Nutritional Quackery (1967)

[Music] remember we are what we eat [Music] of all the peoples on this spinning sphere probably no other people in history have ever had it so good as the American people almost everyone would agree that our food supply is unsurpassed in volume variety and nutritional value and that we Americans can hardly help being well-nourished if we eat a diet containing a variety of common foods readily available on the market yet despite the abundance and the quality of our food supply there are those who persistently campaign to undermine public confidence the American people today are suffering from Mass malnutrition our soil is depleted our Rivers defiled our forests denuded and the nutritive value of our food supply destroyed obviously these minority denters certainly come on strong but is what they say founded on fact or fallacy fact or fantasy let's find out together we checked these facts and theories with the United States Food and Drug [Music] Administration this vital Consumer Protection Agency of the federal government is supported by your tax dollars okay but first let's hear a little more of what our food fattest friend has to say most diseases today have their roots in faulty dieting believe me friends what we eat is tremendously important as one ancient philosopher put it we are what we eat you see our diet governs the chemical balance of our body and when our diet is unsatisfactory the chemical balance is upset and we become ill Dr Roslin alens Slater a nationally noted Authority in the field of nutrition expressed her opinion in these matters well obviously there is some truth to what has been said but there are also very many dangerous omissions we know that there are diseases which can arise from nutritional deficiencies like vitamin deficiencies and mineral deficiencies but these are extremely rare in the United States today you know if people were to eat a balanced diet from foods which are readily available in a supermarket there would be no problem with undernutrition do you know what our number one public health problem is today it's overnutrition rather than undernutrition overnutrition leading to overweight obesity now one reason why we are suffering from nutritive insufficiency today in our country is that our soil has become depleted depleted in many instances by the use of artificial fertilizers now it should be fairly obvious to you my friends that depleted soils will produce depleted crops and these in turn will result in deficient diets remember this chain of cause and effect depleted soils completed crops deficient diet research shows that poor soil will produce a smaller amount of a food crop but the nutritive value is not significantly affected the American Farmer spends almost $2 billion annually on chemical or commercial fertilizers which are applied in various ways to the soil chemical fertilizers are basically products of nature which man has simply processed to make more readily available to plants plants take in a given nutrient in the same chemical form whether it comes from organic matter or from a bag of chemical fertilizer the evidence on the Orchards ranches and Farms of the United States indicates that chemical fertilizers used as recommended will not injure the physical chemical or biological condition I of the soil Crop Production is 70% higher per acre today than in 1920 chemical fertilizers represent one of the most important advances ever made toward providing plenty for the peoples of the world and really friends to obviate the problem at its source is almost impossible for our foods are contaminated during the growing cycle in the fields modern grow growers in line with accepted scientific practices are spraying our crops with pesticides poisons oh yes these lethal chemicals will kill bugs and insects and they'll do the same to us that's the one bug that has survived the Bugaboo of progressive scientific farming pesticides or insecticides have been used on food crops for years a pesticide is a chemical or a mixture of chemical substances used to destroy pests which infest our crops they are applied in many [Music] ways in the southwestern United States alone some 75 to 80 different pesticides are presently in use entomologists and agricultural economists tell us that it is not possible to grow enough food to feed our population if pesticides are not used yet these substances are poisonous they may be injurious to man as well as insect if they are necessary in the production of food strong safeguards must be set up to protect the public from consum assuming excessive residues of these substances the use of pesticides and the amounts of residues permitted on Raw agricultural Commodities like this lettuce are regulated by federal law the enforcement of this law the Miller pesticides amendment is the tough task of the Food and Drug Administration and Allied agencies of state and local governments random samples are brought back to the laboratory for careful analysis to determine whether the levels of pesticide residues are within the permitted safe tolerance levels these levels are set only after a determination of an individual's total possible exposure to all the different pesticides used on the various food crops and are set substantially lower than the maximum quantity recognized as safe after grinding a specified amount of the pulverized sample is spooned out and weighed a known volume of organic solvent is added and then it is placed in a wearing blender for mixing after 2 minutes the mixture is filtered and the amount of extract is measured to determine volume of recovery this measured volume of recovered extract is then washed repeatedly with salt water and drained off the salt cleans but does not take away any pesticide at this stage the recovered extract is poured for further cleaning into an absorption cleanup column which works on the same general Principle as a car's oil filter after being completely washed through the column the solvent is drained off and then placed for evaporation in a steam bath until a very small volume is left but this solvent is still representative of the entire random sample of lettuce an accurately measured portion of this is then used in other determinations to identify the pesticide used and also determine whether the levels of pesticide residue are within the permitted safe tolerances this is one such confirming test for for a specific pesticide essentially a distillation test whereby the yellowish sulfur atoms in the pesticide are converted to equivalent amounts of blue dye the more the pesticide residue the darker the dye by measuring the dye photometrically the amount of pesticide in the lettuce can be determined