On June 15, 2016, I read this article in our newspaper written by Candice Choi/Associated Press that disclosed the dishonesty of the candy companies in an effort, no different than the Biotec, Big Food, Big pHarma and all the others, to put profit before honesty and integrity. Here goes . .
Industry insiders are shaping the nutrition research about their products. It was a startling scientific finding: Children who eat candy tend to weigh less than those who don’t.
Less startling was how it came about. The paper was funded by a trade association representing the makers of butterfingers, Hershey and Skittles. And its findings were touted by the group even though one of its authors didn’t seem to think much of it.
“We’re hoping they can do something with it – it’s thin and clearly padded,” a nutrition professor wrote to one of her co-authors in 2011, with an abstract for the paper attached.
The comment was in emails obtained by the Associated press through records requests with public universities as part of an investigation into how food companies influence attitudes about healthy eating.
One of the industry’s most powerful tactics is the funding of nutrition research. It carries the weight of academic authority, becomes a part of scientific literature and generates headlines.
Funders say the follow guidelines to ensure scientific integrity, and many researchers see industry collaboration as critical for advancing science. Critics fear that companies use science for marketing and hype the findings.
The thinner-children-ate-candy research was drawn from a government database of surveys that asks people to recall what they ate in the past 24 hours. The data “may not reflect usual intake,” and “cause and effect association cannot be drawn,” the candy papers authors wrote.
The candy association’s press release did not mention that and declared, “New study shows children and adolescents who eat candy are less overweight or obese.”
Carol O’Neil, the Louisiana State University professor who made the “thin and clearly padded” remark, said in a phone interview the comment was a reference to the abstract she had attached for her co-author to provide feedback on, and that she did not remember why she made it. She said she believed that full paper was “robust.”
Since 2009 the candy paper authors have written papers for funders including Kellogg and industry groups for beef and fruit juice. O’Neil’s co-authors were Theresa Nicklas at the Baylor College of Medicine and Victor Fulgoni, a former Kellogg executive and consultant whose website says he helps develop “aggressive, science-based claims about their products.”
Industry-funded studies don’t have a monopoly on the problems in research, of course. But Marion Nestle, a professor on nutrition at New York University (who was a guest on my radio show), said unlike other research, they are designed to be “useful in marketing.”
The emails show how financial concerns can motivate researchers. In 2010 Nicklas said she decided against attending a General Mills summit because she didn’t want to “jeopardize” a proposal the group planned to submit to Kellogg. For another project Fulgoni advised O’Neil against adding data.
“I suggest we focus on these first and ‘hook’ Kellogg for more funding before conducting more analyses,” he wrote.
For their about candy-eating children, a disclosure says the funders had no role in writing the manuscript. Emails obtained from LSU show the National Confectioners Association made a number of suggestions.
In 2010 Fulgoni wrote to O’Neil and said, “You’ll note I took most but not all their comments. I have waded through the comments from NCA. Attached is my attempt to edit based on their feedback.” Flugoni said the group runs manuscripts by clients to check for errors or omissions.
Chris Gindelsperger, a spokesman for the NCA, said the group’s suggestions did not change results. He pointed to another paper that came to the same conclusion by analyzing multiple studies.
O’Neil said Fulgoni’s consulting business, Nutrition Impact, gets most of the funding and that she receives no compensation. As a research faculty, O’Neil is expected to publish.
A Baylor College of Medicine representative, Lori Williams, said the school did not receive payment from the candy association or Nutrition Impact for the paper co-authored by Nicklas.
In 2011 Nicklas sent Nutrition Impact and invoice for $11,500 for three manuscripts, including $2,500 for “candy.” After being provided a copy of the invoice by the Associated Press, Williams said the school began a review “surrounding funding and disclosure on this research.”
Another paper by the co-authors found a link between chickpeas and hummus and better nutrient intake. It was funded by Sabra Dipping Co., and a disclosure says funders had no input in its drafting.
But Sabra provided feedback that was incorporated. For a line on the benefits of “recipes made from chickpeas,” it suggested adding, “such as hummus.”
Sabra said it received a courtesy review for “providing clarifying notes and ensuring accuracy of product data.”
