We know things can change in the blink of an eye when it comes to the foods we should put in our shopping carts and the foods we should leave out—at least according to the powers that be. Only recently, we learned how the sugar industry funded research that falsely portrayed fat as the demon of heart disease. How on earth does this even happen? Who’s really making our food choices?
Special interest groups constantly lobby the USDA. Practically each and every ingredient you can think of has a champion working behind the scenes to make sure consumers view it in the most positive light. If food marketers have enough money to back a particular ingredient, there’s a much better chance it will become the next golden child of the food industry—and make as much profit as possible.
So, in many ways, these special interest groups are making our food choices for us. But not necessarily with our best interest, or good health, in mind. Unless you’re a devoted self-healther, you could be making foolish food choices without even realizing it.
But is there a chance this could all be changing?
Daniel Lubetzky, founder and CEO of KIND Snacks, launched his organization Feed the Truth with a mission “to improve public health by making truth, transparency and integrity the foremost values in today’s food system.” The idea is to motivate nutritionists and other health professionals to get involved in forming nutrition policy.
It’s important to note that Lubetzky isn’t attempting to contrive a new kind of special interest group that he can control. Rather, as Lubetzky explains in this interview with CBS News, his role was in creating and funding the organization, and he won’t be involved in choosing the board of directors.
Will Feed the Truth be effective in educating the general public about honest nutrition facts, with no influence from food lobbyists? Right now, that’s anyone’s guess. But it certainly seems like a step in the right direction—and a righteous goal.
For now, there are things you can do immediately to start (or supplement) your self-health nutrition education: browse the hundreds of free articles collected in the SRP Historical Archives. Catch up on the smart, informative blog posts at the SRP Self-Health Nutrition blog.
Dr. Royal Lee and his contemporaries were spreading the word about proper nutrition and educating the public about their food choices decades ago. And that’s something that never goes out of style.
Photo from iStock/Kwangmoozaa
Paula Widish, author of Trophia: Simple Steps to Everyday Self-Health, is a freelance writer and self-healther. She loves nothing more than sharing tidbits of information she discovers with others. (Actually, she loves her family more than that—and probably bacon too.) Paula has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Public Relations and is a Certified Professional Life Coach through International Coach Academy.
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