Whenever possible, I will include journal articles (or reports based on their studies) as support for what I write in my blog posts. There are several reasons for this:
- These tend to use science rather than opinion to formulate ideas and plans for future action.
- Most are peer reviewed, so it is not the work of just one person – others who are qualified in the field have looked at their research and find it to be acceptable (at t the very least).
- Generally there is a statement at the end of the study or article which disclose conflicts of interest.
As a person whose background is in economics, it’s that last one that is most meaningful to me. I am always wondering. “What’s in it for the author? What are the interrelationships?”
What does the author have to gain from supporting a particular diet, drug, form of exercise, or other practice? Will they directly profit from the article – meaning that the article was basically an infomercial for something they sell? Or is this a bit more indirect? Do they have a significant financial relationship with the pharmaceutical company who sells a particular drug, for example?
A word here about non-profits – they sometimes are not as innocuous as they may seem. There are many examples of this, and I’m sure you’ve heard of a few yourself! One recently explored in the news occurred at the Providence Hospital System. Basically, this nonprofit devised a program called “Rev Up” to increase revenue collections from their poorest patients. Rather than enroll them in the financial assistance programs which they were legally entitled to, Providence set debt collectors after them (1). We can see the mercenary attitude that Providence displayed – illegally profiting by cheating those who can least afford it.
At times, a corporation creates both the problem and the solution. The best example I could find for you is not in the food industry, but in an industry that manufactures a different kind of addictive substance, tobacco.
Philip Morris has spent 175 years selling products that cause heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and other serious health problems. Now the tobacco giant is poised to make more money treating the very conditions it helped create by acquiring companies that develop inhaled therapeutics… (2).
Think that this can’t happen with unhealthy foods and the diet industry? The article I quote below is from a more questionable news source, so I checked the facts myself. Unfortunately for dieters, they are accurate:
Weight Watchers, created by New York housewife Jean Nidetch in the early 1960s, was bought by Heinz in 1978, who in turn sold the company in 1999 to investment firm Artal for $735m. The next in line was Slimfast, a liquid meal replacement invented by chemist and entrepreneur Danny Abraham, which was bought in 2000 by Unilever, which also owns the Ben & Jerry brand and Wall’s sausages. The US diet phenomenon Jenny Craig was bought by Swiss multinational Nestlé, which also sells chocolate and ice-cream. (3).
(Update: Slimfast was sold by Unilever to Glanbia. Jenny Craig has changed hands many times, including Nestlé, but is now owned by H.I.G. Capital. The Weight Watchers portion of the quote above is correct.)
Just as bad, or perhaps worse, is the relationship of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) with junk food manufacturers Nestlé, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Kraft, as well as pharmaceutical companies (4). I’ll admit that I’ve taken their advice and used their sources because they are considered to be an industry authority.
AND is a highly respected non-profit with over 100,000 registered dietitians in their membership (5). But how can we fully trust them when they’ve received millions of dollars from the corporate giants selling some of the most unhealthy foods?
It certainly is a challenge to navigate the $71B weight loss industry (6) which displays so many conflicts of interest and questionable motives. We need healthy doses of both education and skepticism!
We must remain cautious about any new diet, drug, or weight loss related scheme. Let’s listen to our bodies and our trusted physicians to determine what is best for our health. We can do this together – let’s maintain our healthy weight!
(1). https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/business/nonprofit-hospitals-poor-patients.html
(2). https://lowninstitute.org/projects/2022-shkreli-awards/
(3). https://amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/aug/07/fat-profits-food-industry-obesity
Maintain Weight Loss 