Nutrition scientists chasing the carrot

Food researchers are uncomfortable about the industry and its power to determine research

by Claus Baggersgaard, translation by Marianne Beck Hassl

Nutrition researchers say they are forced to chase research cash and concerned that they are overly dependent on industry and commercial interests. This is revealed in a newly published PhD. dissertation by Anna Paldam Folker.

Folker, who has a Masters in philosophy and a PhD. in bioethics from the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, has interviewed eight prominent Danish nutrition researchers on the ethical dilemmas in the role of public expert.

The results will be published in an article released in the next issue of the journal Minerva and is written in collaboration with Peter Sandøe and Lotte Holm, both of whom are professors in the Faculty of Life Sciences at U of C.

The researchers agreed to participate in the study under the condition that they would remain anonymous since nutrition researchers make up a small and exclusive group and therefore run the risk of being exposed in the media.

”Most of the researchers are deeply concerned about their own integrity and feel like pawns in a game they can’t control nor properly understand. They fear that the public sees them as being in the food industry’s pocket and they themselves aren’t sure about what extent they themselves actually are biased,” says Folker.

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