HSUS’s Schlock Doc Has Breaking News (From 36 Years Ago)
A blog post by Humane Society of the U.S. Director of Public Health Dr. Michael Greger – whose propaganda has been dissected by a medical doctor at Science-Based Medicine but has found a home with followers of Taiwanese cult leader “Supreme Master” Ching Hai – caught our eye recently. Under the eye-grabbing title, “Egg Industry Caught Making False Claims,” Greger attempts to smear the egg industry for inaccurate advertising, and cites a U.S. Court of Appeals case to support his claim.
As Greger tells it:
Over the years, cholesterol concerns resulted in severe economic loss through a reduction in egg consumption, so the egg industry created a “National Commission on Egg Nutrition” to combat the public health warnings with ads that said things like, ‘There is no scientific evidence whatsoever that eating eggs in any way increases the risk of heart attack.’ The U.S. Court of Appeals found such outright deception patently false and misleading.”
Several problems here.
First, the National Commission on Egg Nutrition (NCEN) was never admonished by any court for having claimed, “There is no scientific evidence whatsoever that eating eggs in any way increases the risk of heart attack,” as Greger alleges. It is true that several statements NCEN made regarding the validity of scientific evidence in this area were reprimanded by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, but the direct quote Greger cites was simply not one of them. A quick “find” search of the actual court order is all it takes.
Second, and more importantly, is that this case was in 1977 – 36 years ago! That’s when you could buy a gallon of gasoline for well under a buck, five years before Madonna released her first single, when Jimmy Carter was president, and when Steve Jobs was working on computers that looked like this. To cite a case from that epoch without disclosing its age in an attempt to smear someone present day is itself “patently misleading,” at best. A more appropriate title for Dr. Greger’s blog post would have been “Old News From 36 Years Ago,” but of course that wouldn’t have drawn as many eyes.
Now, we have pulled up quotes from HSUS and its leaders before, such as HSUS president Wayne Pacelle’s declaration that “I don’t love animals or think they are cute” or HSUS’s 1980 corporate resolution to “pursue on all fronts…the clear articulation and establishment of the rights of all animals…within the full range of American life and culture.” Some are older than others, but to our knowledge none of these views has changed.
The health research surrounding eggs, however, has changed a bit in 36 years. In the 1970s, eggs faced criticism because yolks have a lot of cholesterol—but that has since changed. An important distinction is that dietary cholesterol is not the same thing as blood cholesterol. British nutritionists call the idea that eggs are bad for blood cholesterol and bad for your heart a “popular misconception,” while Harvard recently said it’s a “myth” that “eggs are bad for your heart.”
We don’t expect Greger, a vegan proselytizer, to have much to say about eggs other than negative things. The fact that he uses something from 36 years ago is telling. You’d think Greger and the 23 interns that run the so-called “NutritionFacts.org” could come up with something better. This just further shows what we’ve been saying all along: HSUS and its agents will stop at nothing to accomplish their vegan agenda, even if it involves using smoke and mirrors along the way.
