Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

Last updated

Founded1985
Founder Neal D. Barnard [1]
FocusTo promote non-animal methods in research and education (opposition to animal testing) and a plant-based diet for disease prevention
Location
  • Washington, D.C.
Members150,000
Employees35
Website pcrm.org

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is a non-profit research and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. According to Charity Navigator, the organization works for "compassionate and effective medical practice, research, and health promotion." [2]

Contents

Campaigns

Healthy hospital food

The PCRM releases an annual report ranking the healthfulness of hospital food. It also encourages hospitals to replace fast food with more healthful options. [3] In January 2016, PCRM placed billboards that read "Eat more chickpeas" near hospitals that host Chick-fil-A locations. [4] In May 2016, it spoke before the board of Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and erected billboards that read "Ask your local hospital to go #FastFoodFree." [5] In June 2016, Grady announced that its McDonald's was shutting down. [6]

2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans

When the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) announced in February 2015 that "cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption", the PCRM began working to keep cholesterol warnings in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. [7] In March 2015, Neal Barnard presented oral testimony at the National Institutes of Health, [8] stating: "for all its good work, the Committee made a scientific error on cholesterol and to carry this glaring mistake into the Guidelines is not scientifically defensible". In October 2015, the PCRM placed billboards reading "#CholesterolKills" near the Texas home offices of Agriculture Committee chairman K. Michael Conaway. [9] [10] In January 2016, the PCRM filed a lawsuit alleging that the DGAC recommended dropping limits on dietary cholesterol, [11] motivated by industry pressure, according to documents recovered by the PCRM under the Freedom of Information Act.

The 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released in January 2016, set no limit but recommended Americans "eat as little dietary cholesterol as possible" due to "the commonality of food sources of saturated fats and dietary cholesterol". [12] On March 23, 2016, Neal Barnard told The Washington Post that he liked that "the guidelines reinstated the advice to eat as little cholesterol as possible and finally called out a vegetarian eating pattern as one of three healthy options". [13] In 2021, the Committee sued USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and secretary for Department of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra after the release of the guidelines, alleging the government's nutritional and dietary guidelines intentionally use difficult language to promote eating unhealthy foods. [14] A federal judge in San Francisco dismissed the lawsuit in February 2023. [14]

Wayne State University dog experiments

Since 2011, the PCRM has urged Wayne State University to end its heart failure experiments on dogs. According to a 2015 review article by PCRM doctors in the American Journal of Translational Research : "insights gleaned from decades of animal-based research efforts have not been proportional to research success in terms of deciphering human heart failure and developing effective therapeutics for human patients". [15] In 2015, actor and Wayne State alumna Lily Tomlin joined the PCRM in urging Wayne State to end its dog experiments. [16] In September 2015, the PCRM placed billboards in Detroit that told the story of one of the dogs who died in the experiments. [17]

Ending medical school live animal laboratories

On June 30, 2016, The Washington Post reported that the University of Tennessee—the last remaining school to use animals—e-mailed the PCRM that "effective immediately, the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanooga has ceased to provide surgical skills training for medical students using live animal models". [18] Over the years, the Physicians Committee demonstrated and placed billboards leading to the decision. [19] [20] The University of Tennessee's announcement followed the decision by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to end live animal use in its surgery-skills training. In 2014, PCRM members had demonstrated outside the university. [21] In February 2016, the PCRM worked with Maryland State Delegate Shane Robinson to introduce a bill to end the practice in Maryland. [22] On May 18, 2016, The Baltimore Sun reported that Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine would stop using live animals. [23]

Chemical testing

Since 2007, the PCRM has urged reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. On June 22, 2015, President Barack Obama signed into law the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, which contains language requiring chemical companies and the Environmental Protection Agency to replace and reduce animal tests and increase the use of human-relevant methods. The Physicians Committee supported passage of this law. [24]

