Masters of Health Magazine May 2022 | Page 75

Dietary Basics - Part 1

Over the years, consumers have been overwhelmed with health information and every diet imaginable.  Corporate science and scientism are subverting independent science.  And all too often, each new book, study, report, or diet contradicts the previous one, leaving most people confused.

Nutrition is the basis for healing with every kind of therapy.  Yet, every aspect of it has been either hijacked or sabotaged by big pharma or giant food corporations through regulation and globalization.  Practitioners and professionals in the medical, dietetic, health, and fitness industries often proclaim themselves as ‘nutrition experts.’  While some have impressive credentials, their education and knowledge in clinical nutrition or biochemistry are often limited.  Most medical schools provide very little, if any, education in nutrition.  As a deterrent, clinical nutrition programs are not readily available for students unless they first complete other extensive medical programs.  To make matters worse, an aggressive campaign by government agencies with unlimited funds and in collusion with the American Dietetics Association (ADA), regulated many Nutrition Consultants and Naturopaths out of business.

The ADA receives approximately 10% of its funding from food corporations, including Abbott Nutrition, CoroWise, General Mills, Kelloggs, Mars, McNeil Nutritionals, PepsiCo, SOYJOY, Truvia, and Unilever.  In addition, the ADA lists Aramark, the Coca-Cola Company, the National Dairy Council, and the Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition as partners.  Thus, dieticians are obligated to promote and dispense unhealthy processed foods produced by their sponsors.

Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition Food Studies and Public Health at New York University, wrote to her colleagues: "Respected ADA colleagues, as long as your organization partners with makers of food and beverage products, its opinions about diet and health will never be believed independent (translation: based on science, not politics), and neither will yours.  Consider the ADA Nutrition Fact Sheets, each with its very own corporate sponsor (scroll down to the lower right-hand corner of the second page to see who paid for the Facts).  Is the goal of ADA the same as the goal of its sponsors to sell their food products?  Is this a good way to get important scientific messages to the public?  ADA members: how about doing something about this!” 

The suppression of nutrition goes way back.  From 1924 to 1964, Dr. Morris Fishbein ran the AMA.  Even though he had a medical degree, he never treated a patient in his life.  Throughout his 40-year reign, he used coercion, money, and the power of the AMA to maintain control and suppress and crush natural cures for cancer (Natural News).  In the 1930s, the American Medical Assoc. (AMA) attempted to prohibit its members from working for the health maintenance organizations (HMOs) that sprung up during the Great Depression. 

This violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and resulted in a conviction ultimately affirmed by the US Supreme Court.  The AMA's vehement campaign against Medicare in the 1950s and 1960s included the Operation Coffee Cup, supported by Ronald Reagan.  Unfortunately, what occurs in the United States is often replicated elsewhere.

by Lady Carla Davis, MPH

Specializing in Nutrition