exactly should the amount prove excessive the entire shipment of lettuce would be subject to seizure and destruction much of our problem of poor nutrition is also directly attributable to present popular practices of food processing our vegetables are peeled washed scraped crushed pulped diced squashed mangled destroyed our grains are polished ground refined denuded we are robbed of the value this is the great diet robbery of our time we must rise to fight for survival I urge you to Rouse yourselves and in the words of that old hymn rally round the banner this food processing plant typical of many others reflects nothing half so much as the Ingenuity efficiency and integrity of the American food processing industry with modern methods there is greater percentage recovery that is less waste in the field less handling and bruising of the product in processing more repeated Washings better sanitation controls and stricter supervision there is also much greater volume and flow and therefore ultimately much greater value and variety of product to the consumer some methods of food processing do result in removing or reducing some of the vitamins and minerals contained in foods but this has been grossly exaggerated the science of food technology has also devised methods of maintaining restoring and adding nutritional values to our Foods results show that American foods processed by scientifically guided methods are the finest in the world and provide adequate [Music] nutrition and then to cleverly conceal or cover up their treachery our food manufacturers add huge doses of artificial additives and talk gbly of enriched and fortified products the plain truth is that these additives are chemicals which are foreign to our constitutions and usually harmful some even poisonous we are really the victims of a double barreled hoax this simply is not true additives too are carefully checked and controlled under the food drug and cosmetic act with the spectr photometer additives can be identified and determined a standard split beam of ultraviolet light is bounced off a known or reference solution and an unknown or test solution the graph records the difference in the absorption rate of both substances after identifying the additive its Purity and potency can also be computed by comparing the graph patterns and the character of the curve of the two substances food additives have brought about great improvements in the American food supply and are used for many interesting and useful purposes this experiment demonstrates the usefulness of a preservative or anti- oxidant rancid oil contains peroxides the chemist can demonstrate the presence of and the amounts of the peroxides in the rancid oil by adding various chemicals to both oils the depth of the color indicates the degree of rancidity the oil with the preservative or antioxidant added remained fresh the other without an additive turned rancid there are many classes of additives this demonstration illustrates the usefulness of an emulsifier emulsifiers are used in many Bakery confection Ary and other products if you were making your own salad dressing for example you would need to mix vinegar and oil you might shake or stir them or mix them in a high-speed blender as the chemist does in this experiment however without adding an emulsifier to homogenize your dressing as commercial producers do you would find that when allowed to stand the oil and vinegar in your salad dressing would soon separate as clearly demonstrated here and there are many other kinds of useful food additives like the anti-caking agent in common table salt which allows the salt to flow freely FDA scientists are experts in detecting and measuring additives in food their constant vigilance combined with high industry standards is our security I have demonstrated that our present sources of food supply are contaminated our foods are raised in depleted soils they are sprayed with poisonous pesticides they are denuded of most of their nutritive value through so-called Progressive processing methods and then they are doctored with chemical additives Little Wonder our people are suffering by contrast our products are produced and processed quite differently we grow them organically using no toxic sprays or powders our products are really Nature's Own we have but unlocked her secrets we believe that we can demonstrate their superiority apply the empirical test if you write to us today we will send you a free sample of these natural vitamins remember we are what we eat in that he's right yet too many of us like this young man are careless in what we eat and how we eat wolfing down hastily grabbed snacks without stopping to consider whether or not we are eating a balanced diet but if our young friend included in his diet a variety of common foods readily available in the average grocery store or supermarket would his diet be nutritionally adequate in an effort to answer this question the Food and Drug Administration conducted total diet studies in which they sought to assess the nutritional adequacy of a moderate cost diet as recommended for boys 16 to 19 food samples were collected in markets across the country at 3 month intervals these studies conducted by the Food and Drug Administration were origin originally designed to check for radioactivity and pesticide residue levels as well as nutritional content values found for protein fat and most of the essential vitamins were close to those estimated from food composition tables and without exception provided more than the recommended dietary allowances for boys in that age group the total diet studies confirmed conclusively that Foods readily available in grocery stores and supermarkets when properly selected and prepared will provide a diet containing adequate amounts of all needed nutrients proper selection of foods would include dairy products Meats of various kinds cereals and breads fresh and canned fruit and vegetables the work of these scientists has shown that except for persons with special medical needs there is no scientific basis for recommending routine use of dietary supplements a varied or balanced diet is the key to good health pills are a poor substitute for a balanced diet so it's time we threw the pills potions and preparations away left the quacks quacking or yaking and began to eat a normal balanced diet in America today there is absolutely no valid reason for nutritionally poor diets there is a rich supply of wholesome nutritious food readily available every grocery store is a health food store in fact do you know what our biggest problem is today it's overweight it's overnutrition which leads to obesity this is the number one public health problem today