Veterans face unique challenges due to their demanding service and post-military life. Some dietitians have dedicated their careers to helping individuals rebuild their health with nutrition plans. Food plays a vital role in our health, and expert guidance can help us achieve recovery, strength, and even overall well-being. Lindsay D., a dietitian, highlights that veterans have unique needs when it comes to nutrition, and dietitian Janet Simon can provide clear guidance on fueling their health, including managing chronic conditions to improve mental well-being.
The Importance of Nutrition for Veterans
Military service affects the body both physically and mentally, which can lead to unique health issues. Some examples include PTSD, muscle loss, weight fluctuation, and chronic conditions.
- Whole Foods: The focus of the diet should be whole foods. Aim for five servings of fruits and vegetables each day to get all the necessary vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
- Protein: Protein is important in a diet because it supports muscle repair and helps with energy levels. The recommended amount of protein a day is 1.2 to 2.0 g of protein per kilogram of an individual’s body weight, dependent on their activity level.
- Limit Processed Foods: Reduce processed foods that are high in sugar and contain unhealthy fats.
- Hydration: Drink about 2 liters of water daily. Factors like climate, activity level, and an individual’s health can influence the amount.
- Regular Meals: Eat regular meals along with snacks throughout the day to stabilize blood sugar and maintain energy. Consider using smaller plates to control portion sizes and prevent overeating.
- Mental Health: Mental health issues like PTSD can be supported through the right nutrition. Almost 4,000,000 veterans struggle with their minds battling illness.
Best Foods to Support Mental Health for Veterans
Fostering a healthy relationship with food is the key to good health. For veterans aiming to rebuild physical strength and stamina, the focus should be on protein intake and regular physical activity. Some veterans deal with weight fluctuations or chronic health conditions, and tailored nutrition plans can greatly benefit these individuals.
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) and Corporate Influence
The involvement of unhealthy commodity corporations in health policy and research has been identified as an important commercial determinant contributing to the rise of non-communicable diseases. In the USA, health professional associations have been subject to corporate influence. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), the largest US-based organization comprised of food and nutritional professionals, has faced scrutiny regarding its relationship with the food and beverage industry.
Founded in 1917 as the American Dietetic Association, the AND boasts approximately 100,000 dietitians, nutrition practitioners, and students. It is established as a 501(c)(6) trade association and certifies dieticians and nutrition practitioners in the USA and abroad. The AND's stated mission is ‘to accelerate improvements in global health and well-being through food and nutrition’. It acts as a reference for dietetics curricula accreditation and as an authority in US food policy making. For instance, the Academy has been influential in the process of setting US Dietary Guidelines, which are then taken into consideration all over the world in order to develop vital nutrition policy decisions. The AND also provides ‘expert testimony’ including ‘comments and position statements for federal and state regulations on critical food and nutrition issues’.
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The ‘philanthropic arm’ of the AND is the AND Foundation (ANDF), established as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. The ANDF does not receive member dues and relies on donations. It focuses on scholarships, awards, food and nutrition research and public education. The AND and the ANDF report jointly their annual activities and achievements, without a clear distinction between each other. The AND has been repeatedly criticized for its close ties to food and beverage corporations, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and General Mills, which may undermine ‘the integrity of the professionals most responsible for educating Americans about healthy eating’.
Scrutinizing the AND's Corporate Relationships
While the AND's relationship with the food and beverage industry has been described before, little is known about its relationship with other unhealthy commodity industries as well as the dynamics and evolution of such relationships. This study is the first to obtain and review AND’s internal communications and interactions between the AND and the food and beverage, pharmaceutical and agribusiness industries. USRTK, an investigative public health group, obtained internal AND communications through FOI requests, which asked for any mention in those records of key companies in the US food market: Splenda, Heartland Food Products Group, Tate & Lyle, Abbott Nutrition, Ingredion, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, as well as the American Beverage Association, based on previous publications pointing out some corporate relationships. Burke County Public Schools provided a total of 28,204 pages in response. Two authors reviewed the documents and coded them inductively. Additionally, to identify gaps and clarify key events described in the FOI documents, the findings were triangulated with an online search for documents in English. The key emerging themes from that information were (a) use of revolving doors between AND’s board (BOD) of directors with corporate interests and (b) investments of AND in corporations and corporations funding AND/ANDF and their events.
Mechanisms of Corporate Influence
The documents reveal a symbiotic relationship between the AND, its Foundation, and corporations. Corporations assist the AND and ANDF with financial contributions. The AND’s leaders holding key positions in multinational food, pharmaceutical or agribusiness corporations, and AND accepting corporate financial contributions. This includes the AND’s BOD and the ANDF’s BOD, comprised of nineteen individuals and thirteen members, respectively.
