The documents, described in a report published Monday in Public Health Nutrition, a peer-reviewed journal, includes thousands of pages of the academy’s financial records, tax returns, and internal emails. They show that between 2011 and 2017, the organization received more than $4 million in donations from food companies and industry groups, including some of the world’s largest producers of soft drinks, sugar, candy and ultra-processed foods, such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Hershey’s, Kellogg’s and Conagra.
The academy not only accepted sponsorship money from big food companies, but also invested money in food industry stocks. For example, the documents show that in 2015 and 2016 the academy was over a million dollars worth of shares in PepsiCo, Nestlé and JM Smucker.
The documents were obtained by US Right to Know, an investigative group that has long been at loggerheads with big food companies but is also saddled with controversies of its own. US Right to Know posted on your website to accept funding from the Organic Consumers Association, which has been linked to the anti-vaccine movement. The organization has also said it is looking into the uncertainty about the origins of Covid-19.
The academy has been criticized for a long time for associating with processed food companies, but the full extent of his financial ties to the food industry has not been publicly disclosed.
In a statement, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics called the new report inaccurate and misleading, saying it had strict guidelines and principles for its corporate sponsors and supporters that “prohibited outside influence.”
“The Academy’s programs, leadership, decisions, policies and positions are not influenced by sponsors,” he said in his statement. “The Academy’s procedures and formal agreements with outside organizations are designed to prevent any undue corporate influence.”
The academy said less than 9 percent of its funding comes from sponsorships, and less than 3 percent of its and its foundation’s investments are in food companies. He said all sectors of the S&P 500 are represented in his stock portfolios.
Academia is a powerful force in nutrition. It boasts 112,000 credentialed professionals, including tens of thousands of registered dietitian nutritionists and other nutrition professionals. Academy members lobby Congress on health issues and regularly sit on the advisory committee that shapes the federal government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Although the academy has faced criticism for his ties to large food companies For years, it is a private organization and its confidential financial records are protected from public scrutiny. The new trove of documents only came to light because Donna Martin, a former academy president who works for a public school district in Georgia, used her school email for academy-related business, putting those communications on the public domain.
U.S. Right to Know says it spent five years acquiring more than 50,000 pages of documents largely through Freedom of Information Act requests.
The revelations provide a rare glimpse into how the food industry has maintained close relationships with the very organizations and individuals that are supposed to be advising consumers on healthy eating. This is what the report found:
- Many of the academy’s biggest contributions between 2011 and 2017 came from some of the world’s largest producers of soft drinks, sugar, candy and ultra-processed foods. Conagra, which owns brands like Slim Jim, Duncan Hines, Reddi-wip and Chef Boyardee, gave the academy at least $1.4 million. PepsiCo provided more than $486,000 in funding, and Coca-Cola gave the academy at least $477,000. Hershey gave the academy approximately $368,000 and Nestlé gave the academy more than $200,000 during this period.
- Financial backers of the academy included sugar industry trade groups such as the Sugar Association and the Corn Refiners Association, as well as influential lobby groups for the soft drink, meat, and dairy industries.
- The National Dairy Council was one of the academy’s largest sponsors, giving it at least $1.5 million between 2011 and 2017.
- the records indicate that the academy recognized that certain levels of financial support gave taxpayers more leverage. Companies that paid “sponsorship” fees received “specific rights and benefits.” Meanwhile, donors, grantors and supporters were defined as those who made “a charitable contribution without expecting a commercial return.”
Internal emails show that in 2014, Martin, who was then the group’s treasurer, brushed aside ethical concerns about investing in PepsiCo and suggested in a message to another academy executive that it would be fine for the group to also invest in Coca-Cola. .
“I personally like PepsiCo and I have no problem with us having it, but I wonder if anyone will say anything about it,” wrote Martin, who The Washington Post could not reach for comment. “I hope they are happy as they should be! I personally would be fine if we had Coca-Cola shares!!”
“I’m stunned,” said Marion Nestle, professor emeritus of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University and author of “Unsavory Truth,” a book about the food industry’s involvement in nutritional science. “These are people who are supposed to be talking about healthy diets. How can they be investing in companies that make ultra-processed products that make people sick?
The academy said its sponsorship deals with Coca-Cola and Hershey ended in 2015, and PepsiCo’s sponsorship ended in 2016.
Today, the Academy lists more than two dozen “supporters” on your website, ranging from the Hass Avocado Board and Mushroom Council to Tate & Lyle, one of the world’s largest producers of high-fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners. Another of the group’s supporters is the National Confectioners Association, a candy industry lobbying and trade group. whose members include Hershey, Mondelez International, Mars, and Jelly Belly Candy Company.
Do you have any questions about healthy eating? Email [email protected] and we may answer your question in a future column.
