This is really just a more refined, more potent version of the tactical doubt sown by Big Tobacco about whether smoking caused cancer, a playbook later adopted by the fossil fuel industry to sell climate denial. You know Darrell Huff's 1954 classic *How To Lie With Statistics*? Huff was a Big Tobacco shill (his next book, which wasn't ever published, was *How To Lie With Cancer Statistics*).

2/

Fat stigma is real. The mental health risks of fat-shaming are real. Eating disorders are real. Discrimination against fat people is *real*. The fact that these things are *real* doesn't mean that the food industry can't flood the zone with shit, though. On the contrary: the urgency of these issues, combined with the poor regulation of dietitians, makes the "what should you eat" zone *perfect* for flooding with endless quantities of highly profitable shit.

12/

Perhaps you've gotten some of this shit on you. Have you found yourself watching a video from a dietitian influencer like Cara Harbstreet, Colleen Christensen or Lauren Smith, promoting "health at any size" with hashtags like #DerailTheShame and #AntiDiet? These were paid campaigns sponsored by General Mills, Pepsi, and other multinational, multibillion-dollar corporations.

13/

Writing for *The Examination*, Sasha Chavkin, Anjali Tsui, Caitlin Gilbert and Anahad O'Connor describe the way that some of the world's largest and most profitable corporations have hijacked a movement where fat people and their allies fight stigma and shame and used it to peddle the lie that their heavily processed, high-calorie food is good for you:

theexamination.org/articles/as…

14/

As obesity rises, Big Food and dietitians push 'anti-diet' advice

General Mills warns of “food shaming"; dietitian influencers promote junk foods and discourage weight loss efforts.

^{Sasha Chavkin (www.theexamination.org)}

It's a surreal tale. They describe a speech by Amy Cohn, General Mills’ senior manager for nutrition, to an audience at a dietitian's conference, where Cohn "denounced the media for 'pointing the finger at processed foods' and making consumers feel ashamed of their choices." This is some next-level nihilism: rather than railing against the harmful stigma against fat people, Cohn wants us to fight the stigma against *Cocoa Puffs*.

15/

This message isn't confined to industry conferences. Dietitians with large Tiktok followings like Cara Harbstreet then carry the message out to the public. In Harbstreet's video promoting Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs and Trix, she says, "I will always advocate for fearlessly nourishing meals, including cereal...Because everyone deserves to enjoy food without judgment, especially kids":

tiktok.com/@streetsmart.rd/vid…

16/

Dietitians, nutritionists and the food industry have always had an uncomfortably close relationship, but the industry's shitflooding kicked into high gear when the FDA proposed rules limiting which foods the industry can promote as "healthy." General Mills, Kelloggs and Post have threatened a First Amendment suit against such a regulation, arguing that they have a free speech right to describe manifestly *unhealthy* food as "healthy."

17/

The anti-diet movement - again, a legitimate movement aimed at fighting the dangerous junk science behind dieting - has been co-opted by the food industry, who are paying dietitian influencers to say things like "all foods have value" while brandishing packages of Twix and Reese's.

18/

In their *Examination* article, the authors profile people who struggled with their weight, then, after encountering the food industry's paid disinformation, believed that "healthy at any size" meant that it would be *unhealthy* to avoid highly processed, high calorie food. These people gained large amounts of weight, and found their lives constrained and their health severely compromised.

19/

I've been overweight all my life. I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting when I was 12. I come from a family of overweight people with the chronic illnesses often associated with being fat. This is a subject that's always on my mind. I even wrote a whole novel about the promise and peril of a weight-loss miracle:

us.macmillan.com/books/9781429…

20/

Book details - Macmillan Publishers

Perry and Lester invent things: seashell robots that make toast, Boogie Woogie Elmo dolls that drive cars. They also invent entirely new economic systems. Wh...

^Macmillan

I think the anti-diet movement, and its associated ideas like body acceptance and healthy at every size, are enormously positive developments and hugely important. It's *because* I value these ideas that I'm so disgusted with Big Food and its cynical decision to flood the zone with shit. It's also why I'm so furious with dietitians and nutritionists for failing to self-regulate and become a *real* profession, the kind that censures and denounces quacks and shills.

21/

I have complicated feelings about Ozempic and its successors, but even if these prove to be effective and safe in the long term, and even if we rein in the rapacious pharma companies so that they no longer sell a $5 product for $1000, I would still want dietary science to clean up its act:

jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman…

22/

Estimated Sustainable Cost-Based Prices for Diabetes Medicines

This economic evaluation examines the health expenditures related to medicines used for treatment of diabetes worldwide.

^{Melissa J. Barber, PhD (JAMA Network)}

I'm not a nihilist. I think we can use science to discover truths - about ourselves and our world. I want to know those truths, and I think they can be known. The only people who benefit from convincing you that the truth is unknowable are the people who want to lie to you.

23/

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel *The Bezzle*! Catch me NEXT THURSDAY (Apr 11) in BOSTON with Randall "XKCD" Munroe, then PROVIDENCE, RI (Apr 12) and beyond!

pluralistic.net/2024/02/16/nar…

eof/

#TranslatedFromTheRepublican

"The Right to Lie" version of the 1st Amendment

"The Right to Commit Fraud" version of the 1st Amendment.

"The Right to Cause Death" version of the 1st Amendment.

"The Right to Buy Supreme Court Justices to Thwart Oversight & Regulations" version of the 1st Amendment.

"The Right to Impose Religious Bigotry on Non-Christians" version of the 1st Amendment.

"The Right to Buy Elections Tax Free" version of the 1st Amendment."

@CptSuperlative I love doing them!

pluralistic.net/2023/12/21/col…

You should absolutely check the book by @grantennis, "DarkPR: How Corporate Disinformation Harms Our Health and the Environment"

It is a fully documented and really well-written analysis of the methods used by corporations (3 categories: food, car industry and petrol companies) to poison the debate and distract public opinion from real solutions to the problems they cause.

It's also DRM-free 🙂

darajapress.com/publication/da…