Last Monday saw Panorama broadcast an outrageously one-sided and ill informed documentary about ultra-processed foods. Jumping on the bandwagon, it spent most of its time reviving old scare stories about aspartame and BPAs.
The best that can be said of last night’s Panorama is that it tried to narrow down the list of suspects to find the killer ingredient (sorry, “chemical”). It was the most irresponsible piece of television I have seen in years. At one point, the BBC walked into a nursery and effectively told the parents that their children are going to get cancer if they keep buying shop-bought cakes. A maverick academic was wheeled out to challenge the scientific consensus that aspartame is safe. Emulsifiers were described as “basically a glue” and we were told, on the basis of unpublished research, that they might cause breast cancer and heart disease. The maverick academic then reappeared to warn of the dangers of Bisphenol A (BPA) leaching out from plastic food packaging. The presenter explained that high levels of BPA have been linked to cancer and infertility. She did not explain that public health agencies in every major country in the world, as well as the WHO, has concluded that normal exposure is not associated with any risk. The programme then degenerated into what appeared to be a borderline libellous conspiracy theory about the UK’s Committee on Toxicity which it asserted had “downplayed the risks of BPA” because its chairman is an unpaid board member of an organisation that receives money from “Big Food”.
This way can only lead to madness. There is nothing healthy about this level of paranoia. Food fads come and go. For the sanity of the nation, we must hope that this one goes away more quickly than most.
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