Atkins Diet

The New York Times writes that, in 2004, the PCRM passed Robert Atkins's postmortem medical report to The Wall Street Journal . The report, obtained by Richard Fleming of the Fleming Heart and Health Institute, showed that Atkins himself had experienced heart attack, congestive heart failure, and weighed 258 pounds. Atkins supporters countered that there was no reason to suppose that his heart problem (cardiomyopathy) was diet-related, and that the PCRM had received the coroner's report in violation of federal law. [25]

Action against fast food

The organization's nutrition director in 2004, Amy Lanou criticized the U.S. Department of Agriculture for promoting high-fat, high-calorie products, such as certain brands of cookies and fast-food products. [26] Susan M. Levin, the PCRM's director of nutrition education, sent a letter in March 2009 to the minor league baseball team, the West Michigan Whitecaps, to object to a four-pound, 4,800-calorie hamburger on the team's concession-stand menu, and to ask that the team put a label on the burger indicating that it was a "dietary disaster". [27] The PCRM has also spoken out against the Las Vegas restaurant Heart Attack Grill. [28] [29]

The Physicians Committee advertising campaign "I was lovin' it", a spoof of the McDonald's advertising slogan "I'm lovin' it", was used in a September 2010 advertising campaign encouraging consumers to adopt a vegetarian diet to avoid the health risks associated with the high levels of dietary fat, cholesterol, and sodium in McDonald's food. The campaign launched in the Washington, D.C., area showed a grieving woman in a morgue, as the camera circled around a middle-aged man draped in a white sheet and clutching a partially-eaten hamburger. [30] The group highlighted the high levels of fat and sodium in products such as the "Double quarter pounder with cheese extra value meal", which at the time contained 61 grams of fat and 1,650 milligrams of sodium. [31] [32] The group chose Washington, D.C., as the first city for the campaign because it had the second-highest rate of deaths associated with heart disease. [33] McDonald's called the ad "outrageous, misleading and unfair", and encouraged customers "to put such outlandish propaganda in perspective, and to make food and lifestyle choices that are right for them." The National Restaurant Association called such ads misleading, saying that they unnecessarily focus on a single item to "distort the reality that the nation's restaurants are serving an increasing array of healthful menu choices." [30]

Reception

PCRM had in the past received donations from animal protection groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), as cited in 2004 by The Guardian. [34]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fat</span> Esters of fatty acid or triglycerides

In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food pyramid (nutrition)</span> Visual representation of optimal servings from basic groups

A food pyramid is a representation of the optimal number of servings to be eaten each day from each of the basic food groups. The first pyramid was published in Sweden in 1974. The 1992 pyramid introduced by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was called the "Food Guide Pyramid" or "Eating Right Pyramid". It was updated in 2005 to "MyPyramid", and then it was replaced by "MyPlate" in 2011.

A saturated fat is a type of fat in which the fatty acid chains have all single bonds between the carbon atoms. A fat known as a glyceride is made of two kinds of smaller molecules: a short glycerol backbone and fatty acids that each contain a long linear or branched chain of carbon (C) atoms. Along the chain, some carbon atoms are linked by single bonds (-C-C-) and others are linked by double bonds (-C=C-). A double bond along the carbon chain can react with a pair of hydrogen atoms to change into a single -C-C- bond, with each H atom now bonded to one of the two C atoms. Glyceride fats without any carbon chain double bonds are called saturated because they are "saturated with" hydrogen atoms, having no double bonds available to react with more hydrogen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fad diet</span> Popular diet with claims not supported by science

A fad diet is a diet that is popular, generally only for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard scientific dietary recommendation, and often making unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements; as such it is often considered a type of pseudoscientific diet. Fad diets are usually not supported by clinical research and their health recommendations are not peer-reviewed, thus they often make unsubstantiated statements about health and disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Low-carbohydrate diet</span> Diets restricting carbohydrate consumption

