Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
Industry-funded study from 1930: meat is good for you!
I am indebted to David Ludwig for passing along this bit of nutritional history.
The study: PROLONGED MEAT DIETS WITH A STUDY OF KIDNEY FUNCTION AND KETOSIS.*
BY WALTERS. McCLELLAN AND EUGENE F. Du BOIS. Journal of Biological Chemistry Volume 87, Issue 3, 1 July 1930, Pages 651-668
Method: Several men agreed to eat nothing but meat for a year. The meats included beef, lamb, veal, pork, and chicken, in various parts. This was a high-fat, low-carb diet. The men lived at home mostly.
Conclusion: In these trained subjects, the clinical observations and laboratory studies gave no evidence that any ill effects had occurred from the prolonged use of the exclusive meat diet.
Funder: These studies were supported in part by a research grant from the Institute of American Meat Packers.
Comment: I did not realize that industry sponsorship of favorable studies went back that far. I’ll bet there are lots more. Researchers: start digging!
