Dr. Oz accused of fear-mongering on apple juice (AP)

Arsenic in apple juice! Fed to babies! And it probably came from China! Television's Dr. Mehmet Oz is under fire from the FDA and others for sounding what they say is a false alarm about the dangers of apple juice.

Oz, one of TV's most popular medical experts, said on his Fox show Wednesday that testing by a New Jersey lab had found what he suggested were troubling levels of arsenic in many brands of juice.

The Food and Drug Administration said its own tests show no such thing, even on one of the same juice batches Oz cited.

"There is no evidence of any public health risk from drinking these juices. And FDA has been testing them for years," the agency said in a statement.

The flap escalated Thursday, when Oz's former medical school classmate Dr. Richard Besser lambasted him on ABC's "Good Morning America" show for what Besser called an "extremely irresponsible" report that was akin to "yelling `Fire!' in a movie theater."

Besser was acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before joining ABC news as health and medical editor several years ago.

Arsenic is naturally present in water, air, food and soil in two forms � organic and inorganic. According to the FDA, organic arsenic passes through the body quickly and is essentially harmless. Inorganic arsenic � the type found in pesticides � can be toxic and may pose a cancer risk if consumed at high levels or over a long period.

"The Dr. Oz Show" did not break down the type when it tested several dozen juice samples for total arsenic. As a result, the FDA said the results are misleading.

Furthermore, the agency's own tests found far lower total arsenic levels from one of the same juice batches the Oz show tested � 2 to 6 parts per billion of arsenic versus the 36 that Oz's show had claimed.

Tests of the same batch conducted by two different food testing labs for the juice's maker, Nestle USA, which sells Juicy Juice under the Gerber brand, also found levels consistent with the FDA results.

In a letter published on the Oz show's website, Nestle said it told the program's producer in advance that the method the show's lab used was intended for testing waste water, not fruit juice, and "therefore their results would be unreliable at best."

The FDA also sent a letter in advance to the show and threatened to post its findings and the letters online if the program proceeded.

Oz went ahead.

"American apple juice is made from apple concentrate, 60 percent of which is imported from China," the website version of his report says. "Other countries may use pesticides that contain arsenic, a heavy metal known to cause cancer."

The show tested three dozen samples from five brands, and Oz claimed that 10 had more arsenic than the limit allowed in drinking water � 10 parts per billion.

However, the FDA said the arsenic in water tends to be inorganic, justifying the strict limit. In contrast, organic arsenic is the form usually found in food and juices. Tests over the last 20 years show apple juice typically has fewer than 10 parts per billion total arsenic.

The mercurial Oz is a heart surgeon at Columbia University and heads an alternative medicine program at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He was a regular on Oprah Winfrey's show for many years before getting his own program two years ago.

This is the first week of a new TV season, the first in two decades without Winfrey dominating the talk show scene.

Tim Sullivan, a spokesman for Oz's show, said in an interview: "We don't think the show is irresponsible. We think the public has a right to know what's in their foods."

Sullivan said Oz does not agree that organic arsenic is as safe as authorities believe. The show will do further tests to distinguish organic from inorganic arsenic in juice samples, he said.

"The position of the show is that the total arsenic needs to be lower," he said. "We did the tests. We stand by the results and we think the standards should be different."

In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, even Oz said he wouldn't hesitate to keep giving his four children apple juice.

"There's no question in my mind folks can continue drinking apple juice. ... There have been no cases at all of kids being harmed by elevated levels of arsenic, and the kinds of numbers we are talking about are not high enough to cause acute injury," he said.

He said he was concerned instead about the possible ill effects from drinking apple juice for many years.

An independent lab agreed with the FDA's contention that the form of arsenic matters.

Oz's testing "certainly begs the question how much of that is inorganic," the type of arsenic that is of prime concern, said Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com. The company tests dietary supplements and publishes ratings for subscribers, much as Consumer Reports does with household goods.

However, Cooperman and others have long called on the FDA to strengthen regulation of contaminants.

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AP television writer David Bauder contributed to this report.

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Online:

FDA: http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm271394.htm

and http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm271746.htm

"The Dr. Oz Show": http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/arsenic-apple-juice

Besser-Oz faceoff: http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm271394.htm

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FDA disputes TV doc's warning of apple juice risk (AP)

The federal Food and Drug Administration and a leading doctor are disputing suggestions by television show host Dr. Mehmet Oz that trace amounts of arsenic in many apple juice products pose a health concern.

