Industry misleads consumers about eggs

Based on a petition from the American Heart Association and Consumer Groups, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit in the US Supreme Court to force the industry to refrain from false and misleading advertising that eating eggs has no harmful health effects.

Over the years, reporting on cholesterol has caused serious economic damage due to the reduction in egg consumption, so the industry created the “National Egg Nutrition Commission” to combat public health warnings about the dangers of egg consumption.

The purpose of the commission was to promote this concept: “There is no scientific evidence that eating eggs in any way increases the risk of a heart attack.” The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that this was outright deception and knowingly providing false and misleading information.

Even the tobacco industry has not acted so brazenly, trying only to introduce an element of doubt, arguing that the question of the connection between smoking and health remains open. The egg industry, in contrast, has made seven allegations, all of which have been determined by the courts to be blatant lies. Legal scholars point out that the egg industry not only supported one side of the genuine controversy, but categorically denied the existence of scientific evidence.

Over the past 36 years, American egg dealers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to convince people that eggs are not going to kill them and that they are healthy. One of the internal strategy documents the activists were able to get their hands on read: “Through the attack on nutritional science and public relations, research shows that advertising was effective in reducing consumer concerns about egg cholesterol and its impact on heart health.” .

Currently, they are targeting ladies. Their approach is to “handle the ladies where they are”. They pay to place the egg product on TV shows. To integrate the egg into the series, they are ready to shell out a million dollars. Half a million is paid for the creation of a children’s program with the participation of eggs. They try to convince children that the egg is their friend. They even pay scientists $1 to sit and answer questions like, “What research might help distance eggs from cardiovascular disease?”

From the very beginning, their worst enemy was the American Heart Association, with whom they fought an important battle over cholesterol. The USDA has repeatedly penalized the egg industry for withholding information that reflects the position of the American Heart Association. 

Really, don’t eat eggs. In addition to atherosclerosis-causing cholesterol, they contain carcinogenic chemicals such as heterocyclic amines, as well as carcinogenic viruses, carcinogenic retrovirus, for example, and, of course, industrial chemical pollutants, salmonella and arachidonic acid.

Michael Greger, MD

 

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