How Big Food Rigged Your Diet

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:04]Today I'm cooking a meal— I'm cutting the onion now? Is that what's going on?

[00:00:08]— to answer a question.

[00:00:09]Can we ever believe nutrition advice?

[00:00:12]Every nutrition influencer is telling you you're being lied to.

[00:00:16]And mostly, they're right.

[00:00:18]Millions of dollars are spent to influence your opinions about food.

[00:00:22]And as a result, nutrition advice seems confusing.

[00:00:26]Don't eat eggs because they're high in cholesterol, but you should eat them because they're high in protein.

[00:00:31]Constantly changing.

[00:00:32]We’ve got some urgent new information that you have to hear about.

[00:00:35]Whole milk versus skim milk, seed oils versus beef tallow, cane sugar versus corn syrup.

[00:00:43]Each of these questions are saturated with corporate propaganda.

[00:00:47]I've covered Big Food’s manipulation before, but I was hearing advice that confused even me, about healthy fats and whole foods.

[00:00:55]So I tracked down the scientists being paid off by industry and the lobbyists who shape how we think about food, and cooked a meal with a nutritionist.

[00:01:03]Got all of the — All to answer a simple question: if we strain out all the corporate influence, what's left of nutrition advice?

[00:01:13]Here's what got me interested in this question: the debate over saturated fat.

[00:01:18]For years, the U.S.' own dietary guidelines told us to keep a low fat diet.

[00:01:24]But now, I was hearing about studies that found low fat diets were pointless.

[00:01:29]Those on the low fat group had higher rates of heart attacks.

[00:01:34][Alec] That's FDA Commissioner Marty Makary.

[00:01:36]His allies say the advice to eat less fat was driven by the sugar and ultra-processed food industry.

[00:01:42]They wanted someone else to blame for our poor health.

[00:01:45]They suppressed the data for 16 years.

[00:01:48][Alec] Until now.

[00:01:49]The new dietary guidelines released at the start of this year were telling Americans: Eat real food.

[00:01:54]That means more protein, more dairy, more healthy fats.

[00:01:59]At the same time, I was hearing those new guidelines were driven by other corporate interests.

[00:02:04]How do you discern the truth when two massive industries are spending millions of dollars to get you on their side?

[00:02:11]We’re out of milk.

[00:02:12]So I got cooking, with a little help.

[00:02:15][Caitlin] My name is Caitlin Dow, I'm a nutrition scientist.

[00:02:17]Are there any health benefits of onions we should know about?

[00:02:20]Don't overthink it. Just, you know, eat vegetables.

[00:02:23]Great.

[00:02:24][Caitlin] I think the reason that I'm trustworthy in this space is because I don't have any conflicts of interest.

[00:02:30][Alec] Here was my mission for Caitlin.

[00:02:32]Design a meal that would appeal to my dumpster palate that also satisfied her professional obligations as a nutritionist.

[00:02:40][Caitlin] All right, so now we're going to make a yogurt sauce.

[00:02:43]Yogurt — I'm very confused if it's good or bad for me.

[00:02:46][Caitlin] It's really hard to understand how healthy or unhealthy dairy is, because almost all of the research is funded by the dairy industry.

[00:02:56]Turns out, this is a bit of a pattern in nutrition research.

[00:03:00]Do you have a favorite industry-funded study?

[00:03:02]Almonds versus muffins.

[00:03:03]Like, what a ridiculous comparison.

[00:03:06]And guess what? Almonds are better than muffins.

[00:03:09]These studies aren't just silly.

[00:03:10]They influence how we hear food being talked about.

[00:03:14]I hate to, like, rag on avocado, but they have a powerful board, and they fund an incredible amount of research.

[00:03:23]We have this idea that avocados are, like, the end all be all — and they're a healthy food — but they've been given outsized treatment.

[00:03:32][Alec] A few years ago, I spoke to a nutritionist, Marion Nestle, about this problem.

[00:03:36][Marion] Every food trade association, every vegetable, every fruit, every nut, every grain has research to demonstrate its relationship to health.

[00:03:47]That research ends up in meta-studies that look at all the available research on the topic, muddling the science even further.

[00:03:54]Confused about eggs and cholesterol?

[00:03:56]That's the egg industry.

[00:03:57]Cane sugar versus high fructose corn syrup?

[00:04:00]Sugar beet groups funded studies, scapegoating high fructose corn syrup for diabetes, and the Corn Refiners Association funded research saying, “Nuh-uh.”