Low-carbohydrate diets restrict carbohydrate consumption relative to the average diet. Foods high in carbohydrates are limited, and replaced with foods containing a higher percentage of fat and protein, as well as low carbohydrate foods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hypercholesterolemia</span> High levels of cholesterol in the blood

Hypercholesterolemia, also called high cholesterol, is the presence of high levels of cholesterol in the blood. It is a form of hyperlipidemia, hyperlipoproteinemia, and dyslipidemia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weston A. Price Foundation</span> Organization

The Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF), co-founded in 1999 by Sally Fallon (Morell) and nutritionist Mary G. Enig, is a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to "restoring nutrient-dense foods to the American diet through education, research and activism".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neal D. Barnard</span> American physician, author, and clinical researcher

Neal D. Barnard is an American animal rights activist, physician and founding president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). Barnard has authored books advocating a whole food plant-based dietary eating pattern. His views on reversing diabetes with a low-fat vegan diet have been criticized by diabetologists as misleading as Type 1 diabetes can not be reversed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Healthy diet</span> Type of diet

A healthy diet is a diet that maintains or improves overall health. A healthy diet provides the body with essential nutrition: fluid, macronutrients such as protein, micronutrients such as vitamins, and adequate fibre and food energy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dean Ornish</span> American physician

Dean Michael Ornish is an American physician and researcher. He is the president and founder of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, and a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. The author of Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease,Eat More, Weigh Less and The Spectrum, he advocates for diet and lifestyle changes he believes can treat and prevent heart disease.

The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension or the DASH diet is a diet to control hypertension promoted by the U.S.-based National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The DASH diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy foods. It includes meat, fish, poultry, nuts, and beans, and is limited in sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, red meat, and added fats. In addition to its effect on blood pressure, it is designed to be a well-balanced approach to eating for the general public. DASH is recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a healthy eating plan. The DASH diet is one of three healthy diets recommended in the 2015–20 U.S. Dietary Guidelines, which also include the Mediterranean diet and a vegetarian diet. The American Heart Association (AHA) considers the DASH diet "specific and well-documented across age, sex and ethnically diverse groups."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary G. Enig</span> American nutritionist (1931–2014)

Mary Gertrude Enig was a nutritionist and researcher known for her unconventional positions on the role saturated fats play in diet and health. She disputed the medical consensus that diets high in saturated fats contribute to development of heart disease, while she advocated for a low-carbohydrate high-fat diet, rich in animal fats and coconut oil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western pattern diet</span> Modern dietary pattern

The Western pattern diet is a modern dietary pattern that is generally characterized by high intakes of pre-packaged foods, refined grains, red meat, processed meat, high-sugar drinks, candy and sweets, fried foods, industrially produced animal products, butter and other high-fat dairy products, eggs, potatoes, corn, and low intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, pasture-raised animal products, fish, nuts, and seeds.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) provide nutritional advice for Americans who are healthy or who are at risk for chronic disease but do not currently have chronic disease. The Guidelines are published every five years by the US Department of Agriculture, together with the US Department of Health and Human Services. Notably, the most recent ninth edition for 2020–25 includes dietary guidelines for children from birth to 23 months. In addition to the Dietary Guidelines per se, there are additional tools for assessing diet and nutrition, including the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), which can be used to assess the quality of a given selection of foods in the context of the Dietary Guidelines. Also provided are additional explanations regarding customization of the Guidelines to individual eating preferences, application of the Guidelines during pregnancy and infancy, the USDA Nutrition Evidence Systematic Review, information about the Nutrition Communicators Network and the MyPlate initiative, information from the National Academies about redesigning the process by which the Dietary Guidelines for Americans are created, and information about dietary guidelines from other nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John A. McDougall</span> American physician and author (1947–2024)

John A. McDougall was an American physician and author. He wrote a number of diet books advocating the consumption of a low-fat vegan diet based on starchy foods and vegetables.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D. Mark Hegsted</span> American nutritionist

