Comments (0) On February 5, 2010, the NY Times ran a piece outlining thoughts at the FDA of re-evaluating the portion sizes found on food labels.
For those of us who follow a specialty diet; the issues with food labels are no surprise. While we are all hunting through to understand what items may indicate wheat, gluten, shellfish, peanuts, tree-nuts, dairy or soy, most of us have learned to ignore the seemingly random aspect of portion size. One bag of chips may be 2 servings, another 1, another may be fractional. Bags from within a product family may have different portion sizes by weight and not be internally consistent.
One other item that is near and dear to those of us who await any gluten-labeling guidelines is that the FDA is no better at dealing with this issue than any other. The article states midway through, that;
The F.D.A. has vowed to re-evaluate serving sizes before. Amid concern over obesity, it said in 2005 that it was considering changes. That effort languished, but has now been revived by the Obama administration.
We’ve talked in the past about our love of TED and how many of its big picture talks can help us frame new ways of thinking about the gluten free diet (”GFD”) and Celiac Disease (”CD”). In the video below, Bill Davenhal discusses the impact that geography has over health.
Davenhall walks through his own live, having lived in several “red zones” for health; he grew up in PA, lived in Louisville, KY, which he proclaims as “Rubbertown”, and then moved to smoggy Los Angeles.
His approach to geomedicine, as he terms it, is broad and long term. Having lived years in these places, he claims, that his physicians;
Never asked about the water put in my mouth or the food that I ingest in my stomach.
For CD, the implications might be more profound with a more tactical approach to data. If every restaurant someone with CD visited in the past month had poor options for those on the GFD, then the probability of gluten ingestion is higher than for those who made different choices. Davenhall makes a brief case using big time periods; the impact appears as if it might be more profound if smaller periods of time and a more detailed focus on location were made. Think restaurants, not states and the impact on CD becomes more profound.
Davenhall closes with a quote from respected physician Jack Lord;
Geography is destiny in medicine.
in reply to celiacinthecity #
Photos of the defendant, Seelig / Gleason, as the injunction stopping him from selling Gluten Free products and ordering his website be taken down. Photo taken by WRAL, property of Capitol Broadcasting Company.
A preliminary injunction was granted in the case of North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Plaintiff v. Paul Evan Seelig a/k/a Andrew Jeffrey “Jeff” Gleason d/b/a Great Specialty Products, defendant.
Excerpts below:
29. The Defendant has committed much of his adult life to defrauding and victimizing people, most recently endangering their health and safety;
30. The Defendant is not engaged in an honest business enterprise, but rather, is engaged in a scheme to defraud particularly vulnerable, sick people;
32. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture brings this lawsuit on behalf of the people of this State who have been or soon may be victimized by the Defendant’s illegal conduct;
33. These people, especially those with Celiac Disease and Gluten intolerance, are particularly vulnerable to injury and harm by reason of the Defendant’s business activities;
Summary of the findings - the Defendant is ordered to accomplish the following within one day;
1. Provide a list of all of his ingredient, product and bread suppliers.
2. Share a customer list (presumably so they can be notified of the issues with the bread products).
3. Provide samples of all of the products to the State.
4. Permit the State to inspect all facilities.
5. Take down his website and all advertising.
Further, the defendant must include, in all capitals and in bold print, “THIS PRODUCT(S) IS NOT GLUTEN FREE.”
Bail was set at $100,000 as the court considered Seelig / Gleason a flight risk.
GlutenFreeRaleigh coverage from the courtroom is here.
NBC 17, Raleigh News coverage here.
WRAL coverage of the story is here.
A copy of the original court filing against Seelig / Gleason and Great Specialty Products is here.
