Bribing Researchers Brought Us the Low-Fat Diet

New documents that only recently came to light reveal that a famous Harvard University health researcher took $6,500 in 1965 (the equivalent of about $50,000 today) to slant a major article to suggest that saturated fat was dangerous but sugar was safe for the heart.The research that the Sugar Research Foundation, now known as the Sugar Association, bought and paid for appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1967.

Misinformation About the Roles of Dietary Fat and Sugar in Heart Disease

Entitled "Dietary fats, carbohydrates and atherosclerotic vascular disease," the article was co-authored by nutrition researcher Mark Hegsted. The article, which appeared in two parts, tracked the relationship between fat consumption (actually the amount of fat available in the food supply, not the amount actually consumed) and heart disease in 14 countries. The article correctly pointed out that the United States had the world's highest consumption of dietary fat and the world's highest rate of heart disease, Australia, New Zealand, and Finland slightly lower consumption of fat and slightly lower rates of heart disease, and Japan had very low consumption of fat and very low rates of heart disease.

Hegsted, who died in 2009 at the age of 95, pioneered the "Hegsted Equation," which predicted that:

• saturated fat from meat and eggs would increase the risk of heart disease,
• monosaturated fat from olives and avocados would have no effect on heart disease, and
• polyunsaturated fat from sources like nuts and seeds would lower heart disease.

His scientific papers were heavily publicized in the middle of the 1960's to make him something of a rock star of nutrition.

Hegsted became an editor of nutritional research publications, allowing him to reject papers that would contradict the claims of the sugar industry. Since only pro-sugar research could get published, the US Congress came to support the idea of lowering dietary fat to reduce heart disease for the whole country.

Hegsted went on to become the US Department of Agriculture official who gave us the nutritional pyramid.

He wasn't completely honest in his research, but that did not stop him from having huge influence on the diets of hundreds of millions of Americans.

Derailed the Discussion of the Role of Sugar in Heart Disease for 50 Years

This article derailed discussions of sugar's role in heart disease for 50 years, says Stanton Glantz, professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco and author of the paper exposing the bribes, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in September 2016. Glantz points out: 

" Only in the last 10 to 15 years have medical journals begun to publish research that shows the link between excessive sugar consumption and heart disease."

Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, wrote an editorial to confirm that the documents provided “compelling evidence” that the sugar industry had initiated research

“expressly to exonerate sugar as a major risk factor for coronary heart disease."

For a $6500 payment, the Sugar Association assured billions in sales would not be jeopardized by letting the public know about the dangers of excessive consumption of sugar-laden foods.

Do Food Companies Really Manipulate Medical Research in Their Favor?

The story of the Sugar Association's paying thousands of dollars to Harvard professors to get the results it wanted is more than ancient history. It is just one example of how nutritional research is slanted by academics who depend on big food companies to pay their bills. And the amounts of money donated by sugar-sweetened soft drink producers today make $6500 in 1965 seem like a pittance. Here is the recent history of just one sugar-sweetened soft drink company, Coca-Cola.

• In 2014, Coke gave an “unrestricted monetary gift” of $1 million to the University of Colorado Foundation. However, this money was used to fund the Global Energy Balance Network, which promotes its new “science-based” solution to the global obesity crisis: To maintain a healthy weight, get more exercise and worry less about cutting calories. In other words, exercise more and keep drinking Coke.
• Since 2008, Coke has contributed $4 million to the research laboratories exercise scientist Dr. Steven Blair, a professor at the University of South Carolina whose research over the past 25 years has formed much of the basis of federal guidelines on physical activity, and Gregory A. Hand, dean of the West Virginia University School of Public Health. Federal exercise guidelines emphasize getting enough physical activity to make drinking sweet beverages OK.
• Dr. Gregory Hand has received $800,000 for a study of "energy flux" to justify the inclusion of sugar in the diet.
• Coke has funded 100 physical activity centers in schools, including Coke machines.
• Dietitians are offered payments to promote including Coca-Cola in the diet.
• An article published in the journal PLoS Medicine found that Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, the American Beverage Association and the sugar industry were

The sugar industry is no longer trying to tell us that fat causes heart disease. The new message is that sugar doesn't really make us fat. After all, the scientists with their sugar daddies tell us, as long as calories in is less than calories out, you'll lose weight. Nobody likes to eat less, so just exercise more. But is that what recent science is really telling us?

READ The Revolutionary New Complementary Cancer Treatment Is... Coca Cola?

In one recent study published in the journal Obesity, scientists recruited 200 overweight people and put them on a rigorous exercise program, telling them not to change what they ate. The participants in the study were monitored to make sure they exercised 5 to 6 hours a week, double the 2.5 hours a week recommended by federal guidelines. At the end of one year, the average weight lost was 3.5 pounds (1.5 kilos) for men, 2.5 pounds (1 km) for women.

We're also told that it's OK to sneak a snack or down a tasty soda if we just get some exercise.

Don't drink the sugar-sweetened Koolaid. Sugar isn't poison, but it does put on weight. Exercise is essential, but you can't lose weight without eating less. Don't let industry shills tell you otherwise.