Brian Stirling, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS

Manipulating a voice in an “ad” like this one should be illegal. I’ll be signing a bill in a matter of weeks to make sure it is.

Mainstream media playbook: When the culture seems to be turning TOWARDS health, rapidly spin up a BS article (like this one that was published yesterday in TIME) to: 1. SEED CONFUSION: CONFUSION IS KEY - it makes us doubt our convictions about healthy food. Key here is bringing in “experts” who contradict the science and say it’s sensationalized or impractical to implement. 2. NORMALIZE: talk about how nearly 80% of calories come from ultraprocessed food so it can’t be that bad, right? IGNORE that 50% of children now have a CHRONIC DISEASE. Use a meaningless anecdote like the author of the article eating 80% processed food and feeling just fine! 🤦🏼‍♀️ 3. DISTRACT AND SHUT DOWN DISCOURSE BY BRINGING IN SOCIAL JUSTICE: Focus intensely on social justice issues and questions of food access rather than science (“what would people *possibly* eat if we changed the food system towards real food?!”). Rather than focusing on ANY meaningful solutions that are actually good for the health and wellbeing of all people, focus on how changing the current system would lead to more food insecurity. Don’t mention that taxpayer money is what leads these foods and to be cheap through corrupt subsidies, and we actually have a rigged system against people of lower socioeconomic status that is the ACTUAL social justice issue. Don’t mention that we could rapidly steer the billions of dollars of processed food subsidies towards REAL food access for all Americans if there was a will to do so. 4. MINIMIZE THE SCIENCE: mention but then QUICKLY minimize the innumerable studies that say ultraprocessed foods impair hormones, metabolic health, and are associated with early death. 5. DEFINITELY DON’T MENTION CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: certainly don’t talk about funding sources and conflicts of interest at NIH, USDA, FDA, academia, OR THE NEWS OUTLET THAT IS PUBLISHING THE ARTICLE. DON’T FALL INTO THE TRAP