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(NewsNation) — Why are some registered dieticians telling people to forget about diets, exercise and eating healthy, and instead embracing what they call “food freedom”?
“Follow the money,” says celebrity trainer, author and nutritionist Jillian Michaels.
On NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live,” Michaels spoke Thursday of registered dieticians and online influencers who are paid by the major food companies to fight what they label “food shaming.”
“This is NOT registered dietician rhetoric. These are people who are paid off by Big Food. This is disgusting.”
According to an investigation by The Washington Post and the nonprofit news organization The Examination, General Mills is leading the anti-diet influencer movement.
It created the hashtag #DerailTheShame, and has paid influencers to promote its cereals and snacks.
Michaels say this is not new. It’s similar to a battle she fought more than a decade ago when she was a trainer on the NBC show “The Biggest Loser.”
“General Mills was paying money to integrate their products on ‘The Biggest Loser.’ And I refused to do the integration.” Michaels says it was an “ongoing war” with the show’s producers during her entire tenure.
Today’s influencer campaigns recall a pre-social media effort by Kentucky Fried Chicken. It ran TV ads in 2003 touting its chicken as a healthy food.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, “One ad featured a woman putting a bucket of KFC fried chicken down in front of her husband and announcing, ‘Remember how we talked about eating better? Well, it starts today!’”
That campaign lasted less than two weeks amid consumer advocate complaints and public ridicule. Several months later, KFC settled with the FTC, which charged the company with false advertising.
As for today’s state-of-the-art influencer campaign, the Post and The Examination analyzed more than 6,000 social media posts by 68 registered dietitians who have a cumulative following of at least 10,000.
“The analysis showed that roughly 40 percent of these influencers, with a combined reach of more than 9 million followers, repeatedly used anti-diet language,” the Post wrote.
And the paper says that most of those anti-diet influencers were paid by food, beverage and supplement companies.
On its website, General Mills says it follows international guidelines for responsibly marketing its products, which say:
- Nutritional claims should have a sound scientific basis
- It shouldn’t encourage or condone excess consumption
- It shouldn’t undermine the importance of a healthy lifestyle and balanced diet
- Marketing and advertising should be clearly transparent and identify the advertiser
Michaels says: use your common sense, and again, follow the money.
“Look for who has paid for the study, and you’ll know what the incentive is behind it. Do you really think chocolate milk is an exercise recovery drink? Of course not.”