As we saw in Part II, the reductionist paradigm functions as a mental prison, preventing the best and brightest minds in science, government, and industry from solving some of our biggest problems. More than that, reductionism actually causes and exacerbates many of those problems. In short, reductionist science is not producing health.
When we look closely at the prison of the reductionist paradigm, we notice that there’s no lock on the cell door. We’re free to stroll out of our mental prison and into a wholistic worldview any time we want. Throughout history, paradigms have arisen, exerted their influence, and then faded, to be replaced by other paradigms that more effectively captured reality and more successfully promoted the common welfare. We have the evidence that our current reductionist paradigm is incorrect (largely supplied, ironically, by reductionist science). So why aren’t we walking out that door? The answer is that health information is controlled, and has been for a long time, by interests that are not in alignment with the common good—industries that care much more about their profit than our health. And those industries feel deeply threatened by the possibility of mass adoption of a plant-based diet.
In the next few chapters, we’ll look at the groups and other forces exerting that control. We’ll examine the obvious ones, such as the pharmaceutical, medical, and food industries, whose motives are transparently profit-seeking. But we’ll also turn our attention to those under the sway of that subtle power, who dance to the piper’s tune. We’ll see that my own field of academic research is highly compromised, incentivized to chase reductionist research past any social use or relevance to health. We’ll observe a scientifically illiterate media dutifully reporting the party line on the limited or nonexistent effect of nutrition on health. We’ll witness a government in the thrall of industry-bought and pedigreed lobbyists. And finally, we’ll examine the seamy underbelly of disease-focused fundraising institutions like the American Cancer Society (ACS) and professional organizations like the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND).