Influence of corporate money on study of nutrition questioned

November 26, 2008

Posted on Tue, Nov. 25, 2008

By Tom Avril

Inquirer Staff Writer

When Forbes.com wrote last winter about the proper diet for

preventing colds and the flu, the article included an age-old bit of

advice from nutritionist, author and former TV host Hark:

Drink orange juice.

While vitamin C's value as a cold-fighter is unclear, Hark, who works

at the University of Pennsylvania, said a regular glass of 100

percent OJ helps her immune system.

One thing Hark failed to mention: She was being paid by the Florida

orange industry to promote the health benefits of its product - in a

six-month contract for $24,800.

The seductive influence of corporate money on academia has attracted

lots of attention when it comes to drug companies. Less well known

are the close ties that often exist between nutritionists and the

food industry. While the dietitian may have the best of intentions,

some leading members of the field say industry funds can skew the

credibility of science - and in the worst cases, result in little

more than paid product endorsements.

In a telephone interview, Hark said it was " ridiculous " to suggest

that the money would color what she said. Hark defended her work for

industry clients, which have included dairy producers and Tyson

Foods, saying it was common practice.

She may be right about that. Consider:

The incoming president of the Obesity Society, a prominent academic

research group, was a paid consultant for the New York state

restaurant industry as it fought a proposal to list calories on menu

boards. Amid fierce criticism, B. stepped aside in

February before taking the job.

Last month, the federal government announced a new 13-member panel to

review dietary guidelines for all Americans. Six of the 13 have

received funding from the food or pharmaceutical industries,

according to the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The American Dietetic Association, the largest organization of

nutrition professionals, has accepted millions of dollars from the

food industry to support research and outreach.

Hark, who helped create the nutrition education program at Penn's

medical school, courts corporate clients on her Web site, which

begins with the words: " Are you looking for a media expert to help

promote and market your company? "

Until recently, Hark's site also featured Penn's logo - unbeknownst

to medical school officials.

When The Inquirer asked about the site earlier this year, Penn

Medicine's chief of staff labeled it " unbelievably

shocking " because the logo was alongside Hark's sales pitch.

At Penn's request, Hark removed all references and links to the

school. " You can't have anything on the Web that can be construed as

an endorsement or any commercial use of the university's name, "

said.

The Penn executive also took issue with how Hark was identifying

herself. On her Web site, in numerous media appearances and in a 2007

Penn news release, Hark is described as director of the school's

Nutrition Education and Prevention Program.

said Hark should no longer use that title because the

nutrition program ceased being a separate entity several years ago.

Hark works part-time in an administrative capacity, developing

teaching materials on nutrition in minority populations,

said, adding that the title in the news release was a mistake.

Hark is moving to a job at Wills Eye Institute in January to develop

educational materials for doctors. The switch is not related to the

Web site or corporate funds, said.

After the initial phone interview, Hark did not respond to subsequent

requests for comment about her title and changes to her Web site.

The former host of Honey, We're Killing the Kids, a weight-loss

reality TV show, Hark helped create Penn's nutrition education

program in the early 1990s - a topic that had long received short

shrift in the nation's medical schools - and she has received

national recognition for it. She edited a widely used nutrition

textbook and she won a 2005 award for excellence in nutrition

education from the American Society for Nutrition.

Thanks to Hark's work, Penn " is right up there with a small number of

other schools that are really active, " said University of North

Carolina professor Kohlmeier, who studies nutrition programs.

She has been widely quoted in magazines and newspapers, including The

Inquirer, giving sensible advice on weight loss and nutrition.

But in several instances where Hark was paid, some experts quibbled

with her statements.

Orange juice, for example, does contain important nutrients, but so

do other fruits and vegetables. It also has lots of sugars, and there

is scant evidence to support its reputation as a cold-fighter.

" There's nothing special about orange juice, other than the fact that

it has a huge industry behind it, " said n Nestle, professor of

nutrition and food studies and public health at New York University.

" The fact that she's paid for it changes the equation, " added Nestle,

who said she does not accept any funds directly from food companies.

Hark's $24,800 fee was for work she did from September of last year

through February, said Mathis, a spokeswoman for the Florida

Department of Citrus, a state agency funded by the industry. Hark did

media relations on the benefits of OJ, Mathis said.

" It was a great campaign for us, " Mathis said. " She was able to

generate more than 132 million media impressions, " meaning the number

of times consumers were reached by various media.

In the one brief interview she gave in July, Hark said she was not

then working for any company, and that she had nothing to hide about

such efforts. Asked to identify various companies she had worked for,

she declined.

" I do not feel comfortable getting into this whole negative thing

that you're trying to do, " Hark said.

Her Web site now bills her as a " Best-Selling Author, " replacing the

words " Medical Nutrition Educator. "

The site still contains the following words:

" Do you want to add credibility to your brand, consult with a

nutrition expert, hire a spokesperson, or develop an Advisory Board?

Dr. Hark has the academic background and media experience to

help your company successfully reach both consumers and health

professionals. "

She holds a masters from the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia

College of Physicians and Surgeons and a Ph.D. in education from

Penn. Hark also worked for one year as host of the reality weight-

loss show on TLC, in which parents were shown projections of how

their overweight children might look as grown-ups unless they changed

their eating habits.

On one occasion, a company that hired Hark became ensnared in

controversy.

When Tyson Foods began selling chicken last year that was touted as

being " raised without antibiotics, " it enlisted Hark to comment in a

news release.

