Commercial interests, agenda setting, and the epistemic trustworthiness of nutrition science

Jukola S. Commercial interests, agenda setting, and the epistemic trustworthiness of nutrition science. Synthese. 2021;198(Suppl 10):2629-2646.The trustworthiness of nutrition science has been questioned recently. According to the critics, the food industry has corrupted scientists in the field. I argue that the worries that commercialization threatens the epistemic trustworthiness of nutrition science are indeed well-founded. However, it is problematic that the discussion has revolved around how funding can threaten the integrity of researchers and the methodological quality of the studies. By extending Wilholt's (Br J Philos Sci 64(2):233253, 2013) account of epistemic trustworthiness, I argue that when assessing the epistemic trustworthiness of research that forms the basis for different health policy measures, it is necessary to evaluate research at the macro-level and whether agenda setting advances the goals that are assigned to the field. The prevalence of commercial funding becomes problematic if it leads to a situation where the body of available evidence that is used for making health policy decisions does not reflect the shared sense of what epistemic and non-epistemic goals of the inquiry are important