Cherry orchards, FDA at odds over health claims

[Celebration]

http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2006/03/21/features/health/dc58568856926ab7872571370060129e.txt

"We have the government telling people to eat more fruits and vegetables, and we have the U.S. Department of Agriculture funding some of these fruit studies, and now we have another arm of the federal government that says you can't use the research," said Bob Underwood, whose Traverse City company sells capsules containing cherry and blueberry paste.

Since receiving FDA letters last fall, some cherry product producers have removed -- or at least reworded -- their health benefit statements. But others still make the connection, and an industry group is continuing a promotional campaign telling consumers that cherries are good for them.

"We've always tried to report the science, to stick with the facts, to report things as they are and not exaggerate," said Jane DePriest, marketing director for the Lansing-based Cherry Marketing Institute.

............snip

"Nobody ever claimed they had adverse side effects from eating cherries, which is more than you can say for a lot of drugs," said Steve de Tar, president of Brownwood Acres Foods in Eastport, where Robbins orders her juice concentrate.

[trotsky]

1. Until the claims are definitively proven,

no, I don't think the "cherry industry" or the people who process cherries into a pill should be able to make the claims when selling their products.

Is there something wrong here? Sounds like the FDA is actually doing its job, protecting us from being misled.

"If somebody is using a product that is unproven for health benefits, they may be forgoing other treatments that they would need," said Jennifer Thomas, consumer safety officer with the agency's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "We're concerned that consumers not get the wrong message and use products that may not have the benefits they believe they would have."

[Celebration]

2. depends on the interpretation

I think they should be able to quote or link to research, don't you? Like this, as an example--

http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/133/6/1826

Consumption of Cherries Lowers Plasma Urate in Healthy Women,
Robert A. Jacob3, Giovanna M. Spinozzi, Vicky A. Simon, Darshan S. Kelley, Ronald L. Prior*, Betty Hess-Pierce and Adel A. Kader

U.S. Department of Agriculture/ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616; * U.S. Department of Agriculture/ARS Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center, Little Rock, AR 72202; and Department of Pomology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616

To assess the physiologic effects of cherry consumption, we measured plasma urate, antioxidant and inflammatory markers in 10 healthy women who consumed Bing sweet cherries. The women, age 22–40 y, consumed two servings (280 g) of cherries after an overnight fast. Blood and urine samples were taken before the cherry dose, and at 1.5, 3 and 5 h postdose. Plasma urate decreased 5 h postdose, mean ± SEM = 183 ± 15 µmol/L compared with predose baseline of 214 ± 13 µmol/L (P < 0.05). Urinary urate increased postdose, with peak excretion of 350 ± 33 µmol/mmol creatinine 3 h postdose compared with 202 ± 13 at baseline (P < 0.01). Plasma C-reactive protein (CRP) and nitric oxide (NO) concentrations had decreased marginally 3 h postdose (P < 0.1), whereas plasma albumin and tumor necrosis factor- were unchanged. The vitamin C content of the cherries was solely as dehydroascorbic acid, but postdose increases in plasma ascorbic acid indicated that dehydroascorbic acid in fruits is bioavailable as vitamin C. The decrease in plasma urate after cherry consumption supports the reputed anti-gout efficacy of cherries. The trend toward decreased inflammatory indices (CRP and NO) adds to the in vitro evidence that compounds in cherries may inhibit inflammatory pathways.

[trotsky]

3. Sure!

In this case, anyone who sells whole fresh cherries can claim:

Lowers Plasma Urate!

Not Removes toxins or Prevents heart attacks or whatever other assorted claims were made.

Note also that people who process cherries into pills or other forms cannot make the same claims unless cherries in those forms are shown to have the same benefits.