dizzyd said:
Manufacturers are precisley the ones who employs these food scientist. The food industry is a multi million $ business and will hire whoever to increase their bottom line. Just look at the number of products on the grocery shelf now a days. (and I'm not talking about fruits and veggies). First everything was low fat, then low carb and now omega enchanced. They also employ psychologist to help market their product.
I'm guess not understanding your point here...??
I guess I was more speaking on the actual science/nutritionists that are actually credible, not the "ones" who put claims onto the packagings. Pubmed, real studies, etc...the ones that are not in the pocket of Frito Lay, for example....
The fads you speak of like low fat, low carb, those were actually not started by the food industry, they just followed suit, they were started by dieticians/nutritionists trying to make a quick buck (well some had a good heart). Dr. Robert Atkins has had his own food company, for example, he wasn't employed by anybody. The low fat fad was a product of the beginning of the obesity epidemic a couple decades back, back when fats were supposedly ALL bad...also not started by any snack companies, as you can tell by the fact that they would have gone bankrupt. They were synonomous with fat, why come out with such destructive info?
They had to reformulate their top sellers late in the game ASAP to compete, if they were in charge of the directions the industry took, wouldn't they have just left the recipes the same they were in the 1970's, so they could just maximize profit? Why change things? Because they were adapting, indicating they didn't take the lead, the health/medical/nutrition field did. They begrudgingly kept coming out with 10 different cookies when they'd love to have just left the original alone....
The truth has always been that calories in/calories out is how it works, bottom line. There are other mechanics at work such as blood glucose levels (hence low carb took off), sat fat spreading a bad rap for all fats (because fat has the name "fat" hence it must be bad, right?, hence the low fat fad)....which is where these fads come from, so the concepts are not all BS, they're just twisted around so that they seemed like the magic bullet to solve obesity.
Manufacturers are trying to make a quick buck all the time, they'll follow where the nutrition findings currently go. They DO employ many nutritionists themselves, but not to the extent you speak of. It just seems you are claiming the entire nutritional field is in the food industries pocket, when most of it never said "oh, well chips are okay to eat now, they're reduced fat". Most real nutritionists still said avoid them, no matter what gimmick they're going with. I even read one book by a nutritionist who said "if it comes in a package, don't buy it", now THAT'S extreme. Where do you find a package-less diet???