Oz said on his show Wednesday that testing by a New Jersey lab has found what he implied are troubling levels of arsenic in many juices.

However, the FDA says the lab methods were not appropriate and that its own tests show much lower arsenic levels. The agency warned "The Dr. Oz. Show" producers in advance that their testing was misleading.

Dr. Richard Besser, a pediatrician and former acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also scolded Oz Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America" show for scaring consumers with what Besser called an "extremely irresponsible" report, like "yelling `Fire!' in a movie theater."

The issue: arsenic is naturally present in water, air, food, and soil in organic and inorganic forms, according to the FDA.

"Organic arsenic is essentially harmless," the agency says, and it passes through the body quickly. Inorganic arsenic is the type found in pesticides, and consuming it at high levels or over a long period can cause concern.

The testing "The Dr. Oz Show" did was for total arsenic, and the FDA even disputes those levels. The agency's own tests found lower total arsenic from one of the same juice batches the show's lab tested.

"There is no evidence of any public health risk from drinking these juices. And FDA has been testing them for years," the statement says.

Note to consumers: They are talking about organic and inorganic arsenic � not organic versus non-organic fruits and vegetables.

An independent lab agreed with the FDA's contention that the form of arsenic matters.

"A lot of things can have organically bound arsenic like kelp, but most of those flow right through you" and don't accumulate, said William Obermeyer, a former FDA chemist who cofounded ConsumerLab.com. It is a company that tests dietary supplements and publishes ratings for subscribers, much as Consumer Reports does with household goods.

Tim Sullivan, a spokesman for Oz's show, sent an email saying: "We don't think the show is irresponsible. We think the public has a right to know what's in their foods."

Sullivan said Oz does not agree that organic arsenic is as safe as authorities believe, and that the show will do further tests to distinguish organic from inorganic arsenic in juice samples.

"The position of the show is that the total arsenic needs to be lower," he said. "We did the tests. We stand by the results and we think the standards should be different."

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AP television writer David Bauder contributed to this report.

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Online:

FDA: http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm271394.htm

and http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm271746.htm

"The Dr. Oz Show": http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/arsenic-apple-juice

Besser-Oz faceoff: http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm271394.htm

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US lung cancer rates fall, led by Western states (AP)

ATLANTA � The West is leading a national decline in the rate of new lung cancer cases, with states like California and Nevada accounting for much of the improvement, particularly among women.

Smoking rates in the West have long been lower, and that's credited for the good health news for that region. Roughly 90 percent of lung cancer cases are attributed to smoking.

Lung cancer rates for men have been declining for years, but the drop among women is much more recent. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that lung cancer rates for women nationally decreased about 2 percent from 2006 to 2008, the last year studied. But the rate for women in select Western states fell about 4 percent in the same period.

Declines among men were similar, including a 4 percent decline in the West and about a 3 percent drop nationally.

"Over the past 20 years, lung cancer overtook breast cancer and became the No. 1 cancer killer of women. This is a horrific development that we have begun to turn around," said Dr. Tim McAfee, director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health.

Female lung cancer rates did not decline in every state, but six states saw significant drops � California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Texas and Florida. That was enough to pull down the national rate, even though female cancer incidence rose slightly in 14 states.

The rate of new lung cancer cases among males dropped in 35 states.

Lung cancer was something of a medical rarity 100 years ago, but is now one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the United States and is the form of cancer that kills the most people. More than 150,000 Americans will die of it this year, the American Cancer Society estimates.

It can take many years for lung cancer to develop in a smoker, although lung cancer rates can be seen to drop as soon as five years after smoking rates decline.

In the new report, CDC researchers looked at national cancer registries for the years 1999 through 2008, and also studied state-specific smoking rates from a separate data base that covered the same time period. The results are being published this week in a CDC publication, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The CDC report didn't capture all 50 states. Six were left out because the authors were not able to say what was going on with lung cancer rates in those states for the earlier years of the analysis. Five of those states are in the South, where smoking rates and cancer rates tend to be high.

A stark regional difference was seen in 13 Western states. Texas, grouped in with the South by the researchers, also saw significant declines. The regional declines in male lung cancer incidence were similar for men.

Smoking rates are lower in the West. The national smoking rate has hovered around 20 percent for several years, but the rates have been below � in some cases, well below � 19 percent in California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Arizona.

