Dietary Guidelines ‘Captured by Food and Pharma’: Expert

Nina Teicholz, founder of the Nutrition Coalition. Courtesy of Nina Teicholz

Significant ties to the food and pharmaceutical industry by members of the government agency tasked with establishing the dietary choices of hundreds of millions of school children, hospital patients, and countless others have raised concerns over whether the American diet has been corrupted.

According to a study authored by six researchers, including Teicholz, and funded in part by the Nutrition Coalition, 95 percent of the members of the 2020 expert committee for the Dietary Guidelines Advisory panel—a group of 20 people who establish national nutrition programs, standards, and education on what constitutes a healthy diet—had conflicts of interest with the food or pharmaceutical industries.

Coalition founder Nina Teicholz, an investigative author and science journalist, told The Epoch Times that a review of the members of the upcoming 2025 panel shows even more industry conflicts, claiming that “the USDA has been seemingly captured by food and pharma.”

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“People are right to be alarmed,” said Ms. Teicholz. “We are still seeing epidemic rates of obesity, diabetes, and many other diet-related diseases, which are crippling our national economy and our health. At the root of our problem is our dietary policy.”

A list of disclosures released by the committee shows that 2025 Advisory members have received funding from several dozen large food and pharmaceutical industries, including pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, Beyond Meat, Eli Lilly and Company, as well as Abbott industries, the creator of baby formula. However, the disclosures are unusual because they do not list conflicts by individual committee members. Instead, the disclosures are combined without attribution to any particular person.

‘Large Captive Population’

Ms. Teicholz says transparency is essential since these guidelines affect nearly every part of American society.

“The Dietary Guidelines as a policy is the single most influential lever on how we eat in America, affecting hundreds of millions of people,” she said. “By federal law, all federal programs must adhere to it, including school lunches. A huge amount of money pours into these programs; they are considered the gold standard. No other policy has a greater influence on the food supply.

“We have a large captive population. A child in school or a person in a hospital or prison is essentially trapped into this diet.”

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In a Jan. 19 press release announcing the role of the upcoming panel, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said the agency will be guided by science.

“The recent White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health underscored the need to understand the science of nutrition and the role that social structures play when it comes to people eating healthy food,” said Mr. Becerra. “The advisory committee’s work will play an instrumental role in that effort, and in helping HHS and USDA improve the health and wellbeing of all Americans.”

However, claims made by some of the panelists have already drawn criticism. Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford—who was selected for the committee despite reportedly receiving $23,188 last year from the drug manufacturer Novo Nordisk, the creators of the weight loss drug Ozempic—stated during a Jan. 1 episode of “60 Minutes” that obesity is not the result of lifestyle choices but a genetic “brain disease.”

“The No. 1 cause of obesity is genetics,” she claimed on the show. “That means, if you were born to parents that have obesity, you have a 50 percent to 85 percent likelihood of having the disease yourself, even with optimal diet, exercise, sleep management, and stress management.”

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Dr. Christopher Gardner, another selected panelist, has been outspoken about his veganism and has advocated that Americans follow a plant-based diet as a way to meet the “greenhouse gas emissions reductions originally pledged by the United States under the Paris Climate Agreement.”

The panel’s lack of any diversity of thought has been one of the largest obstacles, according to Ms. Teicholz.

“Everyone in that committee endorses traditional dietary dogma. For instance, not a single person in the current committee has any experience researching low-carb diets or has written about how saturated fat has been unfairly maligned,” said Ms. Teicholz.

“These committees are supposed to be balanced. But this committee is anything but balanced.”

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Beginning in 1980, after the United States first released its Dietary Guidelines, on the suggestion of officials, Americans began to shift their diets away from the meat, eggs, and whole milk consumed by past generations and instead became increasingly reliant on carbohydrates and foods low in saturated fats. Over the same period, metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes skyrocketed. 

‘We Have Only Gotten Sicker’

The most current dietary guideline, “MyPlate,” divides the diet into five food groups: fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins, and low-fat and fat-free dairy. For proteins, the website instructs, “Eat a variety of protein foods to get more of the nutrients your body needs. Meat and poultry choices should be lean or low-fat, like 93% lean ground beef, pork loin, and skinless chicken breasts.”

Ms. Teicholz says it is no coincidence that the United States has witnessed a massive increase in sickness and disease.

“We have followed the guidelines, but instead of getting healthier, we have gotten only sicker,” said Ms. Teicholz. “There are no clinical trials that show following the dietary guidelines improves health. However, there are quite a few clinical trials that show following them is harmful to health.

“The evidence is clear: no person who seeks health should follow their advice.”