Born With a Junk Food Deficiency

[Sempu]

This 2012 book by Martha Rosenberg came to my attention on an airport bookstand. I can only hope that means it will get the attention it deserves. It's really about two different topics that have corporate greed and government corruption in common. #1 is Big Pharma and its fetish for pushing drugs that make the conditions they're prescribed for worse. #2 is the meat and poultry industry and practices that turned my stomach as fast as I could turn the pages.

Noteworthy is the chapter on drugs in the military. It's no secret that suicides in the forces, especially among Afghanistan and Iraq vets, are way up. This book offers a compelling rationale why: They are routinely prescribed combinations of drugs for off-label uses (epilepsy medications for depression) and when reactions occur, the dosages increased. Suppression of dissent is so complete that the only possible explanation is that the military, like the rest of the government, has been bought by Big Pharma and become a docile customer. Some people here have reported being prescribed antidepressants. I can only urge them to read this book to become an informed consumer, because the truth about the side effects of these drugs is suppressed so effectively that many medical professionals aren't aware of them.

Like many people, I've known for a long time that there were horror stories about the fast food chain - the old saw about horsemeat in McBurgers comes to mind - but they assumed the status of mythology in my mind, as likely to be real as the one about the guy waking up in a bathtub without kidneys. This book provides fact after fact supporting far more nauseating examples than mere horsemeat contamination. I believe it because if even one allegation in a stream of them about a big company was wrong, the author and publisher would be sued out of existence, and more importantly, the winner could recall every copy of this book from stores. But if even one allegation about each target is true, the situation is far more alarming than my complacency merited. A quarter of the book is given over to the supporting notes and references for the assertions.

A perfect example of the collusion I referred to was a contamination of meat with mad cow disease, sold to certain restaurants and a store in the Bay area. California state informed the restaurants and store, but refused to identify them to the public, saying that would violate trade secrets, which tells you whose interests they were protecting. The public could call their stores and restaurants to find out if they were on the list.

The only problem I have with this book is that it goes over the top unnecessarily. It is peppered with annoying cartoons that are (a) badly drawn, (b) unfunny, (c) crudely reiterating a point from the text. And there are gratuitous emotional appeals in the text that, while justified, contribute to the appearance of a hysterical fanatic. And that's a pity, because the facts alone are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves, and there are so many of them here. Cut out the (only) 5% of the book that's sarky finger-jabbing and the childish cartoons, focus on the rest, and you've got something that will haunt you for a long, long time.

[Niri Te]

I have WATCHED the Veteran's Administration slowly MURDER six of my friends with Psychotropics that they did NOT need, but were told that they "Were in Denial" if they did not take.
Niri Te

[Human No More]

>Big Pharma

Sorry, but I had to stop reading then. That's as much the mark of a conspiracy nut as saying "Zionist Occupied Government, New World Order" or whatever.

[Clarke]

Originally Posted by Sempu

Suppression of dissent is so complete that the only possible explanation is...

Personally, I thought that phrase was the bigger alarm bell. It's the 21st century! The fact that the American pharmaceutical lobby is far too large (i.e. non-zero ) is well-known.

I believe it because if even one allegation in a stream of them about a big company was wrong, the author and publisher would be sued out of existence, and more importantly, the winner could recall every copy of this book from stores.

That's one possibility. The other is that the companies involved recognise how sticky the ideas are, (and they're quite sticky, considering you've went to the effort of telling us about them) and don't sue, because it would be a losing proposition. Either they lose, in which case, the author can use that to show that the accusations are true, or they win. If they win, then the Streissand effect will kick in, and the author can use the loss to "prove" that his accusations are true. (Because otherwise, why would they sue? )

Originally Posted by Niri Te

I have WATCHED the Veteran's Administration slowly MURDER six of my friends with Psychotropics that they did NOT need, but were told that they "Were in Denial" if they did not take.
Niri Te

IMO, this is the logical result of a capital-driven healthcare system. Hopefully that particular problem gets fixed sooner rather than later.

[Sempu]

Originally Posted by Human No More

>Big Pharma

Sorry, but I had to stop reading then. That's as much the mark of a conspiracy nut as saying "Zionist Occupied Government, New World Order" or whatever.

I use it to avoid typing something considerably longer. What would be an equally succinct conspiracy-free label?

The term is used often in non-conspiracy circles, e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Pharma . http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Big_Pharma is helpful in pointing out how it is used in both objective and conspiratorial contexts, and its origin in the industry's own affiliation group abbreviation.