industry influence
The sugar, salt, beef, pork, egg (also here and here) poultry, fish, juice (also here and here) and dairy industries have been accused of downplaying the risks of their products. Some of this may because of the “funding effect,” which describes the skewing of results favorable to research funders. Agribusiness and the US Department of Agriculture have been accommodating to corporate influence, perhaps even to the extent of purposefully ignoring scientific evidence. Unlike countries that rely on health rather than agriculture professionals to create their dietary guidelines, the USDA has an inherent conflict of interest to promote agricultural products that may have unduly influenced the U.S. guidelines over the past 30 years.
Legislation supporting nutrition education has come under attack from—of all quarters—the medical profession. The balance of evidence suggests that a plant based diet is healthiest, but this advice is often met with and overcome by the “tomato effect” and other resistance from medical groups.
Topic summary contributed by Stephanie Davidson
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Watch videos about industry influence
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Dietary Guidelines: It’s All Greek to the USDAUnlike the United States, where the agriculture department is the lead agency on formulating dietary recommendations, other countries such as Greece rely on their health department. What do their..
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Dietary Guidelines: The First 25 YearsHow have the Dietary Guidelines for Americans evolved over the years since they were first issued in 1980?
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Dietary Guidelines: USDA Conflicts of InterestThe mission of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is to promote agribusiness. At the same time, USDA is the agency primarily tasked with developing the nutrition guidelines.
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Food Industry “Funding Effect”He who pays the piper calls the tune: studies funded by the dairy and soda industries appear to be more biased than even studies funded by drug companies.
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Dietary Guidelines: With a Grain of Big SaltThe National Dairy Council teams up with the Salt Institute to downplay the risk of sodium in the American diet.
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Dietary Guidelines: Corporate GuidanceNearly 2,000 comments were submitted to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. Watch what the Sugar Association, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, and the chewing gum company Wrigley's..
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The Tomato EffectWhy does the medical establishment sometimes ignore highly efficacious therapies such as plant-based diets for heart disease prevention and treatment?
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Multivitamin Supplements and Breast CancerNew research suggests that multivitamin use may significantly increase the risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer.
