According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), walnuts are some kind of "new," and apparently very dangerous, "drug." Meanwhile, the world renowned Mayo Clinic says eating "walnuts, almonds and other nuts" can be really good for your heart.

Obviously, anyone with common sense will take the advice of the Mayo Clinic, not the federal bureaucracy. But then again, that's exactly why the government has guns.

Nuts and your heart: Eating nuts for heart health

Eating nuts reduces your risk of developing blood clots that can cause a fatal heart attack. Nuts also improve the health of the lining of your arteries ... the Food and Drug Administration only allows food companies to say evidence "suggests but does not prove" that eating nuts reduces heart disease risk.

What's in nuts that's thought to be heart healthy?

Unsaturated fats. It's not entirely clear why, but it's thought that the "good" fats in nuts — both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats — lower bad cholesterol levels.

Omega-3 fatty acids. Many nuts are also rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s are a healthy form of fatty acids that seem to help your heart by, among other things, preventing dangerous heart rhythms that can lead to heart attacks. Omega-3 fatty acids are also found in many kinds of fish, but nuts are one of the best plant-based sources of omega-3 fatty acids.

Fiber. All nuts contain fiber, which helps lower your cholesterol. Fiber also makes you feel full, so you eat less. Fiber is also thought to play a role in preventing diabetes.

Vitamin E. Vitamin E may help stop the development of plaques in your arteries, which can narrow them. Plaque development in your arteries can lead to chest pain, coronary artery disease or a heart attack.

Plant sterols. Some nuts contain plant sterols, a substance that can help lower your cholesterol. Plant sterols are often added to products like margarine and orange juice for additional health benefits, but sterols occur naturally in nuts.

L-arginine. Nuts are also a source of l-arginine, which is a substance that may help improve the health of your artery walls by making them more flexible and less prone to blood clots that can block blood flow.

Does it matter what kind of nuts you eat?

Possibly. Most nuts appear to be generally healthy, though some more so than others. Walnuts are one of the best-studied nuts, and it's been shown they contain high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. Almonds, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts and pecans are other nuts that appear to be quite heart healthy.

Diamond Foods happens to sell walnuts they say are good for you. People buy and enjoy eating their walnuts too. So, what's the controversy? I mean, we're talking about nuts. There's nothing sinister or out of the ordinary going on here.

Au contraire ... Because the federal overlords, right here in our "sweet land of liberty," have deemed walnuts to be a dangerous "drug."

From the letter the FDA sent to Diamond Foods:

Because of these intended uses, your walnut products are drugs ... Your walnut products are also new drugs ... [Therefore] they may not be legally marketed with the above claims in the United States without an approved new drug application. Additionally, your walnut products are offered for conditions that are not amenable to self-diagnosis and treatment by individuals who are not medical practitioners; therefore, adequate directions for use cannot be written so that a layperson can use these drugs safely for their intended purposes. Thus, your walnut products are also misbranded ... in that the labeling for these drugs fails to bear adequate directions for use ...

The back of your product label also bears the following statement: "The omega-3 in walnuts can help you get the proper balance of fatty acids your body needs for promoting and maintaining heart health. In fact, according to the Food and Drug Administration, supportive but not conclusive research shows that eating 1.5 oz of walnuts per day, as part of a low saturated fat and low cholesterol diet, and not resulting in increased caloric intake, may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Please refer to nutrition information for fat content and other details about the nutritional profile of walnuts." Although FDA exercises enforcement discretion over the last two sentences of this statement, which meet the criteria for a qualified health claim for walnuts and coronary heart disease, the last two sentences read in conjunction with the first sentence makes the entire statement an unauthorized health claim.

http://www.fda.gov/iceci/enforcementactions/warningletters/ucm202825.htm

As far as the FDA is concerned, you're too stupid to know what you can eat or even how to eat it for that matter, let alone anything about omega-3 fatty acids and such. We miserable cretins need our Enlightened Betters to watch over us, to protect us from our own follies.

So they brandish their weapons, and threaten Diamond Foods with "seizure" if they continue offering "unauthorized health claim[s]" about this "new drug." Walnuts. We're talking about walnuts here.

This kind of bureaucratic tyranny sends a strong signal to the food industry not to innovate in a way that informs the public about foods that protect against disease. While consumers increasingly reach for healthier dietary choices, the federal government wants to deny food companies the ability to convey findings from scientific studies about their products. -- William Faloon, Life Extension magazine

Are you starting to catch on yet? The government absolutely hates you.

FDA Allows Potato Chips to Be Advertised as "Heart Healthy"

Frito-Lay® is a subsidiary of the PepsiCo, Inc., makers of Pepsi-Cola. Frito-Lay® sells $12 billion a year of products that include:
Lays® Potato Chips
Doritos®
Tostitos®
Cheetos®
Fritos®

You might not associate these mostly-fried snack foods as being good for you, but the FDA has no problem allowing the Frito-Lay® website to state the following:

"Frito-Lay® snacks start with real farm-grown ingredients. You might be surprised at how much good stuff goes into your favorite snack. Good stuff like potatoes, which naturally contain vitamin C and essential minerals. Or corn, one of the world's most popular grains, packed with thiamin, vitamin B6, and phosphorous—all necessary for healthy bones, teeth, nerves and muscles.

"And it's not just the obvious ingredients. Our all-natural sunflower, corn and soybean oils contain good polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, which help lower total and LDL 'bad' cholesterol and maintain HDL 'good' cholesterol levels, which can support a healthy heart. Even salt, when eaten in moderation as part of a balanced diet, is essential for the body."

Wow! Based on what Frito-Lay® is allowed to state, it sounds like we should be living on these snacks. Who would want to ingest walnuts, pomegranate, or green tea (which the FDA is attacking) when these fat calorie-laden, mostly-fried carbohydrates are so widely available?

According to the Frito Lay® website, Lays® potato chips are "heart healthy" because the level of saturated fat was reduced and replaced with sunflower oil ...

That's right! According to your government, specifically the FDA, fried fatty snack foods are pure wholesome goodness. But walnuts. Walnuts! Those are bad. Very, very bad. You need instructions - "authorized" instructions - just to eat them.

The truth of the matter is that this current FDA led attack on walnuts is all about power and control - corporatism. As Robert Wenzel says about the "Amazing FDA":

Government and big corporations is not only about banksters. It's wherever there is a power center. When a power center exists, dark forces will seek to capture the power center and crush, especially new and small competitors. The only way to combat this is not via new people in power or more regulations (which create even more power centers, e.g. the Consumer, Finance and Protection Bureau), it can only be corrected by ending the government power centers.

Both the political "left" and "right" in America need to come to grips with reality. Donkey and Elephant partisanship blinds one from reality. "Liberals" who think they're sticking it to the Big Corporations with rules and regulations, are simply fooling themselves. "Conservatives" who think we live in a "free market," are sadly mistaken. The Washington, DC, duopoly is one big criminal gang.

Then again, maybe we're all fascists now. I don't know, it can be hard to tell these days. Bailout anyone?

The government steals half our wealth, molests us at airports, raids our homes, and regulates our food. ObamaCare is a massive corporatist scam. Perpetual war is a massive corporatist scam. "Your Walnuts Are Drugs" is a massive corporatist scam ... Yet, each one (and more) enjoys a big constituency clamoring for even more.

More on "Your Walnuts Are Drugs" & Related:

• FDA to Diamond Foods: "Your Walnuts Are Drugs"
• Walnuts Are Drugs, Says FDA
• FDA Calls Elderberry Wine an Unapproved "Drug"
• Big Pharma From the Womb
• When the Sugar Police Go Marching In