#2: Assessing Key Players in Nutrition Policy

Poor nutrition has created a public health crisis, and lack of willpower is not to blame.

Contributing to rising rates of obesity, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, the American diet consists of almost 60% ultra-processed foods. Even worse, less than 1 in 10 kids and adults consume enough fruits or vegetables.

Proper nutrition plays an outsized role in preventing diet-related chronic disease. But from food insecurity to genetically engineered “highly palatable foods” to a society that prioritizes profitability from “cheap calories in great abundance” over better-for-you foods, the odds are stacked against us.

Improving food access and affordability, integrating nutrition into an individual’s broader health, and enhancing nutrition and food security research, have all been focal points for government health agencies. In September 2022, with nutrition in mind, the Biden administration held the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in over 50 years. But while agencies such as the USDA and HHS are trusted with proposing guidelines for proper nutrition, they are repeatedly influenced by the very food companies producing ultra-processed and highly palatable foods from which consumers seek protection.

Every 5 years, a panel of 20 nutrition experts is chosen by the USDA and HHS to deliberate the latest in nutrition science and draft a report influencing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The issue? Many of the experts are nominated directly by the food industry, often backing researchers behind industry-funded studies aiming to create uncertainty in nutritional science. Such is the case with The National Potato Council and National Coffee Association, nominating academics supporting the consumption of fries and coffee.

This time around, only two nominees from large food industry groups made their way onto the panel. But in 2019, the American Beverage Association, United Egg Producers, Barilla, and Unilever, all got their nominees onto the committee.

Nothing new, groups influencing nutrition policy have, for years, accepted donations from producers of soda, sugar, candy, and ultra-processed foods. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, which shapes food policy and trains thousands of dietitians, took over $4m in donations from the likes of Coca-Cola, Hershey, and Kellogg. What’s more, the academy directly profits from holding over $1m in food industry stock.

Meanwhile, the American Society for Nutrition, a publisher of 3 scientific journals including the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, accepts membership fees from McDonald's and the Sugar Association. In response to the FDA’s proposed rule to include added sugars on food labels, the ASN claimed there was a “lack of consensus in scientific evidence on the health effects of added sugars alone versus sugars as a whole”.

Nowadays, the food industry is leveraging social media to shape eating habits, especially those of children. The Washington Post recently exposed dietitian “influencers” who were paid by American Beverage, a trade and lobbying group representing Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, to post videos denying the dangers of aspartame. As content downplaying the health risks of highly processed foods gains more clicks, delineating fact from fiction proves more difficult than ever — especially for a generation looking less to their doctors, and more toward the internet for health advice.

From a sugar executive funding a Harvard-scientist-led study exculpating sugar as a contributing factor toward heart disease —blaming saturated fats instead — to that very scientist ending up on the USDA, it’s no secret why Americans are unsure of what health information they can trust.

Rather than continue to suffer the consequences of poor nutrition, Americans are turning to consumer health adjacent better-for-you brands that offer science-backed solutions for well-being.

TrueMed is working to democratize these solutions by making them more affordable. Partnering with health and wellness companies to accept tax-advantaged FSA/HSA spending from customers, TrueMed’s mission is to “help more people afford true medicine”, by lowering the costs of gym memberships, sleep aids, wearables, better-for-you foods, and other health services. With a root-cause approach to chronic disease, TrueMed is helping doctors prescribe food, exercise, and sleep, as medicine.

To learn more, listen to this week’s podcast episode with Calley Means, Co-Founder of TrueMed.