US diet influencers were paid by the food industry. the revelation of the WP

At a time when influencers are under accusation for having exclusively economic purposes in their communication, an interesting article, published more than a month ago, in the Washington Post has come under scrutiny in which dietitians who communicate on social media, even when they are professionals.

The reason? Simple: even these professional dietitians, for their communication, took money directly from the food industry and not from the natural products industry, but from the more "chemical" products industry.

Here are examples: This summer, when the World Health Organization raised concerns about the risks of a popular artificial sweetener, a new hashtag began spreading on health professionals' social media accounts: #safetyofaspartame.

Steph Grasso, a dietitian from Oakton, Va., used the hashtag and told her 2.2 million TikTok followers that the WHO's warnings about artificial sweeteners were "clickbait" based on "low-quality science." .
Another dietician, Cara Harbstreet of Kansas City, reassured her Instagram followers not to worry about “fear-inducing headlines” about aspartame because “the evidence does not suggest there is any cause for concern.” In a third video, Mary Ellen Phipps, a Houston-area dietitian who specializes in diabetes care, sipped from a glass of soda and told her Instagram viewers that artificial sweeteners "satisfy the craving for sweetness" without affecting blood sugar or insulin levels.

The problem is that these dietitians forgot to mention that they were paid to post their videos by American Beverage, a trade and lobbying group that represents Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola. The dieticians' campaign was coordinated and extensive, with at least 10 dieticians making 35 posts to cushion the impact of the WHO communication

The campaign, which the drinks group acknowledged organizing, highlighted a little-known tactic the multibillion-dollar food and drink industry uses to influence consumers who are faced with often contradictory health messages on products most widespread.

So the food, beverage and dietary supplement industry pays dozens of registered dietitians who collectively have millions of social media followers to help sell products and spread industry-friendly messages on Instagram and TikTok.

An analysis of thousands of posts found that companies and industry groups have paid dietitians for content that encourages viewers to eat candy and ice cream, belittles the health risks of highly processed foods, and promotes unproven supplements – messages that go against decades of scientific evidence on healthy eating. The review found that among 68 dietitians with 10,000 or more social media followers on TikTok or Instagram, about half promoted foods, drinks or supplements to their 11 million followers in the past year.

So here we went a little further than paying normal influencers: money was given to medical professionals to influence consumption to disprove news that was actually real. Very few professionals reported that they had actually taken money. These professionals have thus influenced the eating habits of very young people and families who were looking for reliable advice and references.

American Beverage justified itself for this campaign by stating that the Food and Drug Administration considered aspartame safe, but this is old research and the federal agency, as is known from various cases similar to Oxycontin, is not exactly waterproof to industry pressures. Then the justification was very reminiscent of those of the smoking lobbyist in the film " Thank you for smoking ".

“The registered dietitians and nutritionists we relied on shared their informed opinions when communicating the facts to their audiences and openly stated that they were paid,” said William Dermody, a spokesman for American Beverage. They are happy…

It must be said that most of the 78,000 dietitians and nutritionists in the United States are not social media influencers. Many work in hospitals, health departments and private practices, and their median annual salary is $66,450, according to 2022 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, those who are carry a great responsibility with them

Dietitian Lindsay Pleskot, of Vancouver, British Columbia, posted videos of herself eating ice cream and peanut butter cups, telling people that denying herself sugary foods only makes cravings worse. These and other posts were paid for by the Canadian Sugar Institute. The trade group, which is funded by sugar producers, includes the videos on its Instagram page.
In one video, Pleskot held up a glazed donut and a chocolate chip cookie and mocked advice to reduce sugar intake. He said the “best” ways to reduce sugar are “with a knife, with your hands, even with your teeth.”

Another dietitian with a huge following on social media, Jenn Messina of North Vancouver, posted a video on Instagram of herself adding a lollipop to a dish. She told parents that this strategy “prevents obsession with sweets” and helps children develop a healthier relationship with food. In another Instagram video, she told parents they can make Halloween less stressful by letting kids eat all the candy they want when they're done trick-or-treating.
“This helps reduce the supply and make everything less 'important,'” he wrote in the text accompanying the video. “Yes, they might vomit. It's a great life lesson." Jenn Messina also received contributions from the Canadian Sugar Institute.

The Washington Post analysis also found that dietitians were paid to tout the benefits of dietary supplements that have no scientific consensus, including products such as collagen supplements promoted for healthy skin, nails and joints; detox teas that claim to help the body expel toxins, and capsules marketed for “mitochondrial health.”

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the trade group that oversees registered dietitians, has a code of ethics that states that dietitians must disclose conflicts of interest and avoid “accepting gifts or services that potentially influence or give impression of influencing professional judgement”.
Lauri Wright, president of the association, said the group educates its members "so that dietitians know what the line is and how not to cross it."

There's a problem: The food and beverage industry has for years cultivated a close relationship with the academy, which has accepted millions of dollars in donations from major manufacturers of soft drinks, candy and ultra-processed foods, including Coca-Cola. Cola, PepsiCo and Nestle.
The academy allowed these companies to provide continuing education courses to its dietitians and invested in food industry stocks. Two of the academy's sponsors are American Beverage and Tate & Lyle, one of the world's largest producers of high-fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners.

The meaning of this article is the following: take everything you see online with a little grain of salt. Remember that even professionals, when they communicate, do so for a reason that may not be perfectly altruistic. Indeed, if they are professionals, by definition, they are paid for their activity. Think about it.

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The article US diet influencers were paid by the food industry. the WP revelation comes from Economic Scenarios .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/gli-influencer-dietisti-usa-erano-pagati-dallindustria-alimentare-la-rivelazione-del-wp/ on Thu, 21 Dec 2023 21:04:09 +0000.