Tuesday, October 25, 2022

 

The Academy of... oh.

 


The Washington Post has a fascinating report out on the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, which describes itself this way on its own website:

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is the world's largest organization of nutrition and dietetics practitioners founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1917, by a visionary group of women dedicated to helping the government conserve food and improve the public's health and nutrition during World War I. Today, the Academy represents more than 112,000 credentialed practitioners — registered dietitian nutritionists, nutrition and dietetics technicians, registered, and other food and nutrition professionals holding undergraduate and advanced degrees in nutrition and dietetics, and students — and is committed to improving health and advancing the profession of nutrition and dietetics through research, education and advocacy.

Members of the Academy play a key role in shaping the public's food choices, thereby improving its nutritional status, and in treating persons with illnesses or injuries. Members offer preventive and medical nutrition therapy services in a variety of settings.

Sounds good, right? But the full picture is a lot more complicated. It turns out that a lot of the Academy is funded by companies that make junk food-- they got over $4 million from companies including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestle, Hershey, Kellogg's and ConAgra. They took money from entities literally names the "Sugar Association" and the "Corn Refiners Association."

The Academy, of course, claims that these financial supporters have no influence over their work.

But one wonders... why do they give so much money? 



# posted by Mark Osler @ 1:00 AM
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