Eric Hentges, executive director of the International Life Sciences Institute, said sponsors provide comments to ensure excellence but authors have the final say. ILSI is funded by firms including McDonalds and Unilever.
The emails point to other instances where scientists and industry appear to have cozy relationships:
For a study comparing breakfasts for children, the American Egg Board asked a University of Arkansas to explain her study’s implications for the egg industry, which could lead to increased sales and profits.
In a statement, Jamie Baum an assistant professor of nutrition at the U of A, said it is standard for funders to ask about industry implications and that she always applies the same scientific rigor.
In God we trust. All others pay cash!
Aloha!
To learn more about Hesh, listen to and read hundreds of health related radio shows and articles, and learn about how to stay healthy and reverse degenerative diseases through the use of organic sulfur crystals and other amazing superfoods, please visit www.healthtalkhawaii.com, or email me at [email protected] or call me at (808) 258-1177. Since going on the radio in 1981 these are the only products I began to sell because they work.
Oh yeah, going to www.asanediet.com will allow you to read various parts of my book – “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”, containing a wonderful comment by Mike Adams.
In Hawaii, the TV stations interview local authors about the books they write and the newspapers all do book reviews. Not one would touch “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”. Why? Because it goes against their advertising dollars.
Just to put things in perspective, after I graduated from Weequahic High School and before going to Seton Hall University, I had a part-time job working for a butcher. I was the delivery guy and occasionally had to go to the slaughterhouse to pick up products for the store. Needless to say, I had no consciousness nor awareness, as change never came then despite the horrors I witnessed on an almost daily basis.
After graduating with a degree in accounting from Seton Hall, I eventually got married and moved to a town called Livingston. Livingston was basically a yuppie community where everyone was judged by the neighborhood they lived in and their income. To say it was a "plastic" community would be an understatement.
Livingston and the shallowness finally got to me. I told my wife I was fed up and wanted to move. She made it clear she had to be near her friends and New York City. I finally got my act together and split for Colorado.
I was living with a lady in Aspen at the end of 1974, when one day she said, " let's become vegetarians". I have no idea what possessed me to say it, but I said, "okay"! At that point I went to the freezer and took out about $100 worth of frozen, dead body parts and gave them to a welfare mother who lived behind us. Well, everything was great for about a week or so, and then the chick split with another guy.
So here I was, a vegetarian for a couple weeks, not really knowing what to do, how to cook, or basically how to prepare anything. For about a month, I was getting by on carrot sticks, celery sticks, and yogurt. Fortunately, when I went vegan in 1990, it was a simple and natural progression. Anyway, as I walked around Aspen town, I noticed a little vegetarian restaurant called, "The Little Kitchen".
Let me back up just a little bit. It was April of 1975, the snow was melting and the runoff of Ajax Mountain filled the streets full of knee-deep mud. Now, Aspen was great to ski in, but was a bummer to walk in when the snow was melting.
I was ready to call it quits and I needed a warmer place. I'll elaborate on that in a minute.
But right now, back to "The Little Kitchen". Knowing that I was going to leave Aspen and basically a new vegetarian, I needed help. So, I cruised into the restaurant and told them my plight and asked them if they would teach me how to cook. I told them in return I would wash dishes and empty their trash. They then asked me what I did for a living and I told them I was an accountant.
The owner said to me, "Let's make a deal. You do our tax return and we'll feed you as well". So for the next couple of weeks I was doing their tax return, washing their dishes, emptying the trash, and learning as much as I could.
But, like I said, the mud was getting to me. So I picked up a travel book written by a guy named Foder. The name of the book was, "Hawaii". Looking through the book I noticed that in Lahaina, on Maui, there was a little vegetarian restaurant called," Mr. Natural's". I decided right then and there that I would go to Lahaina and work at "Mr. Natural's." To make a long story short, that's exactly what happened.
So, I'm working at "Mr. Natural's" and learning everything I can about my new dietary lifestyle - it was great. Every afternoon we would close for lunch at about 1 PM and go to the Sheraton Hotel in Ka'anapali and play volleyball, while somebody stayed behind to prepare dinner.
