Yesterday we expressed our amazement that The New York Post would run an editorial supporting Mayor Bloomberg s proposed ban on sugary beverages larger than 16 ounces. Today we were shocked again to see that The Post published a letter to the editor by renowned anti-food industry activist Dr. Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, replete with errors and plain nonsense posing as nutritional facts. For instance:
Needless to say, ACSH staffers were quite concerned to see that such blatant fallacies could even get published. His assertions are completely outrageous and would not pass muster in an eighth grade science class, notes ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross, who is frustrated that media outlets don t bother to fact-check such statements, but instead simply publish everything Jacobson says as though it were etched in stone tablets.
You don t have to have a Ph.D. in nutrition to realize that his comments are incorrect, adds ACSH s Dr. Ruth Kava. In fact, the largest calorie contribution, according to the USDA, comes from flour and cereal products, followed by fats and oils not caloric sweeteners.