Health officials and some advocates say at least some of the difference is due to some states having higher taxes on cigarettes, more comprehensive smoking bans and well-funded prevention programs. California is considered the prime success story for such health policies.

"Many Americans have a greater risk of lung cancer because of where they live and because their elected leaders have failed to implement proven measures to reduce tobacco use," said Matthew Myers, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

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Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6036a3.htm?s_cid

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FDA disputes TV suggestion of apple juice risk (AP)

The federal Food and Drug Administration and a leading doctor are disputing claims by television show host Dr. Mehmet Oz that trace amounts of arsenic in many apple juice products pose a health risk.

Oz said on his show this week that testing by a New Jersey lab has found what he implied are concerning levels of arsenic in many juices.

However, the FDA says the lab methods were not appropriate and that its own tests show much lower arsenic levels. The agency warned the show's producers in advance that their testing was misleading.

Dr. Richard Besser, former acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also scolded Oz Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America" show for scaring consumers with what Besser called an "extremely irresponsible" report.

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Mrs. Obama to join Olive Garden announcement (AP)

WASHINGTON � Encouraged by Michelle Obama's campaign to reduce childhood obesity, the company that owns the Olive Garden, Red Lobster and four other popular restaurant chains is pledging to cut the calories and sodium in its meals and overhaul its kids' fare.

Darden Restaurants Inc. was unveiling the changes Thursday, with the first lady on hand to lend support.

The company will pledge to reduce the calories and sodium in all its meals by 10 percent over five years, and by 20 percent over 10 years. For children, French fries and sugar-sweetened beverages will become the exception and not the rule.

All kids' meals will automatically come with a side of fruit or vegetables and eight ounces of 1 percent milk unless an adult requests a substitute, Drew Madsen, president and chief operating officer of Orlando, Fla.-based Darden, told The Associated Press.

"We think it's the most comprehensive health and wellness commitment in the industry," he said.

Darden's restaurants serve more than 400 million meals annually at more than 1,900 locations nationwide. Its four other restaurant chains are LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze and Seasons 52. The Capital Grille and Seasons 52 do not have children's menus.

Darden's promise is part of a trend by the restaurant industry to serve healthier food.

Since the beginning of the year, McDonald's, Burger King, Chili's, IHOP, Friendly's and more than a dozen other large and small chains have said they will begin replacing the French fries in children's meals with fruit and removing enticing pictures of less healthy items from their menus.

Diners have become more health conscious and are asking for improvements, such as for their meals to be cooked without butter or with less salt or to be prepared any way but fried. Then there's Mrs. Obama's campaign to bring down childhood obesity rates.

One in three U.S. children is overweight or obese, putting them at greater risk of developing diabetes, heart disease or other health conditions. Mrs. Obama has said she wants to help today's youngsters become adults at a healthy weight by eating better and getting more exercise.

In a speech a year ago to the National Restaurant Association, the first lady asked members to "actively promote healthy foods and healthy habits to our kids." Consumers, she said, spend half their food dollars on meals outside the home and eat one in three meals at a restaurant. She suggested serving low-fat milk and healthy sides like apple slices or carrots and making French fries available only upon request.

White House domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes said Darden's announcement amounts to a "full-throated endorsement" of the types of changes Mrs. Obama has asked the nation's restaurant owners and operators to make.

In a National Restaurant Association survey of chefs, two-thirds of those working in the kitchens of family dining, fine dining and fast-food restaurants said their customers were ordering healthier items and paying more attention to nutritional content than they did two years ago.

Similarly, chefs ranked healthful children's meals as the fourth-hottest restaurant trend, behind locally grown and sustainable foods.

The government soon will begin requiring restaurants with 20 or more locations, along with bakeries, grocery stores, convenience stores and coffee chains, to include clear calorie counts on their menus.

Mrs. Obama participation in Thursday's announcement, scheduled for an Olive Garden restaurant in the Washington suburb of Hyattsville, Md., will be her latest appearance with retailers and others in support of her anti-obesity efforts.

In January, she stood with Wal-Mart, the nation's largest grocer, as it pledged to reformulate thousands of products it sells to make them healthier and to push suppliers to do the same.

This summer, the first lady applauded as Wal-Mart, Walgreens drug stores and several regional grocers committed to help eliminate "food deserts" by opening or expanding in rural and urban areas without easy access to healthy foods, including fresh fruits and vegetables.

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Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

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Darlene Superville can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap

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