It will absolutely become harder on people to trust researches after the Harvard scientists’ bribery scandal that took place in 1967, and was only unleashed recently. We all owe researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (U.C.S.F.), for discovering in the archives at Harvard University, University of Illinois and other libraries that the sugar industry paid Harvard scientists to tailor research results and accuse saturated fat, rather than sugar, of causing heart disease. This finding, published in JAMA Internal Medicine on September 12, 2016, shocked the research community and made it clear that we were all fooled for 50 years!
The Complete Story of Greediness
In the 1960s, studies were performed in an attempt to determine the cause of the high heart disease rates in the United States. Two opposing theories were being investigated at that time; the first suggests high-sugar diets as the most possible cause of heart disease, while the other proposes saturated fat and dietary cholesterol.
John Hickson, a top sugar industry director, got in the way of uncovering the real cause of the high heart disease rates by implementing a plan with other people in the industry, in order to shift public opinion. In 1965, Mr. Hickson selected the papers and paid three Harvard scientists a total of $6,500 (equivalent to $49,000 today) to write a review that favors sugar and refutes all the proposals that link it to heart disease. Therefore, while the scientists were working on the review, they set aside the data on sugar and emphasized on data implying that saturated fat causes heart disease. Also, they shared the early drafts with Mr. Hickson, who was very contented and confidently wrote, “Let me assure you this is quite what we had in mind, and we look forward to its appearance in print.”
The review published in 1967 in New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) was sponsored by the Sugar Research Foundation (SRF), known today as the Sugar Association, where Mr. Hickson was its vice president. It shaped public health approaches for years, since people until now think it is better to consume less fat and more sugar in order to prevent heart disease. Especially that fat removed from many products was replaced by sugar to make up for the taste. Yet, experts consider this nutritional approach as the main stimulant for the increased incidence of obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and heart disease, in addition they are now focusing on added sugars, much more than they are on other food additives.
Who Funds Scientific Research?
In today’s scenario, scientific articles must disclose two vital things, conflict of interest and funding resources. Yet, in the 1960s the latter was not called for, thus, sugar manufacturers were able to work closely with researchers and modify the papers so that they fulfill their needs, without even reporting their involvement.
“Funding research is ethical. Bribing researchers to produce the evidence you want is not.” said Marion Nestle of the New York University who wrote an editorial on the new findings. On this matter and after discovering the papers that document the bribery, Dr. Walter Willett, the chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, stated that “research should be supported by public funding rather than depending on industry funding.”
Despite all the drawbacks, industry still funds research and influences the scientific community’s nutritional recommendations. It was recently published in New York Times (NYT) that a sugary beverages company spent millions of dollars on researches that aim to minimize the link between sugary drinks and obesity. Adding to this, the Associated Press revealed that candy manufacturers were funding the irrational research that desired to prove that children consuming candy weigh less than those who do not.
To conclude, it is crucial to know that neither fat nor sugar must be taken in large amounts and their health impacts are severe and hard to discern, especially that recent reports of the American Heart Association, World Health Organization (WHO) and other health authorities warn that the consumption of large amount of sugar may increase the risk of heart disease. So, now we have to worry about how much fat and sugar we allow into our bodies.
