The budget expense for marketing of highly processed foods lies between 200-300 trillion dollars per year.
In comparison the biggest sporting event in the world the Super Bowl made a record revenue 485 million dollars.
The global food industry is constantly evolving and trying to influence the perception and idealisation of what is good food and nutrition.
With the biggest budget in the world when it comes to marketing it is constantly pushing out their “truths” about what is healthy and what is not.
A great example is the notation of “it is not what you eat but how many calories you eat” which has it grounds in a successful marketing campaign launched by coca-cola in the 80’s. In combination they also launched they calorie free drinks. But just in everything when it comes to marketing or propaganda if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth.
Back in 2013 the big soda companies tried to ban CrossFit and try to restrict the access of CrossFit in the US. In a big study 2016 it was concluded that big soda had sponsored, funded or tailored about 50% of all nutrition studies. To that they were also funding and sponsoring many of the organisation for sport education and licensing. It was concluded legislative bodies like ACSM, CDC & NIH were considered marketing partners for big soda.
2016 CrossFit sued NSCA for manipulating studies about CrossFit and they claimed to have proof that the money also came from Big Soda. In 2018 the court found evidence in form of classified emails and documents where the conspiracy was proved. CrossFit won and NSCA had to withdraw their fraudulent studies.
For the consumer it is impossible to really know what is right or wrong as even the scientist struggle to keep their head straight in the jungle of fraudulent studies.
When we look at nutrition there are some ground principles that one needs to know and that is that the optimal diet will be different for everyone depending on their genes, culture and surrounding. This means every person has different tolerance level towards different foods and one thing that works for my wife might not work for me. Sometimes it takes time to find out what is optimal for me as a person. The basic principle is to always move towards better health which means that muscle mass does not drop, body fat is not increasing, that physical and psychological performance can be done without constantly needing to feed, we have good sleep, great HRV and high libido. If some part is not optimal it is most likely something in the diet that can be improved and training more will not be the solution.
So working with a nutrition coach is to have a helping hand with a person who has much more experience and knowledge about metabolism and can use that knowledge and experience to improve your habits over time. And it usually takes time and a step by step protocol to finally find a place where nutrition is a natural habit that will support your health.
If you have not worked with a nutrition coach I would recommend you book a free consultation with our team here.
Kind regards
Rickard