Michael F. Jacobson, PH.D. is co-founder and executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a nonprofit health advocacy organization with more than 900,000 members. CSPI focuses on nutrition, food safety, scientific integrity and alcohol policy. It publishes Nutrition Action Healthletter as well as numerous studies, including “Salt: the Forgotten Killer” and “Liquid Candy: How Soft Drinks are Harming Americans’ Health.” CSPI is a key player in the ongoing battle against obesity in America, advocating nutritious and safe diets and pushing legislators and corporations to take steps to protect the public’s health.  He has had numerous technical papers and letters published in the Journal of Molecular Biology, the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

His articles have appeared in Smithsonian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, the Christian Science Monitor, Miami Herald, Michael Jacobson is the author of several books, including Six Arguments For a Greener Diet.

Michael Jacobson--

I've been called a health-food nut, a killjoy, a political radical...and worse ("food nazi" is one epithet favored by some). Frankly, though, It's easy to ignore those nasty personal attacks. For one thing, it's usually hacks hired by the food industry, or right-wing extremists, who hurl those childish taunts. For another thing, I'm totally confident that my work and that of the Center for Science in the Public Interest is contributing enormously to improving the public's health.
This is the season of presidential primaries and the year of the election. With so much attention being put on health care, it's important that the candidates don't forget about health. That is, the goal shouldn't just be paying for health care, but promoting health, so we need less care.

Better diets could prevent enormous numbers of premature deaths. Just cutting sodium levels in foods in half could save well over 100,000 people from fatal heart attacks and strokes each year. Getting the remaining artificial trans fat out of the food supply and cutting saturated fat (less meat and cheese, especially) could prevent tens of thousands more heart attacks. And eating more fruits and vegetables could prevent countless more cardiovascular disease deaths each year.
To reap such benefits, government could mount education campaigns and adopt suitable regulations---such as setting targets for lower sodium levels, simply banning partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (the source of trans fat), and requiring nutrition information on the menus and menu boards of chain restaurants. But the food and restaurant industries fight those measures tooth and nail. We also should have community-based programs to encourage people who do not yet suffer from heart disease, hypertension, or diabetes to adopt a healthy lifestyle. And people who already are sick should be helped to adopt a lifestyle that would improve their health and even enable them to drop the drugs.

My hope for 2008 is that the candidates will start talking about prevention. And I'll sing hosannas for the first one who chants "More health, less care!"
 

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