Last Spring, US Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr summarily dismissed the expert-advised study intended to inform changes to the nation’s nutritional guidelines, claiming it was dominated by scientists with ties to the food and pharmaceutical industries.
He then commissioned a new report justifying the new dietary guidelines released last week. The report’s nine scientific reviewers included six with financial ties to food companies and the beef and milk industries’ trade groups. The updated guidelines put high-protein diets based on meat and milk atop the food pyramid, despite Americans already overconsuming those protein sources based on previous guidelines.
The ninety-page report, titled “The Scientific Foundation for the Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” listed Christopher Ramsden from the National Institute on Aging as its primary author. According to the report, Ramsden received “input and revisions” from unnamed persons at the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture.
The report also listed the names of its nine-member scientific review panel, along with their financial conflict-of-interest disclosure statements. The information fulfills, at least in this one instance, RFK Jr’s promise that his administration would be radically transparent about its decision-making process.
But the conflicts of interest, first reported by health care publication StatNews, make a mockery of his promise to eliminate industry influence over agency decisions. Two-thirds of the reviewers had financial relationships within the past three years with corporate entities that had a direct stake in the outcome of the guidelines. Several had ties to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the National Dairy Council.
There is no evidence that the new committee members received the legally required vetting for conflicts of interest under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) of 1972. FACA…
Auteur: Merrill Goozner
