Member-only story
Why You’re So Confused about What to Eat
The shocking truth behind official guidelines
Everyone’s a nutrition expert these days. Wherever you turn, you’ll find a legion of pundits lining up to tell you what to eat, from your co-worker to your latest Internet guru. Then there are the official experts. They have all got something to say — and it’s all different.
Why not just trust the experts? Why are we even having this conversation?
Because people are not convinced that they can trust official dietary advice. In theory, these guidelines are unbiased, impartial and evidence based. In reality, they are a morass of bias, partiality and powerful commercial interests.
The AND
In the US, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), formerly the American Dietetic Association, is the country’s largest organisation of nutrition professionals, mainly registered dietitians. It exists ostensibly “..to reach a wider consumer audience with healthy eating messages.” But firmly embedded in its core is the food industry.
Some of those registered dietitians have left AND to join Dietitians for Professional Integrity, founded in 2013 by dietitian Andy Bellatti, in opposition to the Academy’s “long-standing and consistent alignment with purveyors of highly processed…