Current Events > Corn syrup lobbyist now writing USDA dietary guidelines

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/corn-syrup-lobbyist-helping-set-usda-dietary-guidelines-2649307

For a year now, lobbyists have swarmed the White House under President Donald Trump, attaining positions within various federal agencies just days after leaving government affairs jobs at lobbying firms, trade groups and corporations.

Back in 2009, then-President Barack Obama issued an executive order on ethics that barred lobbyists from joining agencies they had lobbied in the previous two years. But Trump weakened that order shortly after becoming president, allowing lobbyists to join agencies they recently lobbied so long as they recused themselves from working on specific issues on which they had lobbied within the previous two years. The Trump administration has been sidestepping even that stipulation in some cases by ignoring it, and in others, by granting ethics waivers.

In late August of 2017, White House counsel Donald McGahn issued a waiver for a new member of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), previously a lobbyist for the corn syrup industry, to advise the department on dietary guidelines:

Tkacz was director of food policy for the Corn Refiners Association, a trade group for corn syrup manufacturers, for two years before immediately leaving for the Trump administration in July 2017, according to her LinkedIn profile. Before that, she lobbied for the Snack Food Association and the National Grocers Association. Prior to her lobbying days, she spent a year as a research analyst on tax policy at the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group of corporations and conservative lawmakers that work together to craft business-friendly model legislation, and a year at the Charles Koch Institute, named after its billionaire founder and the CEO and part-owner of the global fossil fuel and materials conglomerate Koch Industries.

The Corn Refiners Association consists of the four biggest corn syrup producers in the nation: Archer Daniels Midland Company, Cargill, Ingredion and Tate & Lyle Americas.

Representing that association, Tkacz lobbied the USDA, as well as the House, Senate, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration on education regarding federal food policy as recently as the second quarter of 2017, according to federal lobbying records. Now she helps set that policy.

For decades, controversies have arisen over industry influence on the dietary guidelines. In the late 1960s, Harvard scientists paid by sugar interests wrote a report that minimized sugars effects on heart health while overemphasizing the dangers of fat. One of those scientists, Mark Hegsted, became the head of nutrition at the Department of Agriculture, where he helped draft what would eventually become the governments dietary guidelines in 1977. Similar efforts have persisted since. In 2015, scientists funded by Coca-Cola urged people to focus on exercise, rather than a healthy diet, to avoid obesity.

This waiver from the ethics rules is highly inappropriate, Craig Holman, a lobbyist on campaign finance and governmental ethics for the watchdog Public Citizen, told International Business Times. Waivers from conflicts of interest should only be granted when expertise from others who have no conflicts is otherwise not available. This lobbyist has a direct and substantial conflict of interest that should disqualify her participation in the matter.

But Holman expressed surprise that the waiver was even sought, telling IBT, The White House Counsel has routinely disregarded Trumps ethics executive order, even to the point of not bothering to issue waivers where conflicts clearly exist and choosing simply to ignore the ethics rules altogether.

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Wariodorf posted...

Someone here will defend this

yep. the usual deplorables....
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Remember when he said he would do something about the corruption with lobbyists. Yeah he really drained with swamp alright. Drained it right into the white house

the pyramid will have 12 servings of corn at the bottom
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hasn't this been this case for a really long time? that's why the industry demonized fat way back in the 60s or 70s and promoted foods flavored with sugar instead, because the corn lobby.
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Giant_Aspirin posted...

hasn't this been this case for a really long time? that's why the industry demonized fat way back in the 60s or 70s and promoted foods flavored with sugar instead, because the corn lobby.

@DocileOrangeCup confirmed to be part of the corn lobby

chill02 posted...

the pyramid will have 12 servings of corn at the bottom

there's been a lot of controversy over the food pyramid and why the FDA promotes grains as much as it does. we've seen that carb heavy diets are actually not that great for you, and diets higher in fats are actually not that bad when offset by low carbs, etc.
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Why do we allow lobbying? It's the one thing that baffles me more than any other.
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LanHikari10 posted...

Why do we allow lobbying? It's the one thing that baffles me more than any other.

corruption. it made sense a century ago, not now.

Axiom posted...

Giant_Aspirin posted...

hasn't this been this case for a really long time? that's why the industry demonized fat way back in the 60s or 70s and promoted foods flavored with sugar instead, because the corn lobby.

@DocileOrangeCup confirmed to be part of the corn lobby

We need to be able to get our children well fed in order to move forward into a better future
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draining the swamp
and the aquifier
and selling the water back to people at a 5000% markup
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Antifar posted...

ethics waivers

Wow. What a great thing. Seriously I just keep rereading these two words over and over. Wow.
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LanHikari10 posted...

Why do we allow lobbying? It's the one thing that baffles me more than any other.

People taking the whole "free speech" thing way too far
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Good.
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Im just happy Im smart on my own
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LanHikari10 posted...

Antifar posted...

ethics waivers

Wow. What a great thing. Seriously I just keep rereading these two words over and over. Wow.

it's less painful if you avoid reading
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Giant_Aspirin posted...

we've seen that carb heavy diets are actually not that great for you, , and diets higher in fats are actually not that bad

"carbs are bad" is literally just the new "fats are bad".

its pretty pathetic what republicans will swallow

Giant_Aspirin posted...

hasn't this been this case for a really long time? that's why the industry demonized fat way back in the 60s or 70s and promoted foods flavored with sugar instead, because the corn lobby.

ok Joe Rogan
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Op-GGYPTM
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Ingredion just sounds like the name of the evil organization that has taken over the world in some science fiction story.
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Broseph_Stalin posted...

