Updated June 09, 2015.
Michael Barbee is author of "Politically Incorrect Nutrition--Finding Reality in the Mire of Food Industry Propaganda." Mary Shomon had the opportunity to interview Barbee, in addition to writing a review of the book here at About.com.
Q: Michael, tell us about your background and what motivated you to write this book.

A: I have been a teacher and health educator for 30 years and have always had great interest in the field of nutrition.

Several years ago I became a certified diet counselor with my study at the Institute for Educational Therapy (IET), a holistic vocational school offering training for nutritionists and natural chefs. Currently, besides my writing, I go into the classrooms of elementary-aged public school children to present hands-on lessons about health and nutrition. Sadly, because of lack of exercise, poor diets, and a corrupted food chain, this may be the first generation of children in memory which will have a shorter life-span than their parents. I believe we must begin with education to turn things around.

During my formal education in nutrition, I began to put together material for a book exposing the fraud of water fluoridation. I happen to live in the only city in my county (Sonoma Co., CA) which fluoridates its water. With the assistance of the late Dr. John Lee, a fluoride and hormone expert, I have been battling for years to bring an end to this practice, which is responsible for thousands of deaths each year and health problems ranging from cancer, bone fractures, heart disease, and premature aging to hypothyroidism--with absolutely no benefit in terms of reducing tooth decay.

Because the public seemed very confused about this issue and was constantly bombarded with misinformation from public health officials, I felt it was time to present the current research to the public in a clear, easy-to-read format.

As my nutritional studies grew deeper, however, it became clear that fluoridation is certainly not the only health area in which the public has been misled. I believe that government and corporate interests have been profiting at the expense of our health. So my book became a vehicle to expose nutritional myths and to let the readers see how we have allowed our food and water to be altered in quite dangerous ways. This led to chapters on aspartame, bovine growth hormone, food irradiation, plastic hormone disruptors in the environment, and the potential hazards of microwaved food, among others. My longest chapters involve debunking the saturated fat/cholesterol myth. Simply put: Saturated fat and cholesterol create health; they are not the cause of heart disease. I also write about the dangers of consuming unfermented soy products like soy milk and tofu, and warn about consuming green tea.

Q: It seems that everyone today is extolling the virtues of green tea. Briefly, what do you think are the problems with green tea consumption?

A: There is no question that green tea, and black tea well, contain valuable antioxidants that traditionally have protected health. Unfortunately, the tea plant stores more fluoride than any other plant. Due to increased water, air, and soil pollution during the last several decades, the amount of fluoride in most teas today is staggering. A typical cup contains as much fluoride (1 mg) as an entire quart of artificially fluoridated water--with some samples of tea containing traces of DDT. One sample of Chinese green tea tested had a whopping 22 mg. of fluoride per tea bag!

To put this into perspective, it has been established that consuming more than 4 mg of fluoride per day for a number of years will likely lead to arthritic symptoms which eventually turn into crippling skeletal fluorosis. Today in fluoridated communities (two-thirds of the country), it is estimated that a typical fluoride intake from all sources is 6-7 mg. It makes little sense to purposely add more fluoride to a diet which already seems to guarantee future bone problems. Many people have reported that their arthritic-like symptoms vanish when they give up their tea. Fortunately, some of the same protective antioxidants found in tea can also be found in apples, pears, red wine, and in even higher amounts in dark chocolate. If eating these is not feasible or appropriate, I think that using a green tea extract which has been tested for fluoride content might be a reasonable thing to do.