Since I was the new guy, and didn't really know how to cook, I never thought that I would be asked to stay behind to cook dinner. Well, one afternoon, that's exactly what happened; it was my turn. That posed a problem for me because I was at the point where I finally knew how to boil water.
I was desperate, clueless and basically up the creek without a paddle. Fortunately, there was a friend of mine sitting in the gazebo at the restaurant and I asked him if he knew how to cook. He said the only thing he knew how to cook was enchiladas. He said that his enchiladas were bean-less and dairy-less. I told him that I had no idea what an enchilada was or what he was talking about, but I needed him to show me because it was my turn to do the evening meal.
Well, the guys came back from playing volleyball and I'm asked what was for dinner. I told them enchiladas; the owner wasn't thrilled. I told him that mine were bean-less and dairy-less. When he tried the enchilada he said it was incredible. Being the humble guy that I was, I smiled and said, "You expected anything less"? It apparently was so good that it was the only item on the menu that we served twice a week. In fact, after about a week, we were selling five dozen every night we had them on the menu and people would walk around Lahaina broadcasting, 'enchilada's at "Natural's" tonight'. I never had to cook anything else.
A year later the restaurant closed, and somehow I gravitated to a little health food store in Wailuku. I never told anyone I was an accountant and basically relegated myself to being the truck driver. The guys who were running the health food store had friends in similar businesses and farms on many of the islands. I told them that if they could organize and form one company they could probably lock in the State. That's when they found out I was an accountant and "Down to Earth" was born. "Down to Earth" became the largest natural food store chain in the islands, and I was their Chief Financial Officer and co-manager of their biggest store for 13 years.
In 1981, I started to do a weekly radio show to try and expose people to a vegetarian diet and get them away from killing innocent creatures. I still do that show today. I pay for my own airtime and have no sponsors to not compromise my honesty. One bit of a hassle was the fact that I was forced to get a Masters Degree in Nutrition to shut up all the MD's that would call in asking for my credentials.
My doing this radio show enabled me, through endless research, to see the corruption that existed within the big food industries, the big pharmaceutical companies, the biotech industries and the government agencies. This information, unconscionable as it is, enabled me to realize how broken our health system is. This will be covered more in depth in the Introduction and throughout the book and when you finish the book you will see this clearly and it will hopefully inspire you to make changes.
I left Down to Earth in 1989, got nationally certified as a sports injury massage therapist and started traveling the world with a bunch of guys that were making a martial arts movie. After doing that for about four years I finally made it back to Honolulu and got a job as a massage therapist at the Honolulu Club, one of Hawaii's premier fitness clubs. It was there I met the love of my life who I have been with since 1998. She made me an offer I couldn't refuse. She said," If you want to be with me you've got to stop working on naked women". So, I went back into accounting and was the Chief Financial Officer of a large construction company for many years.
Going back to my Newark days when I was an infant, I had no idea what a "chicken" or "egg" or "fish" or "pig" or "cow" was. My dietary blueprint was thrust upon me by my parents as theirs was thrust upon them by their parents. It was by the grace of God that I was able to put things in their proper perspective and improve my health and elevate my consciousness.
The road that I started walking down in 1975 has finally led me to the point of writing my book, “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”. Hopefully, the information contained herein will be enlightening, motivating, and inspiring to encourage you to make different choices. Doing what we do out of conditioning is not always the best course to follow. I am hoping that by the grace of the many friends and personalities I have encountered along my path, you will have a better perspective of what road is the best road for you to travel on, not only for your health but your consciousness as well.
Last but not least: after being vaccinated as a kid I developed asthma, which plagued me all of my life. In 2007 I got exposed to the organic sulfur crystals, which got rid of my asthma in 3 days and has not come back in over 10 years. That, being the tip of the iceberg, has helped people reverse stage 4 cancers, autism, joint pain, blood pressure problems, migraine headaches, erectile dysfunction, gingivitis, and more. Also, because of the detoxification effects by the release of oxygen that permeates and heals all the cells in the body, it removes parasites, radiation, fluoride, free radicals, and all the other crap that is thrust upon us in the environment by Big Business.
For more, please view www.healthtalkhawaii.com and www.asanediet.com.
Namaste!