David Mark Hegsted was an American nutritionist who studied the connections between food consumption and heart disease. His work included studies that showed that consumption of saturated fats led to increases in cholesterol, leading to the development of dietary guidelines intended to help Americans achieve better health through improved food choices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice H. Lichtenstein</span> American nutrition scientist

Alice Hinda Lichtenstein is an American professor and researcher in nutrition and heart disease. She is an expert on cardiovascular health, and has been recognized for her research on dietary fat. Designated a distinguished university professor, she directs a cardiovascular nutrition laboratory at a USDA center on aging and holds the Stanley N. Gershoff chair in nutrition science and policy at the Friedman School of Nutrition, Tufts University in downtown Boston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nina Teicholz</span> American journalist

Nina Teicholz is an American journalist who advocates for the consumption of saturated fat, dairy products and meat. Her works include the 2014 book The Big Fat Surprise. She is the head of the Nutrition Coalition, a dietary advocacy group. Teicholz's work has been supported and financed by John D. Arnold and his Arnold Ventures group. Teicholz's views and assertions regarding the consumption of saturated fat and meat contradict mainstream medical advice and are controversial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trans fat</span> Type of unsaturated fat

Trans fat, also called trans-unsaturated fatty acids, or trans fatty acids, is a type of unsaturated fat that occurs in foods. Small amounts of trans fats occur naturally, but large amounts are found in some processed foods. Since consumption of trans fats is unhealthy, artificial trans fats are highly regulated or banned in many nations. However, they are still widely consumed in developing nations, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. The World Health Organization (WHO) had set a goal to make the world free from industrially produced trans fat by the end of 2023. The goal was not met, and the WHO announced another goal "for accelerated action till 2025 to complete this effort" along with associated support on 1 February 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher D. Gardner</span> American nutrition researcher (born 1959)

Christopher David Gardner is an American nutrition researcher. He is the director of nutrition studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and the Rehnborg Farquhar Professor of Medicine at Stanford University.

