Keep Fitness Legal

Last month we reported on an investigation into the American Council on Exercise’s Medical Exercise Specialist certification. A complaint with the National Commission on Certifying Agencies (NCCA) alleged that ACE improperly transferred its NCCA accreditation to a new credential. Since accreditation is supposed to verify the legitimacy of a single certification, certifiers are not supposed to transfer accreditation from one certification to another. NCCA responded to this complaint by announcing that it was conducting an investigation into the matter. Four […]

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Should federal officials be allowed to interfere with commercial enterprises using their government titles? Ought they be able to promote some non-governmental organizations and attack others, all while identifying themselves as government authorities? It’s unimaginable in almost any context. A Health and Human Services official also working on behalf of Pfizer couldn’t write a journal article about avoiding Merck drugs. A U.S. Treasury official would be called corrupt for promoting a “Goldman Sachs Guide to Getting Really Rich.” High-ranking USDA […]

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“We do not want to be involved in advocacy-led studies that so often, and mostly for the right reasons, have been criticized.” —Mars, Inc. after announcing its planned departure from the International Life Sciences Institute The food industry’s trade group, the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association (GMA), has lost at least eight of its corporate members since the summer of 2017. And now Mars, Inc. has left the industry’s science propaganda arm, the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI). Will ILSI suffer the […]

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Editor’s Note: Russ Greene wrote the first draft, and Russell Berger contributed to this piece. Having stopped fitness licensure in its tracks, the CrossFit community is turning its sights to nutritional licensure. Once again, a junk food proxy stands in the way. In the United States, 21 states restrict food speech through nutritional licensure laws. These laws are: 1. Unconstitutional: They violate the First Amendment by restricting freedom of speech. Nutritional licensure laws even have been used to restrict the […]

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Editor’s Note: We’re pleased to present this guest post by Cassie Bjork, RD, former LD, and founder of Cassie.net (formerly DietitianCassie.com). Cassie is a globally recognized industry leader in weight loss, a highly sought-after speaker, and the #1 international best-selling author of Why Am I Still Fat?: The Hidden Keys to Unlocking That Stubborn Weight Loss. After spending nearly a decade as a licensed dietitian, Cassie relinquished her dietitian license after a five-year battle with her state licensing board over […]

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The Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine recently published a study entitled “Injury Incidence and Patterns Among Dutch CrossFit Athletes.” The study is the result of a questionnaire, distributed to CrossFit affiliates in the Netherlands and posted on Facebook. From the 449 qualifying responses received, the authors calculated that injury incidence for athletes participating in CrossFit was 56.1 percent. So why would we need to write a post guiding people through reading and interpreting this study? Because as with similar studies we […]

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Editor’s Note: Derek Fields and Russ Greene collaborated on this piece. Soda Advocacy Groups Exploit the Nonprofit Loophole Wenhua Zhao and Junshi Chen both serve as preeminent public health officials in China. At the same time, Zhao and Chen have led Coca-Cola’s propaganda and lobbying efforts in China. They have fooled not only the Chinese government but also the Western academic journals they’ve published in. They have declared no conflicts of interest while publishing in outlets such as the Journal […]

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In 2015, Anahad O’Connor at the New York Times exposed Coca-Cola’s Global Energy Balance Network, a propaganda effort that used Coke-funded scientists to deny the link between nutrition and obesity. In the wake of that public relations disaster, Coca-Cola promised to be more transparent about the money it sends scientists to “health and well-being scientific research or partnerships.” But Coca-Cola has not kept that promise. Coca-Cola’s “Transparency” website alleges, “in early 2016, we continue to disclose, at six month intervals, […]

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Editor’s Note: We’re pleased to present this guest post by Jason Cooper, RN, co-owner of CrossFit Enoch. Republicans and Democrats alike talk about saving us. They talk about providing “affordable health care.” Recently, President Trump stated, “Obamacare has broken our health-care system. It’s broken. It’s collapsing.” Shortly afterwards, Republicans drafted their grand plan of salvation, The American Health Care Act.  And it wasn’t long ago we heard President Obama proclaim, “If you like your doctor, you will be able to […]

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Last week we examined Malaysia’s Type 2 diabetes epidemic and how the junk food industry has captured the nation’s nutritional and public health institutions. As in China, South Africa, and the United States, the junk food industry appears to have influenced Malaysia’s government through a malignant non-profit called the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI). Malaysian public health official Dr. Tee Siong has also served as ILSI Southeast Asia’s science director for over 20 years. Siong has leveraged his industry and […]

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17.5 percent of adult Malaysians suffer from diabetes. That rate vastly exceeds the U.S.’s 11.5 percent diabetes prevalence. And Malaysia’s diabetes rate has more than doubled since 1996. How did diabetes in Malaysia become such an epidemic? It may help to start by asking what Malaysia has in common with other countries with runaway diabetes problems. Like the cases of China, South Africa and the United States, Malaysia’s public health has been heavily influenced by food and beverage interests. This […]

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Rapidly increasing numbers of Army recruits have failed to meet entry-level fitness standards. This trend occurred even as fewer and fewer Americans met the standards required to become recruits. Last October, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Malcolm Frost warned, “the next existential threat that we have, maybe a generation down the line is … the inability to provide qualified people, volunteers to serve in our military.” Maj. Gen. Frost had good reason for concern: “71 percent of Americans aged 17 to […]

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