Fired for Telling the Truth

I have a new hero–Dr. Jason Newsom, a veteran of the war in Iraq who is also not afraid to tell Americans that what they’re eating is killing them.

1 Donut = 55 Min Walk...Makes a Girl Think!

According to today’s news, Dr. Newsom lost his job at the Bay County Health Department for putting some less-than-subtle messages on the department’s electric signs. In particular, he picked on Dunkin’ Donuts by morphing their “America Runs on Dunkin'” into “America Dies on Dunkin’.”  In doing so, he angered some of the local Dunkin’ owners, including two attorneys. In general, it’s not a great idea to make attorneys mad at you. Dr. Newsom also forbade donuts at department meetings, angering his staff, and replaced candy bars in the vending machines with peanuts.

I know that there are some limits to free speech, and Dr. Newsom, by using his official capacity to target individual businesses may have crossed those lines, but at what point do we stop people from telling the truth? Dr. Newsom’s job was described as educational. The public definitely needs an education about obesity, as 2/3 of the American public believe they maintain a “healthy” weight. Given the fact that only 35% or so of the population actually maintain a healthy weight, half of those respondents are wrong, and likely to be dead wrong in short order.

It has been only recently that scientific journals have become aware of the need to make the funding sources of published research more obvious, as research at even prestigious universities funded by pharmaceuticals is much more likely to judge a drug as efficacious than research that has more objective funding sources (Cho & Bero, 1996; Lexchin, Bero, Djulbegovic, & Clark, 2003). The almost everyday removal of approved drugs from the market due to huge side effects speaks to the problems with this system.

Yes, as a county commissioner and donut store owner said about Newsome, “people borrowed money to go into business and they are being attacked by the government,” but at what point does consumer safety become more important than the business-owner’s investment? We certainly do not appear to have learned much from taking on “Big Tobacco.” “Big Alcohol” is very aggressive, as a boycott was launched against General Motors for supporting Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Who could possibly be in favor of drunk driving?

“Big Food” (read “food for big people”) is just as vigilant about any risks posed by an educated public. In my recent exploration of the high fructose corn syrup literature, I was appalled at the rhetoric being used. This account of how the producers of HFCS lobbied the US government until the importing of cheaper sugar was strictly curtailed, in order to make the price of HFCS more attractive, makes for a fascinating read.  CBS had an interesting story on the funding of the pro-HFCS research. It’s a deja vu of the pharmaceutical research.

Okay, I get the fact that jobs and money and whole industries are involved, but so is the health of a lot of trusting people. Instead of firing people like Dr. Newsom, how about letting him continue his free speech, and Dunkin’ Donuts and the rest of “Big Food” can use their free speech to argue their side of the issue, and then people can (gasp–warning of radical notion coming up) make up their own minds. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”