This violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and resulted in a conviction ultimately affirmed by the US Supreme Court. The AMA's vehement campaign against Medicare in the 1950s and 1960s included Operation Coffee Cup, supported by Ronald Reagan. Unfortunately, what occurs in the United States is often replicated elsewhere.
Profession and Monopoly - A study of Medicine in the United States and the United Kingdom by Jeffrey L. Berlant (Univ. of California Pr 1975) criticizes the AMA for limiting the supply of physicians and inflating the cost of medical care in the United States. It claims that the AMA keeps the supply of physicians low to ensure high pay for practicing physicians. It states that state licensing boards controlled by representatives of state medical societies associated with the AMA, restrict the amount, curriculum, and size of medical schools.
Because of massive public demand and support from the health industry, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education (DSHEA) Act of 1994 mandated that the FDA regulate dietary supplements as foods rather than as drugs. However, influence from big pharma and giant food corporations remains rampant in many countries because of globalization.
Through the controlled media, the industry determines what to feed the public about how people should eat, medical protocol, and nutrition. Anyone who differs from the narrative is censored. Some proclaimed ‘experts’ have written books promoting their radical diets and unscientific beliefs. In addition, policies have been established on the false assumption that medical doctors or dieticians are nutrition experts. However, Medicine, Dietetics, and Nutrition are very different professions. Some magazines and newspapers use catchy headlines and radical diets to sell publications. Writers with little or no nutrition knowledge quote an expert out of context to make the reader think they (writers) are credible. This is only part of how misinformation reaches and confuses the public.
In addition, big pharma and giant food corporations give large grants to universities to influence the curriculum and obtain studies favorable to their products. According to the author and former corporate biochemist Paul Stitt, PhD in Beating the Food Giants (Natural Press, 1993), “They care little, if at all, about your health and well-being.” Their objective is to get you hooked on their products so they can make huge profits.
Some of their products are not even real food. Many products contain addictive ingredients, like refined sugar/flour, MSG, or other flavor enhancers. Coffee, soda, and other caffeine products are also very addictive. Most non-organic food contains damaged fats/oils, glyphosate, toxic agriculture chemicals, and GMOs.
Corporate control of our food system from seed to plate contributes to market abuses. It is also a threat to competition, food affordability, and supply. Today, only four companies control up to 90 percent of the global grain trade. Heed Willie Nelson’s call to Occupy the Food System. You can also make an impact. Use your ECONOMIC POWER and BOYCOTT products from unethical corporations!
Stay informed and active on current health freedom issues and threats against natural supplements with the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH).
Corporate giants also have their influential advisors on the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB), the National Research Council (NRC), the National Academy of Sciences, the Centre for Science and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), and similar organizations, such as the ANTZPA in Australia and New Zealand, and the Codex Alimentarius in the European Union (EU). By classifying calories as a nutrient (energy) instead of a unit of measurement, the FNB can justify promoting such products as white flour and refined sugar. A while back, food processors spent $5.6 million to lobby against the new school lunch rules proposed by the USDA, which would have brought more fresh food to school cafeterias. Congress succumbed so far as to agree to call pizza a vegetable.
Unfortunately, many dieticians follow the recommendations of the FNB and NRC. Dietetics claims that a variety of foods from the Basic Food Groups (set up by the industry) provide the Minimum Daily Requirement (MDR) or Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of all the nutrients needed for good health. They consider nutritional supplements to be unnecessary when, in fact, science reveals a very different story. READ Dirty Medicine-The Handbook (2011) by Martin J. Walker and its review in UNCENSORED magazine, issue 25, page 95.
The MDR and RDA, set by the NRC, were not the results of scientific studies but negotiations and voting by a committee (Committee on Dietary Allowances, 1980) of industry agents. Subsequent clinical studies and reports indicate that RDAs for many nutrients are far below what is necessary for optimal health. Only part of the total nutrients needed for human health is measured. With this barrage of misinformation and since one type of diet is not suitable for everyone, it is no wonder the average person is confused about nutrition and how to eat. Do you listen to the FNB or the NRC? Are you reading conflicting advice from dieticians and nutritionists? And are MDRs and RDAs all you need? Attaining optimal health is more than merely counting calories and grams of fat.
Listed below are certain basics to help nourish your dietary profile. Without these basics, all the medicines, treatments, supplements, and exercise in the world will not succeed in attaining a complete cure or optimum health.