Daniel Lubetzky

The organization aims to combat the food industry’s influence on nutritional policy that can be harmful to public health

In effort to provide a source of transparency and integrity in the food industry while improving public health, CEO and founder of KIND Snacks Daniel Lubetzky has pledged $25 million toward “Feed the Truth,” an organization that will operate independently from the snack company.

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In late 2015, Daniel Lubetzky learned of a federal rule that puzzled him: Salmon, avocados, olives, eggs and tree nuts aren’t “healthy,” according to the Food and Drug Administration.

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NEW YORK (AP) — A $25 million pledge to fight the food industry’s influence on public health is coming from a surprising source — the CEO of a snack bar maker.

Kind founder Daniel Lubetzky says he’s pledging his own money to create a group called “Feed the Truth” dedicated to revealing corporate influence in the nutrition field, with activities like education campaigns and investigative journalism.

The move underscores the division between older “Big Food” companies and newer businesses that market themselves as wholesome alternatives aligned with health advocates. Kind, known for its fruit and nut bars, touts its use of “real” ingredients and has proven deft at mixing marketing with nutrition issues.

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Today I am announcing the launch of Feed the Truth, an independent organization that will seek to improve public health by making truth, transparency and integrity the foremost values in today’s food system.

This initiative grew out of my journey at KIND. In March 2015, KIND received a warning letter from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) regarding our use of the term ‘healthy’ as a nutrient content claim. We quickly learned that the FDA’s guidance – which was established over 20 years ago – limited total fat intake, regardless of source or type, and prevented nutritious foods like nuts, salmon and avocado from being labeled as ‘healthy.’ In turn, our team educated the public about this discrepancy and propelled the FDA to bring the definition of the term ‘healthy’ up to date with modern nutrition science.

While I’m proud of this win for KIND, I have since learned that there is a lot more work to be done. In September, there was a shocking revelation that gave us a window into how the ‘healthy’ regulation was formed. A JAMA Internal Medicine report found that in the 1960s the Sugar Association funded scientific studies to diminish findings that linked sugar consumption to poor heart health. Instead, the Association used industry-funded research to vilify fats – an act that would go on to directly inform the government’s dietary guidance, spur a surge of low-fat, high-sugar products, and ultimately, distort consumer understanding of all dietary fat. But this is just one of many examples of special interests having a direct, negative impact on public health.

Our society deserves access to unbiased and balanced nutrition information. Feed the Truth will seek to ensure that unbiased science overrules special interest groups by revealing and counteracting the industry’s undue influence in shaping dietary guidance, among other activities that are detrimental to public health.

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This is s a well structured and  relatable site that can teach us about the fascinating world of microbes and what they consist of including bacteria, archaea, fungi, protist and viruses:

http://www.microbeworld.org/what-is-a-microbe

The medical profession, like many others, undervalues women and obsesses about making women work full time and carry the same burden as men. Yet, as this article shows, there is a ton of value in respecting the role of women in the medical profession. There is also a ton of value to society to not force women to sacrifice their role as parents. We need to think more holistically, flexibly and creatively about this.

Article below by By Carolyn Y. Johnson:

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I recently visited a friend in the hospital who just had a baby girl, and she showed me the congratulations gift from the “nutrition” department of the hospital. We both thought it was quite ironic!

By ANAHAD O’CONNOR

The sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960s to play down the link between sugar and heart disease and promote saturated fat as the culprit instead, newly released historical documents show.

The internal sugar industry documents, recently discovered by a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, and published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggest that five decades of research into the role of nutrition and heart disease, including many of today’s dietary recommendations, may have been largely shaped by the sugar industry.

“They were able to derail the discussion about sugar for decades,” said Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine at U.C.S.F. and an author of the JAMA Internal Medicine paper.

The documents show that a trade group called the Sugar Research Foundation, known today as the Sugar Association, paid three Harvard scientists the equivalent of about $50,000 in today’s dollars to publish a 1967 review of research on sugar, fat and heart disease. The studies used in the review were handpicked by the sugar group, and the article, which was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, minimized the link between sugar and heart health and cast aspersions on the role of saturated fat.

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John Oliver is hilarious, but the issue he explores is very serious. Not only are hundreds of millions of dollars being wasted because of the perverse incentives to sensationalize scientific findings, but also these “findings” end up harming humans’ health and progress in untold ways.   Perhaps we need to start funding a Fact Checking Award or some form of incentive to discourage abuse and to encourage investment in true science.