After mapping some of the key AND and ANDF’s BOD, several key members that have had close relationships with corporations throughout the years were identified. Donna Martin, an influential AND member who has encouraged corporate connections, has served in several positions for the Academy: as treasurer (2013-2015), president-elect (2016-2017) and president (2017-2018). In 2015, she agreed to endorse Kraft Singles, despite their poor nutritional value. Another AND director, Milton Stokes, was an employee at Monsanto in 2014, and from 2014 to 2020 he was the Global Lead, Public Affairs and Issues Management at Bayer Crop Science (a subsidiary of Bayer, which now owns Monsanto). Monsanto has donated at least $395,000 to the AND and worked closely with the AND, especially after Stokes joined Monsanto. For instance, in 2015 Monsanto contributed $175,000 for the Foundation’s ‘Future of Food Initiative’.
Financial Ties
The AND has maintained financial ties to food, pharmaceutical and agribusiness corporations, despite criticism and the potential reputational risks identified by some ex-Academy members. There are three main types of financial ties:
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- Corporate Financial Contributions to the AND: FOI documents revealed the corporate financial contributions to the AND for the years 2011, and 2013 to 2017. In 2011, the AND received more than US$300,000 from Hershey Co., a chocolate manufacturer, and nearly US$300,000 from the National Dairy Council (NDC), Conagra, Coca-Cola and Aramark, a company providing food services. Abbott, a pharmaceutical company selling infant formula, as well as General Mills and Cargill each donated more than US$100,000 in 2011 and maintained substantial donations from 2013 to 2017. Food and beverage companies such as Nestlé, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, with the exception of General Mills, reduced their contributions over time. Nevertheless, contributions from companies such as Pharmavite-Nature Made and Abbott increased substantially during this same period.
- Corporate Donations to the ANDF: FOI documents showed large corporate donations to the ANDF from 2011 to 2015. Between 2011 and 2014, the Foundation received more than US$2 million each year from corporations, representing approximately a third of its total revenues for that period.
- ANDF as a Conduit for Corporate Reach: The ANDF is a means for corporations to reach out to young students and professionals. From 2009 to 2015, corporate contributions to the Foundation were US$15 million. Of these funds, more than US$6 million were transferred to AND members through the distribution of awards, scholarships, research grants, fellowships and other ANDF-led programmes. Of these, US$4.5 million went to an initiative called the ‘Champions Program’, which granted funds to hundreds of non-governmental organizations to support projects ‘promoting healthy eating and active lifestyles for children and their families’. At least US$500,000 went to stipends for public nutrition education programmes.
Continuing Professional Education and Journal Publications
The AND certifies US professionals and develops content for continuing professional education as a ‘requirement for’ certification and ‘to build’ knowledge and advance nutritionists’ careers. Also, the AND provides a toolkit for individual or organizational members to build their own workshops with continuing professional education credits. Some of the topics of such continuing professional education resources were sponsored or aligned to industry’s interests. The AND also publishes the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal. The journal has become a means for the AND to publish its official positions on certain topics.
For example, the AND has published controversial positions that have been amended over time and appear to be aligned with corporate interests. The original position paper on vegetarian diets published in 2015 was retracted at the request of the AND’s Academy Positions Committee, as they ‘became aware of inaccuracies’ and a new version was made public in December 2016, eliminating any mention of specific animal source foods.
Efforts to Address Criticism
The AND has changed its internal policies to address criticism of its corporate relationships, notably through its Sponsorship Advisory Task Force (SATF). The SATF was established in 2014, following ‘internal and external criticism’ and for ‘enhancing communication and trust among members and the public, and facilitating transparency of process and decisions’. The SATF was composed of eight AND members and one former director. After the SATF’s produced recommendations, the AND updated its Guidelines for Corporate Sponsors. These guidelines require the sponsor’s vision and mission to be aligned with the AND’s vision and mission, that its product portfolio is ‘broadly’ aligned with official AND’s positions and that the sponsorship complies with the Scientific Integrity Principles, principles developed by the International Life Science Institute (ILSI), an industry-funded organization, in collaboration with the AND in 2015.
However, the SATF was not asked to approve the 2014-2015 Kraft-AND partnership. The BOD weighted the risks and despite the results of the external risk assessment decided to go ahead with the Kraft partnership. AND’s COO conducted a ‘due diligence’ before deciding to ‘accept Kraft as a National Level Sponsor’ with an ‘unrestricted gift to Kids Eat Right’, recognizing that ‘we risk alienating members and/or donors who are not supportive of opportunities to work with big industry’. When learning about the Kraft partnership, a majority of AND members wrote to the BOD criticizing the lack of transparency and their management of the Kraft partnership.
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