Cochran, it turned out, had worked for the American Beverage Association, the soda industry's lobbying group, and the Calorie Control Council, a group that represents the low-calorie food and drink industry—in other words, the trade group for artificial sweeteners.Macnak thought members should know the affiliations of the candidates running for president, and tweeted as much. That's when she got a strong email from AND, which seemingly tried to silence her. Mic obtained the emails that were sent to Macnak; it accused Macnak of "provid[ing] a negative bias against Cochran" and using Twitter to spread negative messages. The Academy even said the tweet violated the organization's ethics requirements.@eatrightpro elections are less than a week away! Be informed. Vote. Share with others. #integrityrds #fulldisclosure pic.twitter.com/xzcz4kuKou
— Anna Macnak RDN (@annamacnakRDN) January 27, 2017
An RD who has ties to big food Coca-Cola, etc) is running for the Academy President. Only 1 day left to cast your vote!!! Never @NevaRDLD
— Debra Williams, RD (@debraoakley) February 21, 2017
UPDATE: When @annamacnakRDN requested disclosure of industry ties, the Academy asked her to take down her Tweet. https://t.co/9zGLQLaTAF pic.twitter.com/U7H1hMslHq
— Ninjas for Health (@ninjasforhealth) February 21, 2017
Another Coke-funded dietitian @everydayrd calls for our article to be removed. https://t.co/kJk2Vu8l2V pic.twitter.com/LixOpRUvap
— Ninjas for Health (@ninjasforhealth) February 23, 2017
As it turned out, Cochran lost the election, which was held on Friday, but we wanted to know just how prevalent industry affiliations were at the Academy purporting to protect our national nutrition and why AND would want to keep those affiliations quiet.Victory! @EatRight tried to censor our post exposing @NevaRDLD's #BigSoda funding. We refused & @Medium has our back! pic.twitter.com/oi62g4i2fn
— Ninjas for Health (@ninjasforhealth) February 22, 2017
Nestle, who is not a member of AND, also added, "AND is well-known for suppressing dissent. It has a code of ethics that discourages public expressions of dissent. On the other hand, an organized group of AND members—Dietitians for Professional Integrity—encourages the organization to clean up its ties with industry."READ MORE: What Would Censorship of the USDA Mean for America?