In response to Mr. Fang’s article calling out Big Soda companies by paying influencers to oppose nutritional guidelines for SNAP benefits, we want to add some historical context as this is not the first time Big Food has guided regulation through dishonesty. 

“For more than two decades, soda companies have quietly funded scientists, advocacy groups, journalists and community organizations to counter proposals limiting sugary beverage consumption.”  - Lee Fang

The Big Fat Harvard Lie  

Perhaps the irreparable consumer damage was done in the 1960’s by what we call the “Big Fat Harvard Lie”. In the 1960’s the Sugar Association was concerned about the public learning about how dangerous sugar was to human health. So they clandestinely hired two PhDs - Dr. Mark Hegsted and Frederick Stare - from a prestigious research university, Harvard, to evaluate whether sugar was an issue in human health. 

Their famous 1967 publication in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that dietary fat, not sugar - was the leading cause of heart disease. The result of the Big Harvard Lie is that we have had two generations of blaming dietary fat, not sugar for obesity, chronic disease, diabetes and other health problems arising out of over consumption of sugar.

Not to mention all of the newly created ingredients designed to make up for the lack of fat in reduced-fat or non-fat products. 

But there are ways to fight back. The easiest is to grow a collective voice by downloading the WISEcode app on iOS or Google Play, and scanning your favorite products. 

We’ve introduced the “FOOD VOTE” to allow individual consumers to vote on ingredients in foods we want to say banned. Our collective voice has the power to take down those that do not care about our wellness and health.