302 Moved
youtu.be

Worth listening to just for the section on history, notably the outsized effects that Ancel Keys and the Seventh Day Adventist Church have had on how we think about nutrition and diet.

Summary

Thesis

  • Bad science, corporate greed, and corrupt politics drive Australia’s chronic disease crisis.
  • Ultra-processed food production and marketing displace whole-food diets and expand obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Ideological origins of modern diet advice

  • Ellen G. White teaches that humans should avoid “flesh meat” and adopt a plant-based diet for health and spiritual aims.
  • Sanitarium Health Food Company operates as a Seventh-day Adventist institution and funds church missions with tax-free revenue.
  • John Harvey Kellogg develops cereal-based dietary doctrine inside a Seventh-day Adventist sanitarium system.
  • Ada Celia (AKA “Lenna Frances Cooper”) co-founds the American Dietetic Association while working at a sanitarium and builds dietetics institutions that promote plant-based doctrine.
  • Dietetics professional bodies shape public beliefs and national dietary guidelines and amplify plant-based and meat-reduction messaging.

Food-industry financing of nutrition institutions

  • Dietitians Australia (formerly the Dietitians Association of Australia) takes funding from breakfast-cereal manufacturers and later wins the 2009 tender to conduct the literature search for the Australian Dietary Guidelines.
  • The Australian Breakfast Cereal Manufacturers Forum expects Dietitians Australia to “protect” and “defend” cereal and sugar messaging in exchange for annual payments.
  • Industry-funded research produces conclusions favorable to the funder at higher rates than non-industry-funded research.
  • Sanitarium partners with schools, nurses, and child health programs and distributes nutrition messaging through these channels.

Red meat, saturated fat, and chronic disease messaging

  • A “50-year attack” targets foods high in saturated fat and targets red meat.
  • IARC cites six experimental studies and states a “possible link” between red meat and bowel cancer.
  • Cancer Council and other public-health organizations repeat a message that red meat causes bowel cancer.
  • Preventive Health SA promotes a weekly meat-free day, reduced saturated fat intake, and plant-based substitutions.
  • The Health Star Rating algorithm grants five stars to Weet-Bix and to UP&GO.

Corporate partnerships and policy leverage

  • AdventHealth acquires Blue Zones rights in 2020 and sells city accreditation costing over $7 million per year.
  • Blue Zones accreditation requires cities to enforce plant-based procurement and other food-policy changes across schools, restaurants, and workplaces.
  • Coca-Cola funds and promotes “Exercise is Medicine” messaging that shifts focus to exercise instead of product reduction.
  • Food and beverage lobbyists influence governments and receive at least $5 billion per year in operating-cost tax relief.

Pharmaceutical industry influence and enforcement gaps

  • Public Citizen Health Research Group documents hundreds of cases of unlawful pharmaceutical promotion with tens of billions of dollars in penalties.
  • Australia’s TGA funding model relies on pharmaceutical industry fees for 96% of its budget.
  • A 2014 paper reports concealed drug-company influence over clinical knowledge and medical education.
  • A 2016 study finds that industry payments to clinicians increase brand-name prescribing, including at low-dollar levels.
  • A 2017 Cochrane review compares industry-sponsored trials with other sponsorship and finds more favorable efficacy conclusions under industry sponsorship.
  • A 2009 meta-analysis reports self-admitted falsification or fabrication by scientists between 1992 and 2002 and reports a separate rate for observed misconduct.
  • The FDA authorizes many drugs between 2013 and 2023 despite inadequate evidence of efficacy.

Diabetes remission and guideline conflict

  • The Australian National Diabetes Strategy (2021-2030) includes type 2 diabetes remission via dietary interventions and bariatric surgery.
  • The RACGP diabetes handbook includes a remission section and devotes many pages to pharmaceutical management.
  • Ten of eleven handbook authors have financial ties to pharmaceutical companies.
  • General practitioners trust the RACGP diabetes handbook as a core clinical reference.

Actions advocated in the talk

  • Governments should remove conflicts of interest from guideline bodies and nutrition institutions.
  • Governments should restrict marketing of ultra-processed foods to children.
  • Governments should pursue fiscal policy options such as sugar taxes and reduced subsidies for harmful products.
  • Clinical care should prioritize real food and metabolic correction over indefinite pharmacotherapy.