" This is great news for American consumers who have made it clear

they pay attention to the use and presence of all sorts of

antibiotics in the environment, " the company quoted her as saying.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture later ordered the company to stop

using the " raised without " label after the company admitted it

injects eggs with antibiotics.

There is no indication that Hark knew anything about the use of the

antibiotics. She referred a question on the subject to a Tyson

spokesman, who confirmed that she had been hired by the company but

declined to comment further, citing litigation on the antibiotics.

Hark also was hired twice to speak about bone health: by the National

Dairy Council from September to December in 2006 and by McNeil

Nutritionals of Fort Washington, marketer of a calcium supplement

called Viactiv, in 2004.

A dairy council spokeswoman declined to say how much Hark was paid

for her work, in which she urged people to consume three servings of

low-fat dairy a day.

A McNeil spokeswoman said Hark was engaged for one event, but that

she didn't know the details because the organizers had left the

company.

Like orange juice, NYU's Nestle said, dairy " can be part of a healthy

diet " but is not essential. There's no evidence that vegetarians have

poorer bone quality, she said.

As with funding from drug companies, financial support from the food

industry can have a corrosive effect, said D. Brownell,

director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale

University.

" For professionals to take money and believe they remain unbiased is

contrary to both scientific evidence and common sense, " Brownell

said. " Otherwise, why would industry pay all that money? "

In a 2007 study in the online journal PLoS Medicine, researchers

reported that nutrition studies funded entirely by the beverage

industry were four to eight times more likely to reach a conclusion

favorable to the sponsor than those with no industry-related funding.

The efficacy of marketing also is acknowledged by the American

Dietetic Association. On its Web site, the group advises potential

corporate sponsors of the ability to " leverage benefits to achieve

marketing objectives. "

One option is to sponsor a " nutrition fact sheet " for $20,000. These

sheets are inserted in the Journal of the American Dietetic

Association - " perforated for easy removal " - so they can be used for

patient education.

One sheet touts the purported benefits of chewing gum, such as the

relief of " life's everyday stresses. " Its sponsor: the Wrigley

Science Institute.

An association spokeswoman directed a reporter to the group's

guidelines, which call for scientific accuracy and " clear separation

of ADA messages and content from brand information or promotion. "

" All of our positions are based on science, " said the spokeswoman,

Doris Acosta.

Yet elsewhere on its Web site, the group acknowledges that corporate

support can affect the opinions of those who attend its annual

conference.

Of those corporations who buy " event sponsorships " - $21,500 a pop

for this year's function in Chicago - 62 percent of conference

attendees " said they would be more willing to purchase and/or

recommend the company's products or services. "

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November 26, 2008

I think what Hark said was a drop in the bucket. Lucky for her, that she got paid for saying what she did. I don't know about others, but around our place we drink lots of Vitamin C-containing juices (on a daily basis) and take Vitamin C as well, and eat Vitamin-C containing vegetables and fruits all year-round. Overall, our family has not had anything serious in the way of colds in recent years with this regimen. In particular, I have noticed a big drop in my own bouts with colds. However, it seems to take a much larger intake of vitamin C to accomplish this, than what is being promoted by others, or the RDAs. I'm sticking up for Vitamin C, and no-one is paying me to say this.Arghh,AasaSubject: Influence of corporate money on study of nutrition questionedTo: EOHarm Received: Wednesday, November 26, 2008, 12:57 AM

Posted on Tue, Nov. 25, 2008

Influence of corporate money on study of nutrition questioned

By Tom Avril

Inquirer Staff Writer

When Forbes.com wrote last winter about the proper diet for

preventing colds and the flu, the article included an age-old bit of

advice from nutritionist, author and former TV host Hark:

Drink orange juice.

While vitamin C's value as a cold-fighter is unclear, Hark, who works

at the University of Pennsylvania, said a regular glass of 100

percent OJ helps her immune system.

One thing Hark failed to mention: She was being paid by the Florida

orange industry to promote the health benefits of its product - in a

six-month contract for $24,800.

The seductive influence of corporate money on academia has attracted

lots of attention when it comes to drug companies. Less well known

are the close ties that often exist between nutritionists and the

food industry. While the dietitian may have the best of intentions,

some leading members of the field say industry funds can skew the

credibility of science - and in the worst cases, result in little

more than paid product endorsements.

In a telephone interview, Hark said it was "ridiculous" to suggest

that the money would color what she said. Hark defended her work for

industry clients, which have included dairy producers and Tyson

Foods, saying it was common practice.

She may be right about that. Consider:

The incoming president of the Obesity Society, a prominent academic

research group, was a paid consultant for the New York state

restaurant industry as it fought a proposal to list calories on menu

boards. Amid fierce criticism, B. stepped aside in

February before taking the job.

Last month, the federal government announced a new 13-member panel to

review dietary guidelines for all Americans. Six of the 13 have

received funding from the food or pharmaceutical industries,

according to the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The American Dietetic Association, the largest organization of

nutrition professionals, has accepted millions of dollars from the

food industry to support research and outreach.

Hark, who helped create the nutrition education program at Penn's

medical school, courts corporate clients on her Web site, which

begins with the words: "Are you looking for a media expert to help

promote and market your company?"

Until recently, Hark's site also featured Penn's logo - unbeknownst

to medical school officials.

When The Inquirer asked about the site earlier this year, Penn

Medicine's chief of staff labeled it "unbelievably

shocking" because the logo was alongside Hark's sales pitch.

At Penn's request, Hark removed all references and links to the

school. "You can't have anything on the Web that can be construed as

an endorsement or any commercial use of the university's name,"