Impact of Corporate Funding

Given our distrust of authorities, we want to hear that we have been deceived by the medical establishment into believing that their advice on fats and saturated fats is based on myths.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are revised jointly by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services every 5 years. Originally, the USDA was responsible. The US Department of Agriculture represents the interests of the agricultural industry.

In 2002, dietary guidelines report emphasised that total dietary protein as high as 35% of total diet calories would “minimise risk for those chronic diseases”. This was not based on scientific evidence.

The message of the Astrup’s paper is that we should be adding healthy foods (red meat, eggs, dairy and chocolate) to our diet to overcome heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Consuming red meat, eggs, dairy or chocolate – or a much, much more profitable nutraceutical supplement is not going to change an unhealthy diet into a healthy meal – no matter how desperately that we wish that it would.

A nutraceutical is a manufactured product that is derived from food or part of a food that purportedly provides health benefits.

Professor Manohar Garg was one of the authors of Astrup’s paper that advocated eating more red meat, eggs, dairy and chocolate. ¹

In 2017, the University of Newcastle and the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) were performing 5 trials involving Professor Garg that were to investigate and encourage the consumption of expensive nutraceuticals.

The only outcome that these expensive nutraceuticals will deliver is an increase in corporate profits. For many people, the concept of changing diet and lifestyle is such a big challenge that they prefer to seek an easier but ineffective solution.

Agricultural, food and retail companies have merged into large transnational corporations. The challenge for these corporations is how to continue to make profits when the market for food is saturated in developed countries. In the United States, the food supply contains 15.9 MJoule for every adult and child in the United States which is nearly twice what is needed.

Food industry is constantly attempting to increase demand. Use of industry-funded research to supply misinformation, to create conflicting evidence where none exists and hiding negative data are part of the tactics used to ensure a continued expansion of their markets.

Companies address this by:

Last updated on Saturday 15 March 2025 at 17:59 by administrators

1. Astrup, A. et al. (2019) WHO draft guidelines on dietary saturated and trans fatty acids: time for a new approach? BMJ. 366 (14137), 1–6.