How Ironic: Dietary Facts To Make You More Healthy Face A Backdrop Of Food Disinformation – CleanTechnica

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Last Updated on: 20th February 2025, 10:51 am

A widely viewed October 16 post on X alleged that “elites” and the FDA were deliberately contaminating food with bacteria, GMOs, and heavy metals. The post received over 439,000 views. Many commenters echoed the unsubstantiated claim that government agencies and corporations are “intentionally poisoning” the public, despite recalls being triggered by FDA safety violations. The reemergence of unverified claims about food safety underscores the challenge of addressing public concerns in an environment where food disinformation can quickly spread and influence perceptions.

As in many areas of the US federal government right now, ongoing tensions among platforms, politicians, and regulators point to more imbalances between free speech and social media content moderation, which will taint important conversations about food safety and nutrition due to a backdrop of food disinformation.

What Will The Future Of Food Look Like — Especially With Limited Government Research Funding?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign has promised to “clean up” the FDA and other public health agencies by tapping into feelings of distrust against Big Government. Meanwhile, the UK has been researching how diets rich in locally-grown sorghum, okra, chickpeas, and oranges are likely to become the new nutritional norm within 50 years. That’s because “of an unprecedented new mapping study” in which researchers found that more warm weather crops will probably succeed in British soils if temperatures rise to between 2 °C and 4 °C above pre-industrial levels.

This type of “horizon scanning” maps the suitability of crops under future climate change and can help governments and farmers to adapt to warmer weather by starting to select more resilient crops. “Without such data, agricultural systems are likely to be ‘locked in’ to current crops, with adaptations failing to keep pace with climate change,” researcher and co-author Rachel Warren explained.

The new study doesn’t just highlight new crops that farmers can introduce; it also predicts which existing UK crops will continue to thrive in climbing temperatures. Moreover, it reveals which of the current heartlands of British agriculture will be displaced.

In January 2023, the FDA announced it would develop a reorganization proposal to create a unified Human Foods Program and restructure its field operations. Will it continue under the Trump administration? Isn’t it a shame/sin/crime that the US federal government is too busy lining the pockets of billionaires to devote research into predicting the success and failure of future US crops?

Social Media Gurus Gut Science-Based Food Policy Facts

While it should come as no surprise, the Scientific Report of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has concluded that across multiple life stages, a dietary pattern that is consistently related to beneficial health is higher in vegetables, fruits, legumes (i.e., beans, peas, lentils), nuts, whole grains, fish/seafood, and vegetable oils higher in unsaturated fat, and lower in red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, refined grains, and saturated fat.

Some of these healthy dietary patterns also include consumption of fat-free or low-fat dairy and foods lower in sodium. In fact, the Committee has determined that nutrient goals are generally met with a shift to include more plant-based protein foods.

Will the healthy benefits of plant-based diets work their way through social media spaces, many of which take delight in food disinformation?

A 2023 Journal of Nutrition article details how “health and wellness gurus, or self-proclaimed experts, utilize social media platforms to garner attention through compelling narratives, build audience followings, and influence public opinion by sharing (often) misleading information about food and nutrition.” Authors Diekman, Ryan, and Oliver remind us that the perpetuation of disinformation undermines a well-functioning democracy and diminishes support for policies that are science or evidence based.

They call upon nutrition practitioners, clinician scientists, researchers, communicators, educators, and food experts to encourage and model critical thinking to participate in our world of mass information and mitigate misinformation. These experts, they say, can play a vital role in the evaluation of disinformation about food and nutrition against the body of evidence.

Food Service Management Focusing On Plant-Based Menu Options

Restaurant-goers today tend to be more conscious than ever before about the environmental and ethical impacts of their food choices. The pressure of the climate crisis weighs heavily on many people, especially younger generations. Seeking solutions, consumers have begun to embrace plant-based options to live more sustainably. This shift makes sense on many fronts, including the positive health outcomes now associated with plant-based eating. The food service management industry is keenly aware of such attitudes as a force for industry-wide change. After all, restaurants rely on keeping up with trends to stay relevant and viable.

For food service companies, “offering a plant-based menu isn’t just about including a few vegetarian options anymore,” according to a fabulous, must-read article in Harlem World Magazine. Plant-based offerings meet consumers expectations for variety, creativity, and depth of flavor, to the point that meatless dishes must at least meet if not exceed the taste, texture, and quality of traditional meat-based dishes. The challenge, therefore, is for restaurants and other food service establishments to identify and serve ethically sourced, organic, and locally grown ingredients.

To do so, food service management companies are examining their supply chains, and partnerships are emerging with smallholder farmers and sustainable brands to create a more resilient and ethical supply chain.

Food industry acknowledgment of consumers desire to eat more plant-based foods is challenged by food disinformation about outrageous costs of plant-based foods — the diatribes pervade social media spaces. “Vegan food is too expensive. Compared to meat substitutes it doesn’t take nearly as long to produce, which makes the vegan market a scandal,” a Reddit thread reads, for example.

Yet the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine found that a low-fat vegan diet cuts food costs by 19%, and total food costs were 25% lower on a vegan diet compared with a Mediterranean diet.

What is also missing from these conversations is the most important point of all: plant-based foods like almond milk, coconut milk yogurt, veggie burgers, and the like do not require the raising and slaughter of cattle. And, by 2036, global emissions from livestock must drop by 61% to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement — plant-based replacements are necessary.