Want Nutrition Advice? Ask Hershey's and Other Candymakers

When visiting the American Dietetic Association's (ADA) Web site, users are greeted by several images. A kid munching on a baby carrot; a student holding a lunch tray containing a leafy, green salad, an apple, and a glass of milk; and a bag of groceries overflowing with fresh produce. Those photos aren't surprising considering that the ADA claims to be the world's largest organization of food and nutrition professionals.

Given the ADA's mission and self-described "trustworthiness," it seems incongruous that the organization would partner with Hershey's, one the world's leading candymakers and producer of products like Twizzlers, Milk Duds, and Snack Barz. But as the Fooducate blog reported, the ADA recently teamed up with the Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition, an organization founded by the candy company in 2005 to "promote the chemistry and health benefits of cocoa, chocolate, nuts, and other ingredients." Kind of sounds like a wolf in sheep's clothing, if you ask me.

Based on the ADA's press release, it's still kind of unclear what, exactly, Hershey's corporate sponsorship will mean. The release is pretty vague and I seem to be missing my PR speak-to-English dictionary this afternoon. But here's a nugget that attempts to outline the sponsorship's goals: "The Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition develops and supports cutting-edge scientific research for products and technologies to provide customers with a range of snacking choices, and will collaborate with ADA on consumer and health professional initiatives including an innovative, national consumer-based nutrition education campaign." Nutrition education from a junk food manufacturer? Folks can get better dietary direction from a fortune cookie.

I guess I shouldn't be so shocked by Hershey's and ADA's sweet romance — PepsiCo, Coca Cola, and Mars also serve as corporate sponsors to the ADA. But if the world's largest group of nutrition professionals is in bed with junk food giants like Pepsi and Mars, how can consumers believe any of the organization's dietary advice?

Companies like Hershey's, Pepsi, and Mars consistently pimp out products that are way too high in sugar, fat, calories, and salt. Many of these snacks also contain chemical additives and preservatives like synthetic food dyes, which have been linked to a number of health risks. The ADA, an organization that's supposed to offer consumers "trustworthy" and "science-based" dietary information, has no business taking money from any of these companies. Whether corporations influence the ADA's advice or not, the organization loses all credibility when it boasts companies like Hershey's and Mars as its corporate sponsors.

The ADA's own URL is eatright.org. The organization would do well to remember those two little words as it selects its corporate sponsors.

Photo credit: Razor512 via Flickr