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On 24 March 2017, David Avocado Wolfe, prolific pseudoscience media mogul, purveyor of life-extending USB-chargeable longevity zappers, and self-described wealthiest hippie on Earth, published a post that went viral on Facebook titled 3 Reasons Why You Should Stop Eating Peanut Butter Cups! This post, though essentially a word-for-word rip-off of a 2015 post from a website named Living Traditionally, is still somehow classic Wolfe: a highly shareable story crafted at the expense of a beloved childhood candy through the willful misrepresentation of the science surrounding its ingredients. In this case, Wolfe (or whoever wrote the article) points to three chemicals which, as a matter of fact, are present in Reese’s Peanut Butter cups: Soy Lecithin Lecithin is a mixture of naturally organic compounds separated from their source by way of their shared chemical properties and added to a variety of foods to improve texture and aid in the mixing of ingredients. As defined by the United States Code of Federal Regulations: In terms of the soy-GMO link, this issue is somewhat moot because If GMO’s aren’t a person’s jam, then that individual probably wouldn’t be purchasing Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups anyway, as the Hershey's Company discloses the possibility of GMO ingredients, broadly, in this line of products. The remaining claims are either misleading or factually impoverished. To support the notion that soy lecithin has detrimental effects on fertility and reproduction, causes behavioral and cerebral abnormalities and has been linked to breast cancer, the author of the post links to a different post by Dr. Axe, a naturopathic doctor, chiropractor, and nutritionist. In this post, Axe briefly mentions a largely irrelevant 1985 study that looked at the effects of feeding pregnant laboratory rats and their offspring with an absurdly high soy lecithin diet. In that study, rats were given 10 grams of standardized of food per day with either 2 percent or 5 percent of the mass of that food replaced by soy lecithin. This study, which had a narrow and specific aim of investigating a proposed mechanism behind a number of neurologic conditions, found that: However, the amount of lecithin used in this experiment are multiple orders of magnitude more than any human could reasonably expect to be exposed to, even on a daily basis. Using the rough estimate 1800 grams of food consumed per day by the average human, a 5 percent lecithin diet would represent 90 grams of soy lecithin per day, which is roughly 1000 times more soy lecithin than the FDA estimates Americans get in their daily diet through additives (96 milligrams per day). Using an over 30 year old study of pregnant and developing rats fed absurdly unrealistic doses of a chemical to say that peanut butter cups are dangerous is a reach, even by Wolfe standards. By FDA Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) standards: The remaining claims regarding breast cancer, fertility, and reproduction are made by conflating soy protein and soy lecithin. Soy protein is chemically similarity to estrogen, a point that has been the subject of much scientific and internet debate about its potential adverse affects. While the mechanisms linking soy to any hormone-derived maladies have yet to be demonstrated, it is another moot point, as at most only trace amounts of soy protein, if any, remain in soy lecithin. PGPR Polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR), per Food and Industrial Bioproducts and Bioprocessing, is a common additive that is used: While not hesitating to use its scary scientific name, the only allegation of note the Wolfe post makes is that PGPR has been connected to gastrointestinal problems and allergic reactions in children. Ignoring the fact that the same could be said about the ingredients in the natural version of peanut butter cups presented below Wolfe's article, it is also a broad misrepresentation of PGPR’s risk, which is, at best, negligible. The most recent review of its safety, performed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and adopted on 3 March 2017, reaffirmed its safety: TBHQ TBHQ, used as an antioxidant preservative in many food items, is indeed a petroleum derivative (as are almost all carbon containing compounds not produced by living organisms), but that doesn’t mean it carries the same risks as ingesting raw petroleum sludge — it’s a specific, singular, isolated, and modified chemical. There have, in fact, been animal studies that report harmful effects after extremely large doses of TBHQ as well as other cases of extremely high or chronic exposure resulting in harm. As we wrote in a similar Wolfe debunker about the dangers of Pop Tarts, however, while the long-term health effects in humans exposed to high or chronic doses of TBQH (i.e. industrial or laboratory workers handing pure TBHQ occupationally) is not a settled issue, the long-term effects of humans exposed to it in doses legally allowed by USA and European regulatory agencies is settled. EFSA reevaluated its earlier (similar) conclusion regarding TBQH in 2004, finding that it is not carcinogenic and that further genotoxicity studies are unnecessary. The Wolfe post also claims that children exposed to TBHQ may show anxiety, restlessness and intensified ADHD symptoms despite the fact that no peer-reviewed studies link TBHQ specifically to ADHD, restlessness, or anxiety. This notion stems from the controversial ideas of Dr. Benjamin Feingold, who advocates the removal of myriad food additives, including TBHQ, as a cure for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and other behavioral issues. Despite his claims, however, no research specifically focused on TBHQ has documented any connection, and those diets he promotes generally treat a broad collection of additives as the same, despite clear chemical differences. Ultimately, the claims presented in Wolfe’s post rely on outdated, irrelevant, or factually incomplete information. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups do, along with many other foods, contain the listed ingredients. This point, however, is close to the only factual one made by the author of the post.
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