Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The American Dietetic Association's Sell-Out

This is interesting:

Pesticides Are Good for You, Big Food's Co-optation of Nutrition Professionals, Food Safety News, October 17

Michele Simon, a public health lawyer, reports on her experience at the American Dietetic Association's annual conference.
"The exhibit hall seemed more like a processed food trade show than a nutrition conference."
Education sessions were hosted by, for example, the National Dairy Council and the Corn Refiners Association. Culinary demos were offered by Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Hershey, and McNeil (maker of the fake sugar, Splenda). One session she attended, "Snacking and the 2010 Dietary Guidelines," was presented by "the largest snacking expert in the nation, Frito-Lay."

The comments were enlightening.
________

4 comments:

Angela and Melinda said...

This is really shocking. I guess the corporatocracy will try to buy most anyone....

Bix said...

I was proud to be associated with them years ago. I never thought they were the most science-based group, but I respected their public health angle. It wasn't until recently, the last several years, as I saw them going the way of schools and sporting teams, taking the advertising dollars, that my view soured. But then, these are tough times economically. It's a problem, in many places.

Think of something you want, say a car. What if someone said to you they would give you a car, fully paid, insurance, gas, maintenance, the whole deal, but you had to agree to keep their banner on the side. Would you?

Bix said...

Thinking about this...
Say it's a product you didn't endorse, or didn't necessarily believe in.

Angela and Melinda said...

I think probably not--it would make me feel immoral and violated, not free, beholden in an ugly way.