Captives of Scientific-Technological Elites

Column #259

Our government’s “honorable” (that’s what it calls them) bureaucrats in their unified wisdom have sentenced Americans to another five years of slow death. Collectively, these people who are in charge of our nation’s official nutritional guidance are either ignorant or evil. This may sound like hyperbole, as if I was a member of the hyperventilating MSM, but hear me out and then you tell me what they are.

Nearly everyone my age has heard about former President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell address. In it he warned us about the Military-Industrial Complex—a term he coined. Amongst many things he said: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”¹

But did you know that in the same speech he said: “Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

“In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government. . .

“The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocation, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.

“Yet in holding scientific discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”

Now, in light of those comments, when I refer to the “Healthcare-Industrial Complex” you’ll better understand what I mean. And for a monetary perspective, keep in mind that Americans spend 5.2 times more on healthcare than they do on the military.^{2 3}

In last week’s column, “Trying to Change the World,” I introduced Nina Teicholz, science journalist and Executive Director of the Nutrition Coalition. She’s a long-time critic of the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) My Plate dietary guidelines. Last month the USDA issued new dietary guidelines and she’s more disgusted than ever regarding the nonscientific stance of the Healthcare-Industrial Complex.^{4 5}

Here’s how Teicholz summed up the latest USDA dietary guidelines: “The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) made specific recommendations about how to improve the rigor and transparency of the Guidelines process so that this policy could be ‘trustworthy’ and ‘reliable.’ Unfortunately, these recommendations have been ignored. Without critical reforms, this policy is on track to do virtually nothing to reverse the epidemics of disease that are causing enormous suffering and the loss of 1.8 million lives per year.⁶

“The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee said it would not address obesity or other diet-related diseases,” said Teicholz. “This is difficult to understand. With more than 60% of the population now suffering from these diseases, where can these Americans turn for help if not to the Dietary Guidelines? At this point, one has to ask if these Guidelines are even relevant.”

Continuing, she said: “Despite protests by a number of public health groups and thousands of individuals, including hundreds of doctors, a member of Congress and an anonymous member of the DGAC itself, the committee continues to ignore or exclude large bodies of scientific literature. It continues to focus exclusively on ‘healthy’ Americans while ignoring all the science that could help the 60% of Americans with one or more diet-related diseases. And the committee continues to use a ‘black-box’ methodology that obscures crucial information about how data is graded and evaluated. All of this runs contrary to recommendations by the National Academies of Sciences.”

Every five years this is the routine. The USDA asks for inputs, which its committee of experts ignore, and then issues what it calls a “scientific” report. The agency and its many bureaucrats seem to be tone-deaf regarding the millions of people who are suffering from diet-caused chronic diseases and their 1.8 million premature deaths. I find it inconceivable that the bureaucrats just keep on recommending what they’ve been recommending for more than 60 years while watching the health metrics deteriorate year after year.⁷

Personally, I’m sick and tired of our government’s use of the term “science.” The bureaucrats hit everyone over the head with their “science” as if their “viewpoint” was ordained by God. But thousands of nutritional studies in the past 40 years have shown us why the old advice is no more than rehashed myths created by old theories.

There are more than 100 chronic diseases that can be avoided, or when they do occur, can be subdued significantly by diet. Diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, being overweight, arthritis, asthma, dementia, and many more are unequivocally diet related. Obesity is one of the easiest to solve.

There is no question that most of the positive nutritional data comes from experiments with lab animals or people reporting anecdotal experiences. That’s because scientists can’t recruit large numbers of people, separate them into various groups, and then feed them two or three, very different, highly regimented diets for even six months much less many years. And part of the problem is that some diseases take many years to establish. But that doesn’t mean the thousands of reported anecdotal cases of improvements in health, by people who have made the commitment for better health, aren’t real. But bureaucrats say anecdotal reports aren’t “scientific” because their diets were never evaluated in a “randomized, placebo-controlled” clinical trial. At the same time they don’t recognize that since 1950 the continually deteriorating health of most Americans is one big misguided experiment.

Another factor to consider is that many professionals and bureaucrats in the Healthcare-Industrial Complex have financial stakes in the status quo. There was a hearing a week or so ago about the perverse incentive for medical folks to claim somebody died of COVID-19—as long as they had COVID-19 in their system—in order to get more money.

In response to a question from Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (U.S. Representative for Missouri's 3rd congressional district) Dr. Robert R. Redfield (Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) said: “Congressman, I think you are correct. We have seen this in other disease processes, too.”⁸

We already know that doctors routinely ignore nutritional science. They do it even when patients change their diets and report great success in subduing a chronic disease that the doctor was previously treating with drugs and operations without curing the disease. There are two reasons why they ignore the testimony. First, there is the liability of providing nutritional recommendations that differ from the government (Healthcare-Industrial Complex) mandated MyPlate guidelines. Second, doctors quickly notice that cured patients don’t come back.

