"nutrition experts...in bed with Big Food"

[handmade34]

"No wonder Americans are overweight and diabetic. The gatekeepers for our information about food are getting their information from junk-food companies."

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/05/my-trip-mcdonalds-sponsored-nutritionist-convention

"...With 75,000 members, the CDA's parent organization, the national Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), is the world's largest professional association for nutritionists and dietitians. It accredits undergraduate and graduate programs in nutrition science and awards credentials to dietitians...In Washington, its lobbying arm is active on issues including childhood obesity, Medicare, and the farm bill.

It also has strong ties to the food industry. In 2013, Michele Simon, a public health lawyer and food politics blogger, launched an investigation (PDF) into the academy's sponsorship policies. Simon found that its corporate support has increased dramatically over the past decade: In 2001, the academy listed just 10 sponsors. By 2011, there were 38, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Mars, and many others. Corporate contributions are its largest source of income, generating nearly 40 percent of its total revenue..."

...having spent most of my life studying nutrition independently, this stuff makes me livid!

[tridim]

1. We have all been lied to about nutrition our entire lives.

As I do more research I get more and more livid, like you. The lies are not innocent, they are flat out dangerous.

Thankfully for most people it's not too late to change what you eat and thus who you are. Ignore the "experts", and listen to your body.

[hedgehog]

2. Eat what your grandmother (or great grandmother!) ate!

[SheilaT]

5. Yep.

Try to fix most of it yourself. Buy a bag of potatoes, a fresh chicken, fresh veggies, and so on.

The "convenience" of most so-called convenience foods is quite illusory.

I'm not a total purist. I like to make things like spaghetti but I don't make the noodles myself. I do use jarred sauces since I can't be bothered to make the sauce myself. I do use prepared salad dressings, even though I could (should) make the myself. I buy mayonnaise, the real kind. I buy frozen veggies.

I bake cakes, cookies, and brownies from scratch, but I'm certainly not raising my own wheat to grind into flour, nor do I have chickens in the back yard for my eggs. Or the aforesaid fresh chicken.

I generally avoid most pre-packaged stuff and mixes. I almost never go to a fast food place. Haven't been in a McDonald's in about a decade. I do like to eat out, and I'm aware that at many chain restaurants they aren't cooking the food there from scratch, either, but using what they get from the restaurant supply houses.

We live in an industrialized world, alas.

[CanSocDem]

3. More evidence of...

...the power of advertising. Industries can be built on the inability of the masses to exercise rational thought when it comes to just about everything. We're basically emotional beings which makes it easy to sell us stuff. And to be fair, only in America is there such enthusiasm to 'sell' things that should be free.

Public Health is a good example. In your free-market system there is a long chain of industries preying on your inability to think rationally about food. They want you to think about convenience on your way to working for them....if you get sick, well we got a pill for that too.

In California, there are little towns, for all practical purposes, owned by SAFEWAY the grocery giant, who in turn is owned by an even bigger multi-national corporate giant. Lots of jobs at stake here.


.

[pipoman]

4. Yep

As are legislators. Mandates on institutional food providers are often influenced by the big food companies. Examples would be health care and school meals.

Back in the late 70's and early 80's we saw some health care providers (often nursing homes) cutting food budgets and not providing nutritionally balanced diets. Those doing this were in the extreme minority. The answer for the horror stories was to impose rigid guide lines for nutritional documentation on these facilities. The guidelines were so difficult to comply with that nearly all health care facilities quit making scratch food in favor of pre prepared products manufactured by food giants mostly known previously for TV dinners. Their products were guaranteed to comply with these regulations and came with all of the necessary documentation to prove compliance to regulatory agencies. Thus the term "hospital food" was born, and the power of these corps bought them access to dieticians programs.

A primary part of a dietician's job in health care is to document the clinical aspects of resident/patient nutrition. Facilities that prepare their own food are more difficult to document than those using prepared foods so they are inclined to recommend more pre prepared. This is the interest of these companies. (My experience is many (probably most) dieticians aren't good cooks or passionate about food)

This concept was sold from a standpoint of reducing labor costs because anyone could easily prepare the food, no need for expensive talented cooks.

[Edim]

6. I find this (old) article a good summary and introduction:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html