References

  1. ↑ Wadman, Meredith (June 2006). "Profile: Neal Barnard". Nature Medicine. 12 (6): 602. doi: 10.1038/nm0606-602 . PMID   16760995. S2CID   12222673.
  2. ↑ "Charity Navigator - IRS Data for Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine". Charity Navigator.
  3. ↑ Scherer, Josh (March 21, 2015). "Doctors fight to ban fast food from hospitals—for good reason". TakePart . Participant Media. Archived from the original on May 4, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  4. ↑ Sanborn, Beth Jones (April 18, 2016). "Hospitals face ad blitz over Chick-fil-A, other fast food in cafeterias". Healthcare Finance News. Archived from the original on January 15, 2018. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  5. ↑ Stafford, Leon. "Doctors' group to Grady: Dump McDonald's location". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution . Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  6. ↑ Miller, Andy (June 24, 2016). "McDonald's at Grady closes amid complaints by doctor group". Georgia Health News. Archived from the original on August 4, 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Part D. Ch 1: Food and nutrient intakes". Health.gov Dietary Guidelines 2015 Advisory report. p. 2. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  8. ↑ "Public Meeting - 2015 Advisory Report". health.gov. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  9. ↑ Ayala, Christine (October 26, 2015). "Science's war on breakfast: First bacon, now eggs". Dallas News . Archived from the original on October 10, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  10. ↑ "Opening statement: Chairman Conaway: Development of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines". House Committee on Agriculture. October 7, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  11. ↑ O'Connor, Anahad (January 7, 2016). "New dietary guidelines urge less sugar for all and less protein for boys and men". The New York Times . Archived from the original on August 26, 2019.
  12. ↑ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; U.S. Department of Agriculture (December 2015). 2015 – 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (Report) (8 ed.). pp. 32–34. Retrieved January 29, 2017. [I]ndividuals should eat as little dietary cholesterol as possible while consuming a healthy eating pattern. In general, foods that are higher in dietary cholesterol, such as fatty meats and high-fat dairy products, are also higher in saturated fats. The USDA Food Patterns are limited in saturated fats, and because of the commonality of food sources of saturated fats and dietary cholesterol, the Patterns are also low in dietary cholesterol.
  13. ↑ Warshaw, Hope (March 21, 2016). "What nutrition experts think is missing from the new Dietary Guidelines". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on April 5, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  14. 1 2 Ribakoff, Sam. "Judge dumps challenge to federal dietary guidelines". Courthouse News Service. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  15. ↑ Chandrasekera, P. Charukeshi; Pippin, John J. (September 30, 2015). "The human subject: an integrative animal model for 21st century heart failure research" (PDF). American Journal of Translational Research . 7 (9): 1636–47. PMC   4626425 . PMID   26550463. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 6, 2015.
  16. ↑ Jesse, David (April 6, 2015). "Lily Tomlin urges end to animal research at Wayne State". Detroit Free Press . Archived from the original on April 7, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  17. ↑ "Billboard targets WSU's use of dogs in research". The Detroit News . September 16, 2015. Archived from the original on October 13, 2015.
  18. ↑ Fears, Darryl (June 30, 2016). "One last U.S. medical school still killed animals to teach surgery. But no more". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on October 10, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  19. ↑ Johnson, Steve (October 2, 2015). "Protest at UT Health Science Center targets use of live pigs in medical training". Chattanooga Times Free Press . Archived from the original on October 15, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  20. ↑ Belz, Kate (December 10, 2014). "Billboards decry Chattanooga medical program's use of live pigs". Chattanooga Times Free Press. Archived from the original on June 4, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  21. ↑ Cohn, Meredith (August 21, 2014). "Hopkins medical school criticized for using pigs as part of training". The Baltimore Sun . Archived from the original on September 29, 2018. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  22. ↑ Cohn, Meredith. "Bill would prohibit Hopkins from using pigs to train doctors". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on October 10, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  23. ↑ Cohn, Meredith (May 18, 2016). "Johns Hopkins medical students will no longer train on live animals". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on October 10, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  24. ↑ Eilperin, Juliet. "Sweeping overhaul of nation's chemical-safety laws clears final legislative hurdle". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  25. ↑ Kleinfield, N. r. (February 11, 2004). "Just What Killed the Diet Doctor, And What Keeps the Issue Alive?". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  26. ↑ Lanou, Amy (July 11, 2004). "Cookie Monsters: Oreo promotion puts USDA on wrong side of obesity fight". Tallahassee Democrat . Archived from the original on February 21, 2006. Retrieved January 16, 2011– via the PCRM.
  27. ↑ "Warning sought for monster burger". ESPN. Associated Press. March 31, 2009. Archived from the original on August 4, 2017.
  28. ↑ O'Reiley, Tim (February 13, 2013). "Physicians panel lambastes Heart Attack Grill". Las Vegas Review-Journal . Archived from the original on March 9, 2013.
  29. ↑ "D.C. group calls for closure of Heart Attack Grill". The Seattle Times . Associated Press. February 17, 2012. Archived from the original on August 4, 2017.
  30. 1 2 Wilson, Duff (September 16, 2010). "Doctors' Group Attacks McDonald's in TV Ad". The New York Times . Archived from the original on August 7, 2011.
  31. ↑ "Provocative commercial targets McDonald's high-fat fare". PCRM. September 14, 2010. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved September 16, 2010.
  32. ↑ "'I was lovin' it' television ad enrages McDonald's". The Independent . Agence France-Presse. September 15, 2010. Archived from the original on September 18, 2010.
  33. ↑ Jargon, Julie (September 14, 2010). "New Ad Targets McDonald's". The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on February 28, 2015.
  34. ↑ Doward, Jamie; Townsend, Mark (July 31, 2004). "Beauty and the beasts". The Guardian . Archived from the original on October 2, 2013.
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