But there is more. There are some uniquely positioned bureaucrats, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, who have been granted patents for their inventions developed while working for the government. To no one’s surprise, most of Dr. Fauci’s patents are for basic vaccine formulations. Potentially, he can reap significant payments if a vaccine that relies in part on his patent is developed and used.⁹

Since we’re now discussing vaccines, it’s interesting to note the vaccine effectiveness (VE) ratings for the vaccine used during the 2017-2018 influenza season that was given to 42% of the US population. The end-of-season VE overall rate was only 38%, which included rates of 22% effectiveness against influenza A(H3N2), 62% against influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, and 50% against influenza B. Overall, for people over 65 years of age the vaccine was only 12% effective.¹⁰

In light of that, I find it interesting that Americans are being told by the Healthcare-Industrial Complex they must wait for a COVID-19 vaccine in order to be able to function safely in their community. Before it arrives, everyone is supposed to wear masks, social distance, and avoid going out and having fun or even going to work in some cases. Yet the CDC tells us the most vulnerable are mostly people over 65 years of age, people who are overweight, diabetics, asthma sufferers, smokers, and those with heart disease and cancer. And, because of their already compromised immune systems, vaccines for those people are barely viable in the best of circumstances. It’s those most vulnerable people who should be really careful and the ones that need to change their diets the most. But the new nutritional guidelines aren’t telling them to do that.

Did you know that vaccine trials use healthy adults as guinea pigs and not the most vulnerable? The reason is that older people have weaker immune systems and vaccines work best (in trials and in actual use) when people have stronger immune systems. This is a known fact. So, how often do we hear the Healthcare-Industrial Complex tell people to strengthen their immune systems by eliminating carbohydrates, high glycemic foods, and foods/oils with high ratios of Omega-6 to Omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs)?

To make matters worse people are told to avoid meat! Yet just in the past 10 years modern science has made great strides in proving that the war on meat and saturated fat is loaded with myths and we should be eating a lot of grass-fed meats, Omega-3 meats, and wild-caught seafood in addition to green leafy vegetables, even squashes like zucchini, and other selections that have balanced Omega-6 to Omega-3 EFAs. For certain the Healthcare-Industrial Complex is not telling people to make the changes that “modern science” started recommending more than 40 years ago for improving the immune system. And to think, the most important aspect of diet is to build the strongest possible immune system—especially during a pandemic.^{11 12 13}

We know that eating food that is nutrient dense and diverse, low glycemic, with balanced EFAs does wonders for losing weight, avoiding and/or even curing chronic diseases, and strengthening the immune system. Therefore why doesn’t the Healthcare-Industrial Complex recommend that Americans eat like that especially now while they’re scaring the pants off everyone about the COVID-19 pandemic? Instead, the most I’ve heard is that overweight people need to exercise more. That does improve muscle tone, but unless carbs are cut back, weight loss is very slow or nonexistent.

Instead of suggesting the proven-to-be-positive nutritional steps that actually improve resistant to disease, the Healthcare-Industrial Complex wants MOAR of the same in the same way that the Military-Industrial Complex has always wants MOAR for its mission. That has been the play book the Scientific-Technological Elites have used for the past 60 years.

In closing I have one more quote from President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address for all of us to ponder. “As we peer into society's future, we—you and I, and our government—must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”

Are you being held captive by the Scientific-Technological Elites that run the Healthcare-Industrial Complex? If so, you might want to think twice about their advice. And let’s not squander our health, we’re going to need it.

To your health.

Ted Slanker

Ted Slanker has been reporting on the fundamentals of nutritional research in publications, television and radio appearances, and at conferences since 1999. He condenses complex studies into the basics required for health and well-being. His eBook, The Real Diet of Man, is available online.

Don’t miss these links for additional reading:

1. Dwight D. Eisenhower: Farewell Address (“Military–Industrial Complex”) January 17, 1961 from U.S. Embassy & Consulate in South Korea

2. Military Expenditure as Percentage of Gross Domestic Product in Highest Spending Countries 2019 from Statista

3. U.S. Healthcare as a Percentage Gross Domestic Product from CMS.gov

4. Trying to Change the World by Ted Slanker

5. Scientific Report of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee

6. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Expert Report Based on Weak Science, Excludes a Majority of Americans from Nutrition Coalition

7. 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Membership

8. There Is Monetary Incentive for Hospitals to Report Deaths as Covid-19 (C-19) Even When the Actual Cause Is Not C-19 from CSPAN

9. Patents by Inventor Anthony S. Fauci from Justia

10. Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness (VE), 2017-2018 from CDC

11. Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Inflammation and Autoimmune Diseases by Dr. Artemis Simopoulos