Column offered harmful, false advice on nutrition
Durango Herald, Letter to the editor, Saturday, July 02, 2011
My wife and I have found Karen Anesi’s columns about restaurants to be full of good advice and a pleasure to read. But as a scientist, I have to question some of the nutritional comments that appeared in her article, “They are super. Some foods keep your motor running” (Herald, June 1).
Two statements attributable to naturopath Nasha Winters were of particular concern: “Farmed salmon are nutritionally worthless,” and “non-organically grown products are toxic.” For those who want balanced scientific information about food, those observations have no empirical validity.
Naturopathic practitioners are not scientists and base much of their advice on an ideology rather than on evidence from controlled experimental evaluations.
Winters’ statements can be particularly damaging for families on restricted incomes who want to get the most nutritional value for their dollar.
Winters’ claim that farmed salmon is worthless food is simply not true. Farm-grown West Coast salmon are milder tasting and more like wild Atlantic salmon. But as far as nutritional value goes, they are the same as wild salmon. And they are usually cheaper and a better nutritional buy if money is limited...Such advice has no place in a factually balanced column about nutrition.
Garth Buchanan holds a doctorate in applied science and has 35 years of experience in operations research.
