FDA Allows Potato Chips to Be Advertised as “Heart Healthy”

FRITO-LAY is subsidiary of PEPSICO, INC., makers of Pepsi-Cola, Frito-Lay sells $12 Billion a year of products that include:

Lays Potato Chips
Doritos
Tostitos
Cheetos
Fritos

You might not associate these mostly fried snack foods as being good for you, but the FDA has no problem allowing the Frito-Lay website to state the following:

“Frito-Lay snacks start with real farm-grown ingredients. You might be surprised at how much good stuff goes into your favorite snack. Good stuff like potatoes, which naturally contain vitamin C and essential minerals. Or corn, one of the worlds most popular grains packed with thiamin vitamin B6, and phosphorous – all necessary for healthy bones, teeth nerves and muscles. “And it’s not just the obvious ingredients. Our all-natural sunflower, corn and soybean oils contain good polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, which help lower total and LDL ‘bad’ cholesterol and maintain HDL ‘good’ cholesterol levels, which can support a healthy heart. Even salt, when eaten in moderation as part of a balanced diet, is essential for the body”.

Wow! Based on what Frito-Lay is allowed to state, it sounds like we should be living on these snacks. Who would want to ingest walnuts, pomegranate, or green tea (which the FDA is attacking) when these fat calorie-laden, mostly-fried carbohydrates are so widely available?

According to the Frito Lay website, Lays potato chips are “heart healthy” because the level of saturated fat was reduced and replaced with sunflower oil. Scientific studies do show that when a polyunsaturated fat (like sunflower oil) is substituted for saturated fat, favorable changes in blood cholesterol occur.

Fatally omitted from the Frito-lay website is the fact that sunflower oil supplies lots of omega-6 fats, but no omega-3s. The American diet already contains too many omega-6 fats and woefully inadequate omega-3.

Excess omega-6 fats in the diet in the absence of adequate omega-3s produce devastating effects, including he production of pro-inflammatory compounds that contribute to virtually every age-related disease, including atherosclerosis.

For the FDA to allow Frito-Lay to pretend there are heart benefits to ingesting their unhealthy snack products, while cencoring the ability of walnut companies to make scientifically substantiated claims, is tantamount to treason against health of the American public.

Don’t Forget the Acrylamides:

When carbohydrate foods are cooked at high temperature (as occurs when potatoes are fried in sunflower oil to make potato chips), a toxic compound called acrylamide is formed.

According to the National Cancer Institute, acrylamide is considered to be a mutagen and a probable human carcinogen, based mainly on studies in laboratory animals. Scientists do not yet know with any certainly whether the levels of acrylamide typically found in some foods pose a health risk for humans.

In response to these kinds of concerns, the FDA funded a massive study to ascertain the acrylamide content of various foods. The FDA found that potato chips an other fried carbohydrate foods were especially high in acrylamidesi.

The FDA, however, has not stopped companies selling high acrylamide – containing fried carbohydrates from promoting these foods as “healthy”.

Pharmaceutical Companies Benefit From FDA’s Misdeeds:

As the aging population develops coronary atherosclerosis, pharmaceutical companies stand to reap tens of billions of dollars each year in profits. An obstacle standing in their way is scientific evidence showing that a healthy diet can prevent heart disease from developing in many people.

It is thus in the economic interests of pharmaceutical giants that the FDA forcibly censor the ability of companies making heart healthy foods to infor the public of the underlying science. The fewer consumers who know the facts about walnuts, pomegranate, and green tea, the greater the demand will be for expensive cardiac drugs, stents and coronary bypass procedures.

Once again, the FDA overtly functions to enrich Big Pharma, financial burden of today’s health care cost crisis.

In this particular case, however, processed food companies also stand to profit from the FDA’s attacks on healthy foods as competition from walnut growers is stifled.