The Morning Meeting with Al Tompkins is a daily Poynter briefing of story ideas worth considering and more timely context for journalists, written by senior faculty Al Tompkins. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
The Food and Drug Administration is not saying that advertisers can claim cocoa is good for you, but a new ruling allows them to say yes, there is a lot of research that shows cocoa may have some health benefits. Those benefits include reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases, but there is not enough evidence to make that claim outright.
Here is what the FDA did rule:
FDA concludes that there is very limited credible scientific evidence for a qualified health claim for cocoa flavanols in high flavanol cocoa powder and risk reduction of CVD, provided that the qualified claim is appropriately worded so as not to mislead consumers.
The FDA will require such claims to include words like “supportive but not conclusive” or “not conclusive.” And the FDA makes it clear that it won’t allow any fudging (see what I did there) of the evidence.
Qualifying language will inform consumers about the level of science supporting the claim and prevent them from being misled about the strength of the supporting evidence. However, describing the level of evidence supporting the claim that consumption of cocoa flavanols in high flavanol cocoa powder reduces risk of CVD as “supportive but not conclusive” or “not conclusive” is not accurate. These terms overstate and therefore mischaracterize the strength of the evidence of a relationship between cocoa flavanols in high flavanol cocoa powder and reduced risk of CVD.
The FDA then approved four versions of what it will allow:
- “Cocoa flavanols in high flavanol cocoa powder may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, although FDA has concluded that there is very limited scientific evidence for this claim.”
- “Cocoa flavanols in high flavanol cocoa powder may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. FDA has concluded that there is very limited scientific evidence for this claim.”
- “Very limited scientific evidence suggests that consuming cocoa flavanols in high flavanol cocoa powder, which contains at least 4% of naturally conserved cocoa flavanols, may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.”
- “Very limited scientific evidence suggests that consuming cocoa flavanols in high flavanol cocoa powder, which contains at least 4% of naturally conserved cocoa flavanols, may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. This product contains at least 4% of naturally conserved cocoa flavanols. See nutrition information for_____ and other nutrients.
Dive deeper: There is a ton of background in this FDA ruling about the research behind it, and even the ancient claims about the health benefits of cocoa.
Learn more: NPR, The National Law Review.
The long history of aerial spying
I am a fan of the RetroReport, which produced a terrific look at the history of balloons used as spy platforms. Read this passage:
Hot air balloons were first used in 1794 for airborne reconnaissance missions during the Battle of Fleurus in the French Revolution. During the Civil War, the United States military gave balloon surveillance a try. The Union Army established the Balloon Corps, led by troops who monitored battles at Yorktown, Seven Pines, Antietam and Fredericksburg.
Confederate leaders took note, but they lacked the raw materials needed to create a balloon. So Confederate Captain Langdon Cheves designed a balloon “made of ladies dress silk bought in Savannah and Charleston, in lengths of about 40 feet and of various colours.”
President Joe Biden said Thursday that the U.S. military has loosened its radar filters, leading to the military spotting more objects. It is possible, though, that there are not actually more objects in the sky than usual.
The New York Times has been hearing from military officials that the most recent things the U.S. shot out of the sky may have been placed there by our own government:
American officials said privately this week that at least some, and potentially all, of the three most recent unidentified objects shot down by the U.S. Air Force were unlikely to be part of a surveillance effort. Some officials said they were most likely the detritus of some old scientific or weather research.
Military officers have known for years that there is an incredible amount of airborne clutter — trash really — floating up at high altitudes. As Pentagon and intelligence officials worked their way through hundreds of unexplained incidents classified as unidentified aerial phenomena recent years, they realized that many of them were just clutter.
An Illinois hobby club thinks its balloon may be one of those that the Air Force shot down. Aviation Week reports:
The club’s silver-coated, party-style, “pico balloon” reported its last position on Feb. 10 at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska, and a popular forecasting tool—the HYSPLIT model provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—projected the cylindrically shaped object would be floating high over the central part of the Yukon Territory on Feb. 11. That is the same day a Lockheed Martin F-22 shot down an unidentified object of a similar description and altitude in the same general area
There are suspicions among other prominent members of the small, pico-ballooning enthusiasts’ community, which combines ham radio and high-altitude ballooning into a single, relatively affordable hobby.
Teen drinking is declining, but female teens drink more
A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report finds that overall teen drinking is on the decline, but 27% of female teens currently drink alcohol compared to 19% of male teens
In 2021, 23% of high school students drank alcohol during the past 30 days.
Female students were more likely than male students to currently drink alcohol. White students were more likely than Asian, Black, and Hispanic students to currently drink alcohol.
Black students were less likely than students from nearly all other racial and ethnic groups to currently drink alcohol.
LGBQ+ students and students with any same-sex partners were more likely than their peers to currently drink alcohol.
(CDC)
The CDC report says fewer teens are using pot but, once again, the report shows girls are consuming marijuana at a greater rate than boys. Female students were more likely than male students to currently use electronic vapor products.
(CDC)
Teen illicit drug use is rising
When it comes to harder drugs, the news is not as encouraging. Opioid use is about flat from previous years, not getting much better or worse:
In 2021, 13% of high school students had ever used certain illicit drugs (defined as cocaine, inhalants, heroin, methamphetamines, hallucinogens, or ecstasy). Female students were more likely than male students to have ever used select illicit drugs. Asian and Black students were less likely than students from nearly all other racial and ethnic groups to have ever used select illicit drugs. LGBQ+ students and students with any same-sex partners were more likely than their peers to have ever used select illicit drugs.
Young people say, mostly, their parents know where they are
The CDC survey says, perhaps contrary to popular belief, young people say their parents know where they are:
Parental monitoring, defined here as parents or other adults in their family knowing where students are going and who they are with, is another key protective factor for adolescent health and well-being. Although there were some differences in this measure by sex, race and ethnicity, sexual identity, and sex of sexual contacts, students overwhelmingly said that their parents mostly or always knew where they were and who they were with.
Keep an eye on the Marburg outbreak in Africa
The World Health Organization is concerned about an outbreak of Marburg disease, a deadly disease similar to Ebola, that is so far quite small. The WHO says the Western African country of Equatorial Guinea confirms nine deaths from Marburg disease, which has never appeared in that country before. Health experts are monitoring 16 other cases there.
Similar to Ebola, Marburg disease originates in bats (although it may exist in other host species) and spreads between people via close contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, or surfaces, like contaminated bed sheets. The disease was first discovered in 1967. In the decades since, cases outside of Africa have been rare.
Drug companies are working on a vaccine but the trials have a long way to go. 200 people have been placed in quarantine in Equatorial Guinea and international emergency health teams are in the country and on the way.
That time a police department spent 337,000 taxpayer dollars to create a podcast that hardly anybody listens to
Welcome to another example of a police department that wanted to end-run media and go straight to the public, this time with a behind-the-scenes podcast.
The Toronto city cops came up with a podcast called “24 Shades of Blue” and, so far, for the $337,000 spent on the podcast, the show has attracted 94,500 people. Many of the programs have a few hundred views. And, the CBC found through a public records search, despite a dismal first season, the city reupped spending for a second season.
The contract was a no-bid deal. The shows are interviews but the police department has total control over editing and questions. They have produced 47 episodes.
Come on, journalists, doesn’t this make you want to ask around about how much local government departments are spending producing propaganda or, as they call it when police produce their own drama shows, copaganda?