References

  • jetMAEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    I’ll send you a direct message

    • jetMAEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      @[email protected] From a desktop I was about to get a summary that covers all the talking points I heard when I watched it. I think this is the best version.

      i like this version

      Thesis

      • Bad science, corporate greed, and corrupt politics drive Australia’s chronic disease crisis.
      • Ultra-processed food production and marketing displace whole-food diets and expand obesity and type 2 diabetes.

      Ideological origins of modern diet advice

      • Ellen G. White teaches that humans should avoid “flesh meat” and adopt a plant-based diet for health and spiritual aims.
      • Sanitarium Health Food Company operates as a Seventh-day Adventist institution and funds church missions with tax-free revenue.
      • John Harvey Kellogg develops cereal-based dietary doctrine inside a Seventh-day Adventist sanitarium system.
      • Ada Celia (AKA “Lenna Frances Cooper”) co-founds the American Dietetic Association while working at a sanitarium and builds dietetics institutions that promote plant-based doctrine.
      • Dietetics professional bodies shape public beliefs and national dietary guidelines and amplify plant-based and meat-reduction messaging.

      Food-industry financing of nutrition institutions

      • Dietitians Australia (formerly the Dietitians Association of Australia) takes funding from breakfast-cereal manufacturers and later wins the 2009 tender to conduct the literature search for the Australian Dietary Guidelines.
      • The Australian Breakfast Cereal Manufacturers Forum expects Dietitians Australia to “protect” and “defend” cereal and sugar messaging in exchange for annual payments.
      • Industry-funded research produces conclusions favorable to the funder at higher rates than non-industry-funded research.
      • Sanitarium partners with schools, nurses, and child health programs and distributes nutrition messaging through these channels.

      Red meat, saturated fat, and chronic disease messaging

      • A “50-year attack” targets foods high in saturated fat and targets red meat.
      • IARC cites six experimental studies and states a “possible link” between red meat and bowel cancer.
      • Cancer Council and other public-health organizations repeat a message that red meat causes bowel cancer.
      • Preventive Health SA promotes a weekly meat-free day, reduced saturated fat intake, and plant-based substitutions.
      • The Health Star Rating algorithm grants five stars to Weet-Bix and to UP&GO.

      Corporate partnerships and policy leverage

      • AdventHealth acquires Blue Zones rights in 2020 and sells city accreditation costing over $7 million per year.
      • Blue Zones accreditation requires cities to enforce plant-based procurement and other food-policy changes across schools, restaurants, and workplaces.
      • Coca-Cola funds and promotes “Exercise is Medicine” messaging that shifts focus to exercise instead of product reduction.
      • Food and beverage lobbyists influence governments and receive at least $5 billion per year in operating-cost tax relief.

      Pharmaceutical industry influence and enforcement gaps

      • Public Citizen Health Research Group documents hundreds of cases of unlawful pharmaceutical promotion with tens of billions of dollars in penalties.
      • Australia’s TGA funding model relies on pharmaceutical industry fees for 96% of its budget.
      • A 2014 paper reports concealed drug-company influence over clinical knowledge and medical education.
      • A 2016 study finds that industry payments to clinicians increase brand-name prescribing, including at low-dollar levels.
      • A 2017 Cochrane review compares industry-sponsored trials with other sponsorship and finds more favorable efficacy conclusions under industry sponsorship.
      • A 2009 meta-analysis reports self-admitted falsification or fabrication by scientists between 1992 and 2002 and reports a separate rate for observed misconduct.
      • The FDA authorizes many drugs between 2013 and 2023 despite inadequate evidence of efficacy.

      Diabetes remission and guideline conflict

      • The Australian National Diabetes Strategy (2021-2030) includes type 2 diabetes remission via dietary interventions and bariatric surgery.
      • The RACGP diabetes handbook includes a remission section and devotes many pages to pharmaceutical management.
      • Ten of eleven handbook authors have financial ties to pharmaceutical companies.
      • General practitioners trust the RACGP diabetes handbook as a core clinical reference.

      Actions advocated in the talk

      • Governments should remove conflicts of interest from guideline bodies and nutrition institutions.
      • Governments should restrict marketing of ultra-processed foods to children.
      • Governments should pursue fiscal policy options such as sugar taxes and reduced subsidies for harmful products.
      • Clinical care should prioritize real food and metabolic correction over indefinite pharmacotherapy.

      References