Comments on: Request for financial disclosure

By: jennywenny

jennywenny — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:59:01 +0000

Thank you for being level headed. We need more people like you!

By: For The Love of Food | Healthy Eating Tips - Upgrade Your Healthstyle | Summer Tomato

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:08:46 +0000

[...] Request for financial disclosure <

By: Cathy Richards

Cathy Richards — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:05:49 +0000

You go girl!
Great question, great answer.
Your blog is usually the most interesting read of my day at work (in nutrition). I inevitably end up forwarding it to someone — it is always relevant to my community food policy work.

By: Rachel Cunliffe

Rachel Cunliffe — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:16:20 +0000

Marion: you are indeed gracious to respond in this way. Having worked at a University for nine years, I can say that all the academics I have worked with are driven to research for reasons other than money and are very clear about disclosing their funding sources when there are some.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:31:51 +0000

Thank you so much for your work! What a gracious response!

By: Inoculated Mind

Inoculated Mind — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:06:30 +0000

I read this blog simply because Marion Nestle has her head on straighter than any other ‘pop nutritionist’ that I have encountered. There are some biases, some signs of wishful thinking here and there, but in all, I think she provides a lot of good information and arguments. I would like to highlight her skepticism toward the anti-HFCS crowd – even Michael Pollan gets it wrong and Marion gets it right.

I don’t think publishing three years of taxes is at all necessary to establish conflicts of interest. As someone who has been accused of working for Big Bad Monsanto merely because my graduate school got a donation from them, I think some people are over the top when it comes to seeking out conflicts of interest in terms of money.
There is the issue of honoraria and other fees from organizations that stand to gain from certain criticisms of the food industry, which is what I think the commenter is worried about. But perhaps there is some way to assuage doubt without granting legitimacy to such witch-hunts.

By: Janet Camp

Janet Camp — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:14:48 +0000

@Mike D.S. – Ms. Nestle is NOT an elected official. Would you have doctors (who also offer nutritional guidance to eschew junk food in favor of veggies, fruit, whole grains, etc.) disclose their finances as well?

It is my fervent hope that Ms. Nestle’s books make her a fortune, because then her books would be in the hands of many more people and if they read them and learn from them, we will have a much healthier society.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:03:22 +0000

@Mike D. S. – At public universities faculty salaries and grant funding are a matter of public record, and faculty members are required to declare conflicts of interest. NYU, where Prof. Nestle is employed, is private, so may or may not make this information public (though public grants are public in all cases). But there’s an expectation of transparency in academia that is not present in the private sector. It might be possible to learn about the income of the CEO of Kellogg’s from SEC filings, but one would be hard-pressed to find such information for, say, any lobbyist on food issues. Why should one party (one “side” in the debate, to over-simplify) be subject to disclosure requirements when others are not?

The legitimate underlying question is whether funding sources might affect someone’s conclusions. If someone publishes books that reflect their understanding of the issues it’s irrelevant whether or not those books are profitable. You’d have to work pretty hard to come up with a scenario in which conflicts of interest here could be as stark as they are in, say, the Food Choices program.

By: Eleanor

Eleanor — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:34:20 +0000

Not to stray off topic, but this is one side effect of the proliferation of new media. There’s more information out there than ever, but very little of that information is trustworthy. We’ve all become rightly suspicious. Before believing anything anyone says, we’ve learned to ask “what are they selling? and who’s paying them?” That’s why your viewpoint is so valuable — it’s informed by facts rather than $$. Thanks.

By: Susan

Susan — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 17:13:54 +0000

We value your independent, critical voice. Consumers need all the help and encouragement they can get in order to start thinking independently, for themselves. Thank you for not only providing information, but for modeling a state of mind and a critical approach.