From Science Alert:
The food industry has their fingers all over our nutrition research. According to a new analysis, one out of every eight leading, peer-reviewed studies on nutrition is tied to business.
Even worse, this conflict of interest, although acknowledged explicitly within the scientific journals, tends to produce results that favour business, and potentially with misleading consequences.
“This study found that the food industry is commonly involved in published research from leading nutrition journals,” researchers write.
“Where the food industry is involved, research findings are nearly six times more likely to be favourable to their interests than when there is no food industry involvement.”
As far as the authors know, this is the first systematic review on the extent and nature of food industry involvement in peer-reviewed research. Similar studies focusing on industry involvement have produced mixed results, but far more research is needed.
In recent years, as industry ties to scientific research have begun to surface, many have lost trust in nutrition science and some have called it a ‘credibility crisis‘. Whether or not that distrust is justified is something independent scientists and businesses have been trying to prove ever since.
These new findings support growing evidence and rising concerns that competing interests are contaminating the field of nutrition and dietetics, even at the most reputable journals. The findings also suggest this involvement is skewing results.