Giant_Aspirin posted...

we've seen that carb heavy diets are actually not that great for you, , and diets higher in fats are actually not that bad

"carbs are bad" is literally just the new "fats are bad".

that maybe true, i'm not sure. but im saying i don't think diets loaded with carbs, like the food pyramid suggests, are the most healthy thing for us based on what i've read
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Wariodorf posted...

Someone here will defend this

Sure, what the hell.

The attempt at rebranding HFCS as "corn sugar" is technically correct.

high fructose corn syrup is destruction to the body.
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Awesome posted...

high fructose corn syrup is destruction to the body.

Fructose itself is the bad idea.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Awesome posted...

high fructose corn syrup is destruction to the body.

Fructose itself is the bad idea.

Yeah ban apples
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Krojen posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

Awesome posted...

high fructose corn syrup is destruction to the body.

Fructose itself is the bad idea.

Yeah ban apples

Much like any sugar, ruination comes from the refined forms.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Krojen posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

Awesome posted...

high fructose corn syrup is destruction to the body.

Fructose itself is the bad idea.

Yeah ban apples

Much like any sugar, ruination comes from the refined forms.

Ok I misread your post as fearful of anything with fructose. I'm on high alert with the spike in keto memers.
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Giant_Aspirin posted...

chill02 posted...

the pyramid will have 12 servings of corn at the bottom

there's been a lot of controversy over the food pyramid and why the FDA promotes grains as much as it does. we've seen that carb heavy diets are actually not that great for you, and diets higher in fats are actually not that bad when offset by low carbs, etc.

That is not exactly true. Many countries are changing their food guidelines drastically to move animal products and high fat refined foods (and sugar) into the avoid category. And that includes dairy. Meat and dairy industries are fighting back on this hard. It stalled the food pyramid change in Canada.

Starches from whole grains are healthy nutrition provided that you are not adding refined oils or extra fats to them. Same with carbs from lentils and legumes, or vegetables. What you eat together makes a huge difference. Carbs full of refined flours and sugar are not healthy.

Fats being ok is true of monounsaturated plant fats in moderation. It's not true of animal based fats or saturated fats of any kind

Lots of people do keto and lose weight. That doesn't make a high fat diet healthy. You can also lose a ton of weight eating only carbs and moderate protein from plants with zero added fats (oils).

Guess which diet a doctor feels is safe to recommend to patients and successfully deal with weight in a healthy manner? It's also used to lower cholesterol and reverse coronary artery disease. Here's a hint, it's not the one where bacon or cheese are treated health food.
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Krojen posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

Krojen posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

Awesome posted...

high fructose corn syrup is destruction to the body.

Fructose itself is the bad idea.

Yeah ban apples

Much like any sugar, ruination comes from the refined forms.

Ok I misread your post as fearful of anything with fructose. I'm on high alert with the spike in keto memers.

Ah.

Refined galactose isn't incredibly harmful, but it's probably not a good idea to eat a lot of it.
Lead acetate however, is right out. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/sugar-of-lead-a-deadly-sweetener-89984487/

Giant_Aspirin posted...

Broseph_Stalin posted...

Giant_Aspirin posted...

we've seen that carb heavy diets are actually not that great for you, , and diets higher in fats are actually not that bad

"carbs are bad" is literally just the new "fats are bad".

that maybe true, i'm not sure. but im saying i don't think diets loaded with carbs, like the food pyramid suggests, are the most healthy thing for us based on what i've read

Do more reading

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4991921/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3662288/

If you're eating plant based you will be eating plenty of carbohydrates. The food pyramid is flawed, granted, but not for suggesting people eat grains.
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Doctor Foxx posted...

If you're eating plant based you will be eating plenty of carbohydrates. The food pyramid is flawed, granted, but not for suggesting people eat grains.

The neat side effect of a plant-heavy diet is that the bulk of it is cellulose, which you can't really digest anyway. It's very hard to get fat eating plants.
Eat a whole cabbage, and most of it just ends up as poop and farts.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Doctor Foxx posted...

If you're eating plant based you will be eating plenty of carbohydrates. The food pyramid is flawed, granted, but not for suggesting people eat grains.

The neat side effect of a plant-heavy diet is that the bulk of it is cellulose, which you can't really digest anyway. It's very hard to get fat eating plants.
Eat a whole cabbage, and most of it just ends up as poop and farts.

Hooray for fiber, keeps the poop game strong
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Doctor Foxx posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

Doctor Foxx posted...

If you're eating plant based you will be eating plenty of carbohydrates. The food pyramid is flawed, granted, but not for suggesting people eat grains.

The neat side effect of a plant-heavy diet is that the bulk of it is cellulose, which you can't really digest anyway. It's very hard to get fat eating plants.
Eat a whole cabbage, and most of it just ends up as poop and farts.

Hooray for fiber, keeps the poop game strong

I bought a steamer, and regularly steam up various root vegetables. All I got out of it was pooping three times a day now.

Might be the turnips.