New York Times/Thomas Herpic
I love this illustration from a New York Times article, “Superfood, or monster from the deep?” about food companies that combine two foods — like fish and oranges, to make omega-3 enriched orange juice — and then claim that the resulting product has the health benefits of both foods.
Not to say that all fortified foods are monsters. The article recalls some of the “great triumphs”: Vitamin-B-enriched flour, introduced in the 1940s, slashed the rates of pellagra, a vitamin-deficiency disease. Iodine-fortified salt virtually wiped out goiter. Vitamin-D-enriched milk eliminated rickets in children. But one expert notes that, “Those decisions were based on rigorous public-health studies… The science hasn’t been done on the new nutraceutical products.”
