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Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

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21–30 of 537 posts

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but do you trust Big Butcher?

Based on the history of the past 1-ish century, I trust Big Meat & Dairy to have less capability for and competence at evil than Big Sugar. Because otherwise we'd have been hearing far more "Fat is Fine, Carbs are Crap" messages.

Well, there's the whole atkins and keto fads...

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#22
post #2

This meme is very healthy among MAHA, and Secretary Kennedy is overseeing an overhaul of the Dietary Guidelines, recasting saturated fat as a health food. There is a lot of speculation that we will soon see a new food pyramid that is an inverted version of the last one. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/10/08/nx... I wonder if it will keep flipping as administrations change. Edit: The new guidelines…

And most likely we will move too far in that direction in the near future. Too many people have their identity, religion, reputation, or paycheck invested in something about how they eat and so are unwilling to take an objective look at things. Instead they find studies that seem to fit their narrative and amplify them. They often will setup their experiments and data to get the results they want. And then we get into the reproducibility problem that science publications often have.

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#23
post #2

This meme is very healthy among MAHA, and Secretary Kennedy is overseeing an overhaul of the Dietary Guidelines, recasting saturated fat as a health food. There is a lot of speculation that we will soon see a new food pyramid that is an inverted version of the last one. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/10/08/nx... I wonder if it will keep flipping as administrations change. Edit: The new guidelines…

> There is a lot of speculation that we will soon see a new food pyramid that is inverted. Pretty much everyone I know understands that the food pyramid is the product of various lobbies coming together and does not represent a legitimate theory of diet or nutrition. That is independent of their politics or opinions about RFK. I don't think a change to the food pyramid would change anyone's actions, people haven't ta…

Don't public school lunches have to follow the food guide recommendations? Assuming that hasn't changed since I was in school, a recommendation based on something other than industry lobbying could help quite a bit with children's health and long term outlooks.

That said, I obviously don't know what this administration would propose as a new recommendation so I'm not implying it will be better. We'd have to see what they put out, if anything, to get an idea about that.

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but do you trust Big Butcher?

Based on the history of the past 1-ish century, I trust Big Meat & Dairy to have less capability for and competence at evil than Big Sugar. Because otherwise we'd have been hearing far more "Fat is Fine, Carbs are Crap" messages.

Surely you jest as the animal agriculture industry is many times larger than any "big sugar" boogeyman.

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on the history of the past 1-ish century, I trust Big Meat & Dairy to have less capability for and competence at evil than Big Sugar. Because otherwise we'd have been hearing far more "Fat is Fine, Carbs are Crap" messages.

Well, there's the whole atkins and keto fads...

And Atkins really started picking up in the 90s which was

https://web.archive.org/web/20120629041358/http://www.ers.us...

Oh hey right after beef CAFOs started dominating the industry.

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#26
post #12

When this news first came out it was mind blowing, but at the same time I don't entirely get it. So the money quote seems to be: > The literature review heavily criticized studies linking sucrose to heart disease, while ignoring limitations of studies investigating dietary fats. They paid a total of 2 people $50,000 (edit: in 2016 dollars). That doesn't seem like enough to entirely shape worldwide discourse around nu…

PR can be a lot of bang for your buck.

https://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#27
post #9
post #3

Maybe I read too much history - but hasn't Big Sugar been known for "nothing that a slave trader wouldn't do" ethics for the past 300+ years?

It is beyond me how anyone can expect any business (especially public traded) to have any ethics whatsoever.

In strong democracies, regulations provide the incentive.

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#28
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is beyond me how anyone can expect any business (especially public traded) to have any ethics whatsoever.

In strong democracies, regulations provide the incentive.

..and you think those work?

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is a lot of speculation that we will soon see a new food pyramid that is inverted. Pretty much everyone I know understands that the food pyramid is the product of various lobbies coming together and does not represent a legitimate theory of diet or nutrition. That is independent of their politics or opinions about RFK. I don't think a change to the food pyramid would change anyone's actions, people haven't ta…

Don't public school lunches have to follow the food guide recommendations? Assuming that hasn't changed since I was in school, a recommendation based on something other than industry lobbying could help quite a bit with children's health and long term outlooks. That said, I obviously don't know what this administration would propose as a new recommendation so I'm not implying it will be better. We'd have to see what…

Food pyramid was taught when I was in school, but that was before 2011 (as mentioned by another commenter) my own children are in school now and their school lunches align with more modern ideas (veggies and proteins). Certainly could still be improved but I recognize the cost, scale, delivery constraints, plus allergy considerations makes this non-trivial.

Re: Sugar industry influenced researchers and blamed fat for CVD (2016)

#30
post #2

This meme is very healthy among MAHA, and Secretary Kennedy is overseeing an overhaul of the Dietary Guidelines, recasting saturated fat as a health food. There is a lot of speculation that we will soon see a new food pyramid that is an inverted version of the last one. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/10/08/nx... I wonder if it will keep flipping as administrations change. Edit: The new guidelines…

If you do the opposite of whatever Kennedy recommends, you probably wouldn’t be too far off doing the right thing.

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