Lore of Nutrition: Challenging conventional dietary beliefs

by Tim Noakes

Research shows that companies such as Unilever, Nestlé and Coca-Cola have embraced astroturfing to create the impression of genuine, grassroots movements to peddle their corporate agendas. Coca-Cola is a particularly egregious example. Research in 2016 showed that the company spent $118.6 million on health research and partnerships in the US between 2011 and 2015. That included funding for a group criticised for downplaying the role of sugary drinks in obesity.14 While it is tempting to finger companies such as Coca-Cola as the sole guilty party, the issue is more complex. As Leslie noted: ‘If, as seems increasingly likely, the nutritional advice on which we have relied for 40 years was profoundly flawed, this is not a mistake that can be laid at the door of corporate ogres. Nor can it be passed off as innocuous scientific error … It suggests instead that this is something the scientists did to themselves – and, consequently, to us.’15