The clothing industry isn’t the only servant of fashion. Food fashionistas, keen on wowing the food scene, thrive on predicting the next season’s trendy foods. It’s a competitive, sensational world out there!

I loathe the idea of ‘trendy’ foods. I’ve always been interested in whole, no-fuss, nutritious, affordable foods, especially plant foods, that normal cooks like me can prepare at home. So, you might ask, why am I writing about trends to look out for?

Because many trends I’m seeing are bending the truth big time, to lure people away from whole, no-fuss, nutritious, affordable plant foods.

Big Ag, fighting to expand and dominate the market, is using the same ‘Divide & Conquer’ tactics used by Big Tobacco and Big Oil:¹ Delay, Distract, Derail, Discredit, Defend, Disinform, Downplay, Confuse, Paint Yourself a Saint, and Redirect by Implication & Promotion. Oh, and ‘Keep some of those funding connections hidden …’

Smear Campaigns

Want to destroy your opponent’s market? Then ‘Let’s Discredit!’ Start and feed a Smear Campaign. One of the earliest, the ‘Soy Controversy,’ turned people off this complete plant-protein-food so successfully that they’re still avoiding soy 50 years on! (see my previous article)

Smear Campaigns usually unravel like this …

Someone who can claim to be an expert writes a paper or a book damming a particular plant food or food group that has nourished people for thousands of years. They trumpet new discoveries that, they claim, reveal the food they’re discrediting is detrimental to health in some way. Scientific-sounding references abound.

The author gains kudos, securing a significant income by giving speeches, consulting, selling books & subscriptions and, often, overpriced ‘health’ products. More ‘experts’ jump on the bandwagon, gaining a huge following on social media. Then comes the desired result: local communities abuzz with newly-enlightened enthusiasts informing friends, “I don’t eat (that plant food) now.”

One problem is that smear campaign theories sound feasible, progressive, and impressive to ordinary people like you and me because there’s usually an element of truth involved. We fail to remember that one element is not the whole truth. One leaf is not a whole tree.

But who cares? The new idea is hot! To restore glowing health (and usually to lose weight), all we need do is to stop eating the discredited foods. And it seems to work! At least for a few months. What’s not said, but implied, is that including or re-introducing animal foods in your new regime is a good idea and a safer option.

Bendy trends to look out for!

• More Anti-Soy Messages – the estrogen scare now debunked, expect to see more reasons to avoid soy, almond milk, etc; e.g. ‘highly refined,’ ‘anti-nutrients,’ Amazon Rainforest destruction … (they won’t be publicising that Amazon soy is for cattle = meat, or that dairy milk has a far greater environmental footprint than plant milks).
• Troublesome Lentils & Beans! – Lectin, Dr Gundry² tells us, is a bad-guy ‘anti-nutrient,’ causing a host of health problems. As for new complete-protein-containing plant foods like white lupin, be suspicious! (Hmm. Soaked and well-cooked, or spouted or fermented, lentils & beans have been staple, healthy protein foods in Asia, Mexico, and the Middle East, for hundreds of years).
• Nasty ‘Anti-nutrients!’ – Phytates, goitrogens, oxalates, saponins, tannins, trypsin inhibitors, isoflavones, solanine – expect to see more new nasties exposed. These scientific-sounding bad guys are out to steal good nutrients. (Don’t expect to hear about the toxins & carcinogens in animal foods. Or that, in a balanced plant-based diet, other than oxalates, the benefits of antinutrients remaining in well-prepared food far outweigh any potential negative nutritional effects).³
• Evil Carbs! Wheat, bread, potatoes and ‘carbs’ in general are sugar in disguise, bad guys making you fat. Gluten is a bad guy. Grains give you ‘wheat belly,’ brain fog … the list goes on. (Celiac disease can be serious. Otherwise, don’t expect to hear about the benefits of eating slow-burning whole grains & root veges that have nourished humanity with energy, protein, vitamins, minerals, etc, for thousands of years).⁴
• Warning! It’s Ultra-Refined! – Plant-based ‘meats’ and protein powders are bad guys, up with potato chips and all that other junk food – stay away! (Some alt-meats are junk. Some provide good nutrition and a lot of protein.⁵ Read the label! All these new protein foods use less land, can feed far more people, and help us save rainforests and lower emissions).
• Sugar is Poison, Cholesterol’s Your New Friend! – Sugar makes you fat, and it’s the only cause of diabetes. Give up sugar, and you’ll be slim in no time. Maybe stop eating fruit – it’s full of sugar too. But eat all the fat and cholesterol you want – they can’t conclusively prove it causes heart disease! (Don’t expect to hear that a high-fat diet is also a cause of diabetes, that a small amount of raw sugar is OK, or that fresh fruit is also full of healthy micronutrients. But expect to see weight piling back on and heart attacks and strokes back in fashion soon).⁶

Campaigns like these are embraced widely by open-minded people concerned about their health and truth-seekers who long for a just society free from corruption and exploitation. The authors of food scare-mongering books and all those self-proclaimed experts are seen as courageous, standing against the mainstream to reveal the truth. Hmmm.

As for Big Ag, talk about value for money! Set up a few networks, spend your research budget⁷ on massive glossy ad campaigns, articles & sponsorships, and Advocacy programmes,⁸ then sit back and let the influencers, sensationalist media companies, and a gullible public do the rest of the work for you – for free!

References

1. ‘The New Merchants of Doubt: How Big Meat & Dairy Avoid Climate Action’

2. ‘The Plant Paradox by Steven Gundry MD– A Commentary’ by T. Colin Campbell, PhD and Thomas Campbell, MD – nutritionstudies.org

3. ‘Are Anti-Nutrients Harmful?’

4. ‘Whole Brains – Brenda Davis’

5. ‘The Health Pros and Cons of Plant-Based Alt Meats’

6. ‘Dramatic elevation of LDL cholesterol from ketogenic-dieting: A Case Series’ American Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

7. ‘Milking it in Aotearoa New Zealand: Delay and Distraction in Three Acts – a case study’

8. ‘Inside Big Beef’s Climate Messaging Machine: Confuse, Defend & Downplay’ by Joe Fassler, The Guardian.