266 THE CHINA STUDY why my society did the things it did The awards funded by Mead Johnson Nutritionals, Lederle Laboratories, BioServe Biotechnologies and previously Procter and Gamble and the Dannon Institute-all food and drug outfits-represented a strange marriage between industry and my sOciety.8 Do you believe that these "friends" of the society are interested in pursuing scientific investigation, no matter what the conclusions maybe? CONSEQUENCES FOR THE PUBLIC Ultimately, the lessons I learned in my career had little to with specific names or specific institutions These lessons have more to with what goes on behind the scenes of any large institution What happens behind the scenes during national policy discussions, whether it happens in scientific societies, the government or in industry boardrooms, is supremely important for our health as a nation The personal experiences I have talked about in this chapter-only a sample of such experiences-have consequences far greater than personal aggravation and damage to my career These experiences illustrate the dark side of science, the side that harms not just individual researchers who get in the way, but all of society It does this by systematically attempting to conceal, defeat and destroy viewpoints that oppose the status quo There are some people in very influential government and university positions who operate under the guise of being scientific "experts," whose real jobs are to stifle open and honest scientific debate Perhaps they receive significant personal compensation for attending to the interests of powerful food and drug companies, or perhaps they merely have an honest personal bias toward a company-friendly viewpoint Personal bias is stronger than you may think I know scientists with family members who died from cancer and it angers them to entertain the possibility that personal choices, like diet, could have played a role in the death of their loved ones Likewise, there are scientists for whom the high-fat, high animal-based food diet they eat every day is simply what they learned was healthy at a young age; they love the habit, and they don't want to change The vast majority of scientists are honorable, intelligent and dedicated to the search for the common good rather than personal gain However, there are a few scientists who are willing to sell their souls to the highest bidder They may not be many in number, but their influence can be SCIENCE-THE DARK SIDE , I t 267 vast They can corrupt the good name of institutions of which they are a part and, most importantly, they can create vast confusion among the public, which often cannot know who is who You might turn on the TV one day to see an expert praising McDonald's hamburgers, and then read a magazine the same day that you should eat less high-fat red meat to protect yourself against cancer Who is to be believed? Institutions also are part of the dark side of science Committees like the Public Nutrition Information Committee and the American Council on Science and Health generate lopsided panels and committees and institutions that are far more interested in promoting their point of view than debating scientific research with an open mind If a Public Nutrition Information Committee report says that low-fat diets are fraudulent scams, and a National Academy of Sciences report says the opposite, which one is right? In addition, this closed-mindedness in science spreads across entire systems The American Cancer SOCiety was not the only health institution that worked to make life difficult for the AICR The National Cancer Institute public information office, Harvard Medical School and a few other universities with medical schools were highly skeptical of the AICR and, in some cases, outright hostile The hostility of medical schools first surprised me, but when the American Cancer Society, a very traditional medical institution, also joined the fray, it became obvious that there really was a "Medical Establishment." The behemoth did not take kindly to the idea of a serious connection between diet and cancer or, for that matter, virtually any other disease Big Medicine in America is in the business of treating disease with drugs and surgery after symptoms appear This means that you might have turned on the TV to see that the American Cancer Society gives almost no credence to the idea that diet is linked to cancer, and then opened the paper to see that the American Institute for Cancer Research says what you eat impacts your risk of getting cancer Who you trust? Only someone familiar with the inside of the system can distinguish between sincere positions based in science and insincere, self-serving positions I was on the inside of the system for many years, working at the very top levels, and saw enough to be able to say that science is not always the honest search for truth that so many believe it to be It far too often involves money, power, ego and protection of personal interests above the common good Very few, if any, illegal acts need to 268 THE CHINA STUDY occur It doesn't involve large payoffs being delivered to secret bank accounts or to private investigators in smoky hotel lobbies It's not a Hollywood story; it's just day-to-day government, science and industry in the United States _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _1_4 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Scientific Reductionism WHEN OUR NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (NAS) Diet, Nutrition and Cancer Committee was deciding how to summarize the research on diet and cancer, we included chapters on individual nutrients and nutrient groups This was the way research had been done, one nutrient at a time For example, the chapter on vitamins included information on the relationships between cancer and vitamins A, C, E and some B vitamins However, in the report summary, we recommended getting these nutrients from fbods, not pills or supplements We explicitly stated that "These recommendations apply only to foods as sources of nutrientsnot to dietary supplements of individual nutrients.'" The report quickly found its way to the corporate world, which saw a major money-making opportunity They ignored our cautionary message distinguishing foods from pills and began advertising vitamin pills as products that could prevent cancer, arrogantly citing our report as justification This was a great opening to a vast new market-commercial vitamin supplements General Nutrition, Inc., the company with thousands of General Nutrition Centers, started selling a product called "Healthy Greens," a multivitamin supplement of vitamins A, C and E, beta-carotene, selenium and a miniscule half-gram of dehydrated vegetables Then they advertised their product by making the following claims2 : [The Diet, Nutrition and Cancer reportl recommended we increase among other things our amounts of specific vegetables to help safeguard our bodies against the risk of certain forms of cancer 269 270 THE CHINA STUDY These vegetables recommended by the [National Academy of Sciences reportl are the ones we should increase[:l cabbages, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and spinach Mom was right! Research scientists and technicians at General Nutrition Labs, realizing the importance of the research, instantly went to work to harness all of the vegetables and combined all of them into a natural, easy to take potent tablet [Tlhe result is Health Greens [sic], a new potent breakthrough in nutrition that millions of people can now help safeguard their well-being with the greens that the [National Academy of Sciences Committeel recommends we eat more of! GNC was advertiSing an untested product and improperly using a government document to support its sensational claims So the Federal Trade Commission went to court to bar the company from making these claims It was a battle that lasted years, a battle that was rumored to cost General Nutrition, Inc about $7 million The National Academy of Sciences recommended me as their expert witness because of my coauthorship of the report in question and because of my harping on this point during our committee deliberations A research associate in my group, Dr Tom O'Connor, and I spent three intellectually stimulating years working on this project, including my three full days on the witness stand In 1988, General Nutrition, Inc., settled the false advertising charges relating to Healthy Greens and other food supplements by agreeing to pay $600,000, divided equally, to three different health organizations This was a small price for the company to pay, considering the ultimate revenues that were generated by the exploding nutrient supplement market FOCUS ON FAT The focus on individual nutrients instead of whole foods has become commonplace in the past two decades, and part of the blame can be put on our 1982 report As mentioned before, our committee organized the scientific information on diet and cancer by nutrients, with a separate chapter for each nutrient or class of nutrients There were individual chapters for fat, protein, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals I am convinced it was a great mistake on our part We did not stress enough that our recommendations were concerned with whole foods because ...SCIENCE -THE DARK SIDE , I t 267 vast They can corrupt the good name of institutions of which they are a part and, most importantly, they can create vast confusion among the public, which... might have turned on the TV to see that the American Cancer Society gives almost no credence to the idea that diet is linked to cancer, and then opened the paper to see that the American Institute... safeguard our bodies against the risk of certain forms of cancer 269 270 THE CHINA STUDY These vegetables recommended by the [National Academy of Sciences reportl are the ones we should increase[:l