Nutritional Facts

Nutritional Facts

The first nutritional "fact" most Americans learn is that iron builds strong and healthy bodies.1 The beef lobby, cereal manufacturers, bread makers, and drug companies have bombarded the public with iron being the cure-all for fatigue and "iron-poor blood." People have been mislead by drug companies pushing iron supplements and by old-fashioned ideas about iron, the magical nutrient of strength. Even the cartoons of the past pushed iron as the secret ingredient in Popeye's spinach.

Television advertisements used to urge people to "perk" up their "tired" blood with a liquid iron supplement called Geritol, but the Geritol ad was illegal. The Federal Trade Commission began an ineffective seventeen year battle with J.B. Williams Company, the original makers of Geritol, in 1959. In 1965, the company was ordered to stop airing its fraudulent ads. Americans saw the advertisements for six years before the stop order was given. By that time, there had been much damage to lots of people.

The company continued to broadcast ads that stated that Geritol could make you feel better, improve your sex life, and marriage. Five out of eight of its new ads showed the transformation of a tired worn-out housewife into a "tigress."

In 1970, the Justice Department filed a $1,000,000 suit against the J.B. Williams Company, charging that they did not stop their deceptive advertising as ordered by the Federal Trade Commission. In 1973 a...

Nutritional Facts

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