Meat Industry Executive
Blasts Heart Association
CHICAGO, ILL A meat in
dustry executive leveled a coun
terattack on the American Heart
Association recently, saying
he was . . particularly disturb
ed and frustrated by the un
scientific approach of an other
wise scientific and respected
organization.”
The AHA and the livestock
and meat Industry have been at
odds for yeais over the issue of
fats and oils in the diet as they
are purported to relate to heart
disease.
In particular, David H
Stroud, president of the Na
tional Live Stock and Meat
Board headquartered here,
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singled out comments last week
of Dr. Jeremiah Stamler. Stam
ler is with the Chicago Board
of Health and spoke Thursday
at the opening session of the
AHA meeting in Miami, Fla.
“Dr. Stamler has accused the
Food and Drug Administration
of being ‘unscientific, unrealis
tic, harsh and archaic’ because
FDA has refused to jump on
the Heart Assn, bandwagon,”
Stroud said. “Rather, it is the
AHA which has taken an alarm
ingly nonscientific position in
the ‘saturated vs. polyunsaturat
ed fat’ controversy. In fact,
they’ve created the controversy.
Without valid research data,
ether than much statistically
concluded information, Dr.
Stamler and the AHA would
have the entire American public
change its meat-eating habits,”
he added.
“Fuither,” Stroud said, “these
heart people have been advis
ing the general public, as well
as physicians, for years on this
presumed ‘need’ to cut down on
consumption of products from
animal origin. They’ve succeed
ed in adding to a confused pub
lic mind and either inadvertant
ly or intentionally have en
couraged some manufacturers
to make unwarranted mislead
ing health claims for food pro
ducts containing polyunsaturat
ed oils,” he said
He added that he knows the
heart p-mile have a good deal
of evidence to piove their
claims, but that such evidence
is “invalid and specious.”
“Even physicians we know
are confused,” Stroud said. On
one hand is the AHA saying
cut down on meat, eggs, dairy
products, etc., and on the other
is the government and all other
reputable medical-health organi
zations saying this doesn't ap
pear necessary.”
“And I’m particularly dis
turbed and frustrated by the un
scientific approach of an other
wise scientific organization like
AHA when it gives medical ad
vice for procedures which are
unproven,” the meat executive
said.
“Implausible as it seems, it
appears to me that the AHA is
attempting an experimental
diet program, using the entire
200 million person population
of the U S. for its guinea pigs,”
Stroud said. “It borders on
quackery,” he added.
“Thank heavens the govern
ment’s FDA officials have had
the courage to demand and seek
valid clinical or laboratory evi
dence before making or approv
ing recommendations to the
public on changing its eating
habits It’s this admirable in
sistence for adherence to pro
fessional standards that Dr
Stamler calls ‘archaic’ and ‘un
realistic’,” Stroud said, “when,
in fact, the FDA and other medi
cal authority simply is demand
ing valid proof before permitt
ing food manufacturers to label
their products or make health
claims for possible beneficial
effects of polyunsaturated fat
content.”
The Meat Board official said
that all of the animal agriculture
Lancaster Farming. Saturday. December 7,1968
industry shares the fervor of
the physician in wanting Ameu
cans to eat a sound, basic, cor
rect diet. “We want the answeis
to causes of heart disease every
bit as much as does the AHA,”
he insisted, “so we can, through
breeding and manufacture,
bring our public the product it
wants as well as ‘needs’.”
Stroud acknowledged what
most medical men already agree
on that in general, “. . . our
public overeats, is overweight
or downright obese and has
poor eating habits We don’t
get a fraction of the exercise
we should. We smoke too much
on top of that. But it appears
clearly to many medical scien
tists to be these factors, rather
than the unproven and un
validated ‘cholesterol theoi y’,
that’s responsible for the rate
of heart disease’,, he said.
“During the period that heart
disease has been on the up-
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swing,” he said, “the general
public’s consumption of saturat
ed fats has indeed been steadily
decreasing and consumption of
polyunsaturated fats has in
creased dramatically Yet heart
disease is increasing. This
knowledge alone ought to in
dicate that AHA has its choles
terol shoe on the wrong foot,”
he said. “But they keep whack
ing away at saturated fats and
meat, despite contrary evidence
and despite the fact that our
livestock producer and meat pro
cessor now is delivering pro
ducts of much greater lean-to
fat ratio than ever before”
The Meat Board head said
that for years his organization
and others in the industry had
been reluctant to publicly call
the AHA to task for what he
termed “. . . its failure to pro
duce valid evidence or en
courage proper objective re-
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