Conflicts of Interest

Public health advocates have started a nationwide movement to get calorie information on fast food menu boards, and it has the fast food industry in a panic. In response, the National Restaurant Association – the trade association that represents the interests of the fast food chains – is using underhanded tactics to evade the common-sense regulation. One tactic they have employed is the use of nutrition experts to speak on the industry’s behalf.  

Local chapters of the National Restaurant Association filed lawsuits to stop menu labeling initiatives in San Francisco and New York City.  In the legal briefs filed, the industry cites Dr. David Allison, “one of the country’s leading authorities on obesity.”  In the briefs, Dr. Allison says he believes that there is not “competent and reliable evidence that providing restaurant patrons with calorie information on menu items will reduce individual or population levels of obesity.”[1]

What the industry’s brief does not state is that Dr. Allison is the subject of controversy, having been forced to resign from his post as president of The Obesity Society, a national group of researchers and doctors.  Not only were the opinions he espoused in both lawsuits contrary to the prevailing opinions of The Obesity Society (who supports menu labeling), it also turns out he was a paid consultant to the restaurant industry.[2]

Sadly, Dr. Allison is just one of many nutrition experts who are on the food industry’s payroll, which can lead to concerns over their credibility.   The public needs to know that they can trust their leading experts not to be bought and sold to the highest bidder.

For more information about how fast food giants manipulate our public policy process, visit Marion Nestle's site and Appetite for Profit's site.

1. New York State Restaurant Association vs. New York City Board of Health, et al., Case 1:08-cv-0100-RJH, Document 42 (April 16, 2008) p.25.

2. Stephanie Saul, “Obesity Researcher Quits Over New York Menu Fight,” The New York Times (March, 2008), http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/business/03cnd-obese.html (accessed August 30, 2008).

Photo: Tom Tomorrow (http://thismodernworld.com)