Free Fasting and Eating for Health by Joel Fuhrman; Neal D. Barnard Page A

enough about their health to take vitamins, but unfortunately, this will not have a substantial impact on the wellness of our population. Today almost every medical problem patients are faced with is the result of years of dietary excesses they have consumed, not merely deficiencies.
    The message people hear is that it is okay to continue with their present diet, as long as they supplement with vitamin pills or other nutritional supplements.
    This is a powerful lie, but it is attractive because it is what people in general want to believe. However, you cannot achieve optimal wellness as long as present-day dietary habits continue.
    Powerful industrial forces driven by economics, not science, are trying to convince us that it doesn't matter what we eat. Any amount of processed, chemicalized, so-called ―food‖ will allegedly meet our needs as long as we take vitamins, antacids, digestive aids, headache and allergy remedies, and other drugs.
    The animal food industry has promoted the use of its products by false nutritional dogma for decades. We have heard this effective misinformation not only from advertisements, but also in the classroom, where it is taught that animal proteins, milk, and dairy foods are essential to good health.
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    This has occurred as the result of billions of dollars spent by these industries to influence the information we receive. Prevailed upon by powerful lobbyists wielding tremendous economic power, our government has made dietary recommendations that have been at odds with nutritional science for decades.
    Even with the USDA's latest food pyramid, which de-emphasizes dairy, meat, poultry, and other high-fat foods, the power of the food industry was evident: publication of this pyramid was held up for five years while these food producers negotiated for and won a weaker stance against their products.
    These industries financially support and therefore bias the majority of nutritional research carried out by major universities and scientific institutions in this country. For instance, over the last 50 years the largest financial contributors to nutritional research done at Harvard have been the dairy, meat, and sugar industries. Even the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, which pub-Harvard Department of Nutrition
    Funding Sources, 1942-198656
    American Meat
    International Sugar
    Institute
    Research Foundation
    Armour & Co.
    Kellogg Co.
    Beatrice Food Co.
    Kraft Corp.
    Borden Co.
    McDonald's Corp.
    California & Hawaiian National Biscuit Co.
    Sugar Co.
    National Confectioners
    Campbell Soup Co. Association
    Carnation Co.
    National Dairy Council
    Coca Cola Co.
    National Dairy Products
    Dairy Council of
    National Livestock and
    California
    Meat Board
    Florida Sugar Cane Oscar Mayer and Co.
    League, Inc.
    Oscar Mayer Foundation
    Frito-Lay, Inc.
    Pet Milk Co.
    General Foods
    Pillsbury Co.
    General Mills
    Special Dairy Industry
    Gerber Baby Food
    Board
    Co.
    Sugar Association, Inc.
    Hartford Foundation Sugar Research
    (A & P Foods)
    Foundation
    H. J. Heinz
    Swift & Co.
    Hershey Foods Hunt-Swift and Co. Foundation Wesson Foods
    Tuna Research
    Foundation
    lishes the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, discloses on the inside front page of the journal that it is supported by such companies as Coca Cola, Borden, Inc., Nabisco, NutraSweet, and various drug companies.
    The result is that establishment nutritional advice does little more than reinforce the dietary errors people prefer to make. Much of the nutritional 46
    information that is given to the public is misleading. Even food labeling is deceptive. Food producers are permitted to use portion size or weight to calculate fat information, which presents a lie to the unsuspecting consumer.
    For example, is whole milk 4 percent fat? It does contain 4 grams of fat per 100
    grams of milk, but since each 100 grams of milk contains 70 calories, and since fat carries 9 calories per gram, whole milk actually gets 50 percent of its calories (4 x 9/70)