Beware Of The 'Food Babe Fallacy' In Your Mac And Cheese

Parents whose kids will only eat a finite list of foods now wonder whether a pantry favorite is off limits, thanks in part to last week’s New York Times story about a study that found “potentially harmful chemicals” in mac and cheese. The group behind the study is calling on Kraft Foods to lead the industry in eliminating phthalates from its products because they can disrupt the production of testosterone, which raises concerns about birth defects, and because they’ve been linked to neurological problems. But several critics say the story is a hyped interpretation of a non peer-reviewed report commissioned by scaremongers with an anti-chemical agenda. Popular Science points out that while phthalates could cause health problems at high enough concentrations, they’re found in much of our food, personal care products and home building materials, making mac and cheese an arbitrary scapegoat. In his blog post response to the mac and cheese scare, Dr. Joe Schwarcz, prolific communicator and director for Science and Society at McGill University, says the “Klean Up Kraft” group behind the report uses “the Food Babe Fallacy” to make its case.