The Tulsa World took note on Monday that the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has been celebrating its 30th anniversary in recent weeks, but World editors aren’t exactly in a congratulatory mood. CSPI’s “dramatic pronouncements,” they say, have generally “scared the heck out of a public that was already feeling guilty about its collective diet.”
The well-deserved tarring and feathering continues: “When CSPI took after movie popcorn cooked in coconut oil, popcorn sales plummeted by as much as 50 percent. Some serious dietitians question the organization’s diet-shock tactics and effectiveness. CSPI may very well have contributed to the great 21st century American paradox: As a nation we are both more diet-conscious and fatter than ever. But the shock-value of CSPI’s efforts are short-lived. Movie theater popcorn sales rebounded after a year. And recently, one major theater chain abandoned its low-cholesterol safflower-oil alternative and returned to using coconut oil to pop its corn. Why? Same reason Mexican restaurants still use pork fat in tamales. Tastes better.” (link unavailable)
