concluded that artificial sweeteners somehow disrupt the body's ability to discern how many calories we're actually taking in. And the fact that some no-calorie sweeteners produce- in some people- a glucose response (which can be measured by any drugstore test available to diabetics) shows that there is some kind of conditioned response going on that is not physiologically neutral, even if it's exact mechanism hasn't been determined.

4. The fact that aspartame was "cleared" by the FDA and given a clean bill of health is a ludicrous argument. Anyone familiar with the behind the scenes manipulations of G. Searles to get this substance approved in the 70's knows that this has far more to do with politics than anything else. Aspartame is considered an "excitotoxin" by neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, MD, remains one of the most complained about ingredients to the FDA (headaches being most common complaint) and- at least in a subsection of the population- may be addictive. It's far from innocuous.

I understand your need to put a favorable spin on this, just as the sugar industry puts a favorable spin on sugar. But might I remind you of the words of Upton Sinclair: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, if his salary depends upon him not understanding it"


Warm regards,

Jonny Bowden

Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS
Board Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author: "The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth" (Fair Winds, 2008)
Author: "150 Healthiest Foods on Earth" (Fair Winds 2007)
Author: "Living the Low Carb Life" (Sterling 2004)
Contributing writer: AOL, Bottom Line Daily Health News
iVillage.com Weight Loss Coach