[00:04:10]And people who do take money from food companies tend to say, “The money doesn't influence.”

[00:04:18]But unfortunately, research shows otherwise.

[00:04:21][Alec] In some cases, they're over seven times more likely to find favorable results, and one review found only 6.6% of industry studies have unfavorable results.

[00:04:32]To be fair, some studies contradict that research. Here's one.

[00:04:36]The author, quote, “received grants, honoraria, donations, royalties, and consulting fees from numerous publishers, food, beverage, pharmaceutical companies, and other commercial entities.”

[00:04:47]Oh.

[00:04:48]And Big Food has blanketed the nutrition space with so much money, it's created a bunch of fun secondary problems.

[00:04:55]When the government convenes experts to set our dietary guidelines, it's incredibly difficult to find people who haven't taken industry money.

[00:05:03]You may not consult those guidelines when you cook up a meal.

[00:05:06]But they profoundly shape the food we eat.

[00:05:09]1 in 4 Americans eat meals that are based on the dietary guidelines.

[00:05:14]The school lunch program, military food, and most hospital guidelines are based on that.

[00:05:20][Alec] Past dietary guidelines advisory members have had conflicts of interest with trade groups for walnuts, snack foods, corn syrup, sugar, pharma, dairy, meat, eggs, and many, many more.

[00:05:30]I was on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee in 1995.

[00:05:35]I would never be allowed on it again because I'm considered way too biased because I criticize the food industry.

[00:05:44]People who do not criticize the food industry are considered unbiased, which I find hilarious.

[00:05:54]That’s really good.

[00:05:55]The industry-funded studies, the conflicts of interest, that's all kind of an amuse-bouche for where the industry's real influence lies: an army of lobbyists who control the very language the government uses when dishing out nutrition advice.

[00:06:09]The food industry doesn't want any suggestion in dietary guidelines of eating less of their products.

[00:06:17]It's really simple.

[00:06:18]Industry has relentlessly fought to expunge words and phrases like “reduce” and “eat less” from any guidelines.

[00:06:24]In 1977, the National Cattlemen's Association successfully fought suggested language to “decrease consumption of meat and increase consumption of poultry and fish.”

[00:06:36]And for over a decade, the government listened to those lobbyists — never using synonyms of “decrease” and instead using words like “choose.”

[00:06:44]Since 2005, the final guidelines are not written by the advisory experts, but two federal agencies with political appointees who can be lobbied endlessly.

[00:06:55]RFK Jr. told America he'd bring integrity back to nutrition science — [RFK Jr.] We’re going to remove conflicts of interest from the USDA Dietary Panels and Commission.

[00:07:06]— but instead, he just picked sides.

[00:07:08]The report from the Dietary Guidelines Committee convened prior to RFK’s tenure had recommended emphasizing beans, legumes, and lentils as sources of lean protein.

[00:07:17]Then, the Cattlemen's Association complained about the anti-red meat language.

[00:07:22]RFK threw out that original report to convene his own experts.

[00:07:26][RFK Jr.] We now have a food pyramid, which we flipped upside down because it made more sense.

[00:07:31]That puts protein at the top of the food pyramid.

[00:07:36]In the end, the scientific basis for the current dietary guidelines was provided by nine individuals, and seven of them had conflicts of interest with either the meat or the dairy industry or with the dietary supplement industry.

[00:07:49]Basically, what they did was they fished around for people who they knew would have particular points of view, and then they gave them a platform to make the very points that RFK would have had them make.

[00:08:00][Alec] These experts disclosed financial relationships with General Mills, Novo Nordisk, Dannon, and our friends at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

[00:08:08]One member is straight up on the advisory board for the National Pork Board.

[00:08:11]Another, the company that makes Atkins and Quest bars.

[00:08:15]They also use decades of research funded by, well, the beef industry.

[00:08:20]Here's an NCBA executive snitching on themselves.

[00:08:23]They took into consideration the decades of research done on beef nutrition. That's checkoff-funded research.

[00:08:30][Alec] Hear that?

[00:08:31]That’s checkoff-funded research.

[00:08:32][Alec] Checkoff-funded research.

[00:08:34]Checkoff-funded research.

[00:08:36][Alec] Checkoff programs are basically a series of marketing organizations.

[00:08:40]It's how we got “Got Milk?” and “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner.”

[00:08:44]Defenders of the guidelines will say they still, technically, tell you to limit saturated fat.

[00:08:50]But it’s a sleight of hand.

