CSPI demands transparency as Dietary Guidelines Committee suspected of pharma and food industry collusion

01 Feb 2023 ---The US-based Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and 14 other public health organizations have sent a letter calling for transparency from the federal government to disclose any potential financial conflicts of interest among the newly announced members of the Committee for the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025 to 2030. 

“A Committee member’s conflict of interest with a pharmaceutical or food company, for example, receiving research grant funding or speaker fees, could potentially bias their decision-making in favor of that company,” Jessi Silverman, senior policy associate at the CSPI, tells NutritionInsight.

Silverman stresses that, with transparency around financial conflicts, it is easier to hold the Committee and the federal government accountable for the science. “Therefore, the pharmaceutical and food industries stand to benefit from the public being kept in the dark at the expense of public health,” she adds.

When asked about willpower, Stanford responded “throw that out the window,” as she claims obesity is fully genetic.The letter explicitly refers to obesity specialist and newly appointed Committee member, Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford. She says that obesity is a brain disease that cannot be treated with exercise and a healthy diet.

“For many of us, we can go on a diet, like in the Biggest Losers, you restrict people [in over-eating], and you work out ten hours a day and feed them 500 calories. Most people will acutely lose weight, but 96% regain their weight [lost] because their brain worked well, and was supposed to bring them back to store what they needed, or what the brain thinks it needs,” says Stanford on the TV show 60 Minutes.

The TV host asked Stanford about willpower, to which she responded, “throw that out the window.” Additionally, the New York Times reported that Stanford has spent her career getting obesity medication to be a part of the curriculum, as “it should be treated as any other disease, not a failure of willpower.”

Prior attention
Silverman further points out that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the press have shed light on numerous ties to the food and pharmaceutical industries among members of previous Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committees.

“Standardizing disclosure of conflicts of interest is a necessary first step in minimizing related bias in their review of the science,” Silverman underscores.

She details that the guidelines have provided sensible and evidence-based advice, which has remained relatively consistent over the years. Still, the food industry’s influence sometimes succeeds in watering down strong recommendations.

“Food companies attempt to influence the development of the Dietary Guidelines in their favor throughout the entire process, from nominating advisory Committee members, submitting public comments and testimony, and holding closed-door meetings with public officials.”

“In 2017, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine made a series of recommendations to strengthen the Dietary Guidelines process and minimize bias, including improving the management of conflicts of interest on the Advisory Committee, but the Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture did not fully implement these recommendations.”

The letter details that the US Congress requested a National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report following the guidelines published in 2015 to 2020, where one area of improvement was the selection of Committee process, saying that “the perception of biases and conflicts of interests can undermine the public’s trust in the process.”The Us Congress has commented on the selection of the Committee saying, “the perception of biases and conflicts of interests can undermine the public’s trust in the process.”

Additionally, the letter says that there were several NGO reports questioning the trustworthiness of the Committee chosen for the 2020 guidelines based on the member’s ties with the industries.

High-risk bias
Silverman details that the CSPI urges the Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture to publicly disclose the financial conflicts of interest of the newly appointed Committee members.

“This is standard procedure for advisory Committees appointed by other federal agencies, so it should be for the Dietary Guidelines,” she underscores.

The role of the Committee is “reviewing the current body of nutrition science and developing a scientific report that includes its independent, science-based advice for the US Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture to consider.” 

“We have seen from COVID-19 how even the best-crafted scientific advice can be swept aside by those who question the sources of that advice, sometimes alleging conflicts of interest. Providing basic transparency, the way many government advisory Committees do, is a prerequisite to developing public trust,” says Dr. Peter G. Lurie, president at CSPI. 

Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics published a report on new guidance to tackle the epidemic of child and adolescent obesity in the US, where weight loss drugs or surgery are being proposed as an extra measure in addition to nutritional diets.

By Beatrice Wihlander