A former lobbyist for the Corn Refiners Assn. is helping oversee nutrition guidelines intended to address the obesity epidemic. An advisory panel of experts, meanwhile, has close ties to food and beverage companies. Federal dietary rules are required by law to be updated every five years. Under previous administrations, this task was performed mainly by nutritional experts focused on improving public health.
This latest iteration of nutritional guidance “can be expected to be as industry-friendly as possible,” said Marion Nestle, a professor emeritus of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University who helped set dietary guidelines under President Clinton. They also will be our latest response to an obesity epidemic that’s costing the country about $175 billion in annual healthcare and as much as $7.6 billion in lost productivity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The potential for conflicts of interest are a concern,” said Angela Amico, a senior policy associate with the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “Look at the waiver.”The waiver she’s referring to is an ethical get-out-of-jail-free card handed out by former White House counsel Donald McGahn to Kailee Tkacz , whose past as an industry lobbyist raises questions about whether she’s focused first and foremost on the public’s well-being.
He said Tkacz’s past lobbying efforts on behalf of food and beverage companies “make her uniquely qualified” to help guide official policy.When Tkacz was hired by the Trump administration in July 2017, Agriculture Secretary Sonny PerdueHe also welcomed the hiring of Maggie Lyons, who before joining the Agriculture Department was a lobbyist for the National Grocers Assn., which has fought providing consumers with calorie counts on product labels.
Davidlaz Corn-syrop is very unhealthy. Absolutely disgusting
Davidlaz The US is fat.