(NewsNation) — Celebrity trainer, author and nutritionist Jillian Michaels says her time on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” was an “ongoing war” over junk food product placement.
“General Mills was paying money to integrate their products on ‘The Biggest Loser.’ And I refused to do the integration,” she said.
Michaels’ comments on NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live” underlined her condemnation of General Mills and other firms she calls “Big Food” paying registered dieticians and social media influencers to tout their products and fight what they label “food shaming.”
“This is NOT registered dietician rhetoric. These are people who are paid off by Big Food. This is disgusting,” she said.
So why are they doing it?
“Follow the money,” said Michaels.
According to an investigation by The Washington Post and the nonprofit news organization The Examination, General Mills is leading the anti-diet movement.
It created the hashtag #DerailTheShame and has paid influencers to promote its cereals and snacks.
Today’s influencer campaigns recall a pre-social media effort by Kentucky Fried Chicken. It ran TV ads in 2003 touting its chicken as a healthy food.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, “One ad featured a woman putting a bucket of KFC fried chicken down in front of her husband and announcing, ‘Remember how we talked about eating better? Well, it starts today!’”
That campaign lasted less than two weeks amid consumer advocate complaints and public ridicule. Several months later, KFC settled with the FTC, which charged the company with false advertising.
As for today’s state-of-the-art influencer campaign, the Post and The Examination analyzed more than 6,000 social media posts by 68 registered dietitians who have a cumulative following of at least 10,000.
“The analysis showed that roughly 40 percent of these influencers, with a combined reach of more than 9 million followers, repeatedly used anti-diet language,” the Post wrote.
The paper says that most of those anti-diet influencers were paid by food, beverage and supplement companies.
On its website, General Mills says it follows international guidelines for responsibly marketing its products, which say:
- Nutritional claims should have a sound scientific basis
- It shouldn’t encourage or condone excess consumption
- It shouldn’t undermine the importance of a healthy lifestyle and balanced diet
- Marketing and advertising should be clearly transparent and identify the advertiser
Michaels says to use your common sense and, again, follow the money.
“Look for who has paid for the study, and you’ll know what the incentive is behind it. Do you really think chocolate milk is an exercise recovery drink? Of course not.”