Just Read: Resisting influence from agri-food industries on Canada’s new food guide (and the irony of the competing interest disclosures within)

This is a piece written about the upcoming Canada Food Guide, which is Canada’s version of the United States dietary guidelines, and concerns about food industry influence.

The article is paywalled, however this response from Dr’s Carol Loffelmann (@KetoAnaesMD) and Barbra Allen Bradshaw is available to review, and I recommend it as a counterpoint to this piece:

Letters: Resisting influence from agri-food industries on Canada’s new food guide | CMAJ

They are with Canadian Clinicians for Therapeutic Nutrition, Health Professionals Supporting Change to Canada’s Food Guide. A similar United States group would be the Nutrition Coalition.

The Long List of Competing Interests

I am being careful with fair use so I am choosing not to quote any of the article itself (which I did review). What I would like to quote is a small section of the Competing Interests section of the article:

….research grants from Saskatchewan Pulse Grow- ers; Agricultural Bioproducts Innovation Program through the Pulse Research Network; Advanced Foods and Materials Network; Loblaw Companies; Unilever; Barilla; Almond Board of California; Agri- culture and Agri-Food Canada; Pulse Canada; Kellogg’s Canada; Quaker Oats Canada; Procter & Gamble Technical Centre; Bayer Consumer Care; Pepsi/Quaker; International Nut and Dried Fruit Council; Soy Foods Association of North America; The Coca-Cola Company (investigator initiated, unrestricted grant); Solae; Haine Celestial; Sanitar- ium Company; Orafti; International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research and Education Foun- dation; The Peanut Institute; Canola Council of Canada; Flax Council….Grant JD, Jenkins DJA. Resisting influence from agri-food industries on Canada’s new food guide. Can Med Assoc J [Internet]. CMAJ; 2018 Apr 16 [cited 2018 Apr 25];190(15):E451–2.

That’s about 20 % of the competing interests section by my estimation.

My question is how a piece about resisting influence from agri-food industries can be written with the amount of potential influence from agri-food industries present in the declarations.

Dr’s Loffelmann and Bradshaw, the writers of the response, have no competing interests to declare.

Reconsidering the Low Fat Diet

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Ted Eytan, MD