[00:08:53]Is this a good portion of protein?

[00:08:55]Should I be eating like this if I want to be as cool and ripped as RFK?

[00:09:00]That's about, I would guess, 4 to 5 times as much steak as should be eaten in one sitting.

[00:09:09][Alec] Even if I lift weights?

[00:09:10][Caitlin] Even if you lift weights.

[00:09:11][Alec] Even if you look like RFK?

[00:09:13][Caitlin] Even if you look like RFK, even if you're as buff as RFK.

[00:09:17]Is he 70? How old is he?

[00:09:19]Even still, there is some truth to what RFK and Marty Makary are saying.

[00:09:25]The sugar industry was involved in blaming fat for our poor heart health.

[00:09:29]And there are legitimate studies showing reducing fat does not help.

[00:09:34]If you eat less saturated fat, you're going to eat more of something else.

[00:09:38]That's just how our diets work.

[00:09:41]What most people do, is that if they eat less saturated fat, they eat more refined carbs.

[00:09:48]And that's pretty much a wash for heart health.

[00:09:51]Can you give me two tortillas?

[00:09:53]Sure.

[00:09:54][Alec] We did opt for a tortilla.

[00:09:55]We compromised on whole grain, but I digress.

[00:09:59]The evidence that saturated fat is driving chronic disease has been piling on for 50 years.

[00:10:05]And we do have studies that pass Caitlin's high bar.

[00:10:08][Caitlin] They kept people in a hospital for a month at a time and fed them one diet that was maybe really high in butter, or really high in beef tallow, or really high in olive oil, and it's very clear.

[00:10:20]There's no mystery there. Butter, your LDL goes through the roof.

[00:10:25]Beef tallow is slightly under butter, and then olive oil, it drops.

[00:10:29]And you're telling me that we know these things is not because of the meddling of Big Soda, Big Sugar, Big Refined Carbohydrate?

[00:10:36]Yeah. That's correct.

[00:10:38]We we know these based off of NIH-funded, well-conducted studies.

[00:10:42]So with that, what can I eat if I want to cut down on my risk of things like heart disease?

[00:10:49]I hope to God I'm not going to make an idiot of myself, but we're just folding it, and if I do it wrong, this isn't my job, and it's not my fault.

[00:10:58]Believe it or not, despite all the industry shenanigans and all the media-fueled fad diets, nutrition advice hasn't changed that much since 1980.

[00:11:07][Marion] So this is the first dietary guideline, a simple little pamphlet.

[00:11:13][Caitlin] I think a lot of the reason that nutrition advice sounds really confusing is because the media needs clicks.

[00:11:21]And the fact that certain people have louder voices than others, including the meat and dairy industry, creates an impression that people are flip-flopping, when actually the changes from year to year are very small.

[00:11:33]This is so not interesting to say, but you fill your plate with mostly fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean protein.

[00:11:43]And that's what we did in a format that felt familiar and tasty to me.

[00:11:55][Caitlin] So, what are we making?

[00:11:58][Alec] The legally permissible version is a hexagon sandwich.

[00:12:01]Let’s cut that baby open.

[00:12:02]Okay.

[00:12:03]Is this your first crunchwrap?

[00:12:05]This might be my first crunchwrap.

[00:12:07][Alec] A whole tortilla filled with beans for protein, a cilantro 2% Greek yogurt sauce, and plants — pico de gallo, avocado.

[00:12:15]All with a heaping pile of salad with corn, tomato and more avocado.

[00:12:20]I'm not saying it's some hyper nutritionally-optimized meal, but it's something I'd feel satisfied eating.

[00:12:26]It cuts down on ultra-processed ingredients, and it follows the science of the last 50 years — eat less added sugars, less saturated fat, less salt, and fill up your plate with lots of plants.

[00:12:39]The new dietary guidelines told Americans to prioritize protein at every meal.

[00:12:44]The overwhelming majority of Americans, Caitlin tells me, get more than enough.

[00:12:50]Advertising like this would have you believe otherwise.

[00:12:54]Americans don't, however, eat nearly enough fiber — abundant in fruit, vegetables, and whole grains.

[00:12:59]I should say it's hard for lots of people to eat like this because of money, time, or even access.

[00:13:05]This story is about nutritional science, but if we really wanted to combat heart disease in America, we'd be talking about the food system more broadly, about subsidies, school lunches, access, even industry consolidation.

[00:13:18]Cheers to your first hexagon.