A DIETITIAN has been called on to stand down from the board of Food Standards Scotland after it emerged she once wrote a paper downplaying a link between sugar and obesity.
Dr Carrie Ruxton also claimed that studies found a “tentative, although often inconsistent” association between sugary drinks and being overweight.
Her research was aided by a grant from The Sugar Bureau, which was the official voice of the industry and Ruxton’s former employer.
Set up in 2015, FSS is a non-ministerial Government department for food safety, standards and nutrition.
However, the Sunday Herald revealed last week that FSS founding board member Ruxton, who has a PhD in child nutrition, is at the centre of a conflict of interest row.
The former Scottish Tory candidate declares paid work for Ferrero, one of the biggest chocolate makers in the world.
In 2010, five years before she took up her position at FSS, she co-wrote a paper entitled 'Is Sugar consumption detrimental to health? A review of the evidence 1995 - 2006'.
At the time her findings were published, Ruxton was a member of the Scottish Food Advisory Committee (SFAC), which eventually made way for the FSS.
In the final section of the report, Ruxton reported that “even when intakes of sugar were pushed to extremes, there were few apparent disadvantages for body weight and metabolic syndrome”.
She added: “In the case of obesity, the evidence did not reveal a positive relationship with sugar; indeed some studies showed an inverse relationship. Weight management interventions suggested that the rate of weight loss was unaffected by the addition of sugar.”
The UK Government last year announced plans for a levy on soft drinks and FSS has called on Ministers to consider a wider sugar tax.
Asked last week if she supported a sugar tax, Ruxton said she backed the UK Government levy policy.
Professor Simon Capewell, a Professor of Public Health and Policy at Liverpool University, said of the report and Ruxton’s existing links: “There would seem to be a major conflict of interest here and her position is untenable.”
Joanna Blythman, an award-winning investigative food journalist and author, said: “It is simply unacceptable that someone who has co-authored a review of scientific data, funded by the sugar industry, one that unsuccessfully attempted to downplay the very real damage that sugar does to public health, should be accepted as a board member at FSS, the public body charged with dispensing nutrition advice to the public.”
FSS chair Ross Finnie said that Ruxton was not a FSS board member when her paper was published and that she was present when the board unanimously adopted a diet and obesity strategy which included measures to reduce sugar intake.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel