Michael Jacobson

Quotes

Getting Started

[After MIT] I had heard about Ralph Nader and I thought maybe I could work with him and doing it didn’t matter what. So I went down and got an internship, essentially as a volunteer with Nader. And Nader suggested I work on food additives about which I knew absolutely nothing, had no interest in. He said I should write a book on food additives. So I said, “OK, what’s a food additive and how do you write a book?” They told me and then I went off for a year or two and wrote a book on food additives. And that was my first professional contact with food and health. (2)

What are the main contributions of CSPI?

I think getting nutrition labeling wouldn’t have happened without us pushing it. And actually before then we got sodium included in the nutrition label. That was in 1980 to 1982 roughly. But I think getting that nutrition labeling and education was far and away the most important governmental action that we were able to stimulate.

The more general achievement that’s much harder to quantify or characterize is our educational impact on the public. We’ve published so many books and posters and been on TV and radio so many times, and Nutrition Action, which we started in 1974 has become a major nutrition newsletter getting out the word to hundreds of thousands of people. And some of those people listened to us. There are many individuals that have been affected by us and now maybe 10 or 15% of the population is very aware of nutrition and a pretty healthy diet. (4)

And commercial cooking fats?

Well, coconut and palm oil we went after in the 1980s and those have virtually disappeared from the marketplace. Perhaps, unfortunately, only to be replaced by hydrogenated shortening. Coconut oil was mostly in packaged foods. And there really isn’t anything as bad as coconut oil. So probably any change they made was for the better. We went after fast food restaurants in the late 1980s for using either coconut oil or beef fat to fry foods. By 1989-90…. Those were hamburger chains mostly and they all switched to hydrogenated shortening, which at the time was considered fairly innocent. And I think there was a well-meaning change that they made. We had urged them to switch to liquid vegetable oil; . . .not a single one did. They all went to shortening. (5)

Trans Fat

Then just about the time they switched, evidence began coming in that trans fat was as bad as saturated fat and so the benefit was not significant. And that’s where it stands to this day. So in 1994 we petitioned the FDA to require trans fat on labels to serve as an incentive to industry to use less trans fat, less saturated fat and we’re still waiting for the labeling. [now in place in 2007] But the margarine industry has certainly changed. Most brands now don’t use much, if any, hydrogenated oils. There are still some stick margarines that use trans in hydrogenated shortenings. But, in general, the industry has moved to a better product. (7)

Olestra

The FDA approved Olestra over your and our objections… The company marketed the hell out of the products for about a year… and we opposed the products every which way we could. Especially in test markets where we could go to, such as Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and I think they made a mistake, though they (P and G) didn’t have much choice. They had a small pilot plant. They didn’t have enough Olestra for the country so they doled it out to Eau Claire, Cedar Rapids and we’d hold press conferences, run TV commercials attacking it, found victims [in their test markets].

We’ve gotten adverse reaction reports from 2500 people now and Procter and Gamble have heard from 17,000 people. All of these going to the FDA. That’s more adverse reactions than for all other food additives in history combined. It’s just unbelievable. The message has gotten out. And between people getting sick, people just reading the label that says, “may cause cramps and diarrhea,” the price – it’s much more expensive than conventional chips, it doesn’t taste quite as good, sales have been gradually declining. Now their sales are about half what they were at their peak.

[ed. And their idea of making it a major cooking oil has been washed up?]

It’s dead. Procter and Gamble had wanted it to be in everything. We were able to generate such tremendous publicity against it and sales have been declining. Pringles aren’t doing very well either and they’ve given up all hope of getting it into regular home cooking oil, cheese, ice cream; they wanted it everywhere… But the company and the FDA still maintain there’s no proof that a single individual has been harmed. And you say, “What kind of proof would you like?” There’s no way to prove it. I think it’s been pathetic. The reports of such severe pain, such severe diarrhea and the FDA just doesn’t care. (7)

But I always like to say something nice about people, believe it or not. The administration has been working to get more funding for food safety inspections. They’ve supported a $100 million increase to get 400 more inspectors. . .It’s mostly meat and poultry, USDA. The FDA. That’s not meat and poultry. It’s everything else but meat and poultry. . . And Congress is going along with it. Tommy Thompson has been very concerned about food bioterrorism and sees increased inspections as a way to prevent it, especially for imports. That’s good, that’s a good bit of progress [if for the wrong reason.] (12)