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submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by jet@hackertalks.com to c/carnivore@discuss.online

https://youtu.be/IlhL-WQ_X2Y

Belinda Fettke is a former Registered Nurse, photographer and the proud Co-Founder of 'Nutrition For Life' in Launceston which provides medically based nutritional care around Tasmania and Australia.

Belinda is also a staunch supporter of the health benefits of Low Carb, Healthy Fat eating and in recent years has taken a more central role in advocating LCHF following the investigation of her husband, Dr. Gary Fettke, by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). The investigation focused on Gary’s qualifications to give nutritional advice.

This investigation (which lasted for more than two years) resulted in Gary being issued a ‘caution’ and being advised; ”In particular, that he does not provide specific advice or recommendations on the subject of nutrition and how it relates to the management of diabetes or the treatment and/or prevention of cancer.”

Belinda has now taken over the management of Gary's 'No Fructose' website and social media and she has also created the website isupportgary.com

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Summary

The video transcript presents a detailed critique of the current dietary guidelines, arguing that they are heavily influenced by longstanding religious, ideological, and economic interests rather than purely scientific evidence. The speaker supports Gary, a health professional who was banned from practicing for advocating low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) diets, and highlights how the dietary guidelines have morphed into rigid, plant-based vegetarian rule books that aggressively exclude alternative nutritional perspectives. The speaker traces the origins of these guidelines to the 19th-century temperance and religious movements, particularly the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which promoted vegetarianism based on visions and moral reform agendas rather than health science. Influential figures and organizations connected to these movements helped shape dietetics education and public health policy, embedding a pro-vegetarian bias that persists today. The transcript also exposes conflicts of interest, including the involvement of experts promoting vegetarianism who are linked to the processed food industry and religiously affiliated companies like Sanitarium. The speaker argues that the guidelines serve vested interests, particularly the cereal and processed food industries, which promote plant-based diets emphasizing grains, soy, and fake meat products while demonizing saturated fats and red meat. Despite the entrenched orthodoxy, there is growing resistance from health professionals advocating for LCHF and fasting approaches. The video closes with a lighthearted musical parody underscoring the rigidity and contradictions of the current dietary dogma.

Highlights

  • 🔥 Gary was banned for promoting low-carb, high-fat diets despite scientific evidence supporting their benefits.
  • 📜 Dietary guidelines have evolved into restrictive, plant-based vegetarian “rule books” rather than flexible advice.
  • ✝️ Origins of vegetarian dietary guidelines are deeply tied to 19th-century temperance and religious movements, especially the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
  • 🥦 Influential nutrition education and dietetics are shaped by proponents of vegetarianism with undeclared conflicts of interest linked to the processed food industry.
  • 🌾 The cereal and grain industry, including companies like Kellogg’s and Sanitarium, have benefited from and helped shape the plant-based nutrition narrative.
  • 🥩 Meat and saturated fats have been demonized historically due to ideology, not science, impacting current food policy and public health messaging.
  • 🎤 The video ends with a satirical song highlighting the contradictions and rigidity of modern dietary guidelines.

Key Insights

  • 🔍 Systemic Bias in Dietary Guidelines: The so-called “dietary guidelines” are not neutral scientific recommendations but rather ideologically driven rulebooks entrenched in a plant-based vegetarian agenda. This bias restricts open scientific debate, as evidenced by the censorship of proponents of LCHF diets like Gary. This reveals a lack of scientific pluralism in mainstream nutrition policy, which stifles innovation and individualized health approaches.

  • 🏛️ Religious and Moral Roots of Nutrition Science: The modern plant-based dietary guidelines stem from 19th-century temperance and religious movements, particularly the Seventh-day Adventist Church. These groups promoted vegetarianism as a moral and spiritual reform rather than solely for health reasons. Their influence persists through dietetics education, research funding, and institutional power, shaping public health policy for over a century.

  • 💼 Conflicts of Interest in Nutrition Education: Key figures influencing nutrition policy and education have undeclared ties to religious organizations and the processed food industry. For example, Professor Mark Wahlqvist, an expert witness in Gary's case, promotes vegetarianism and is connected to Sanitarium, a Seventh-day Adventist-owned company. This raises concerns about transparency and the impartiality of nutrition education and guidelines.

  • 🍞 Processed Food Industry’s Role: The cereal and grain industries, historically linked to religious health reformers, have thrived under the plant-based dietary regime. Companies like Kellogg’s and Sanitarium have been pivotal in embedding grains and processed plant foods into dietary guidelines, promoting soy and fake meats while marginalizing red meat and saturated fats. This commercial interest has likely influenced public dietary advice.

  • 🥩 Demonization of Meat and Saturated Fat: The decline of meat and full-fat dairy in dietary recommendations is less about emerging science and more about ideological and religious beliefs. The vilification of saturated fats and red meat began with the temperance movement and was reinforced by vested interest groups. This has led to public confusion and possibly worsened health outcomes, given the evidence supporting the benefits of healthy fats and animal proteins.

  • 🌏 Global Influence and Legacy: The Seventh-day Adventist Church’s health reform ideology has influenced not only American but also Australian and global dietary guidelines and food industries. Through institutions like Avondale College, Sydney Adventist Hospital, and the Australasian Research Institute, the church continues to shape nutrition research and lifestyle medicine, blending religious beliefs with health policy.

  • 🎭 Resistance and Alternative Narratives: Despite dominant plant-based dogma, there is growing resistance in the healthcare community advocating for low-carb, high-fat diets and fasting as effective health strategies. Gary’s ongoing enthusiasm and the speaker’s critique demonstrate that challenging entrenched dietary orthodoxy requires courage and persistence, highlighting the need for a more evidence-based and pluralistic approach to nutrition science.

Conclusion

The video transcript uncovers the complex, ideological, and commercial forces shaping modern dietary guidelines. Far from being purely evidence-based, these guidelines reflect a legacy of religious temperance movements, vested interests in the processed food industry, and institutionalized vegetarian ideology. The suppression of alternative nutritional viewpoints like LCHF diets illustrates how nutrition science has been constrained by dogma. Understanding this history and its continuing impact is crucial for rethinking dietary recommendations and promoting truly evidence-based, individualized nutrition for better public health outcomes.

The video is great, but the real gem is the follow-up blog post - 'Time to separate Church and Plate' Where she goes into great detail about the religious and temperance motivations embedded in the dietary governing bodies. Most people don't read, heck most people don't even watch long form videos... but this post is a banger, especially the section 'Evolution of the Plant-based dietary guidelines'

It made my blood boil. READ IT - https://isupportgary.com/articles/the-plant-based-diet-is-vegan

My personal bias is adults can eat whatever they want, but when some people see it as their mission to manipulate evidence to coerce others... that is where evil lies. Faith should not justify lies and paternalistically motivated propaganda, and if it is then the fanatics are bad actors and should be ignored if not condemned.

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[-] jet@hackertalks.com 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Fundamentally you can't use evidence, data, statistics, or any science to persuade someone from a position they arrived at by faith, prejudice, tradition, or bias.

This is why I think Belinda's blog post is super informative https://isupportgary.com/articles/the-plant-based-diet-is-vegan but it wont change anyones mind. It might get some fence sitters to be more critical when they review the expert opinion paraded as objective science, but we should be doing that anyway. Fancy titles, auspicious organizational names, consensus, and other forms of appeals to authority are not science they are just elements of opinion dressed up in authority.

It's a truism that 50% of what we know is wrong, we just don't know which 50% it is... it's our duty as rational adults to keep a scientific mind - which means VERIFY, REPEAT, MEASURE and when something doesn't match the zeitgeist ASK and QUESTION!

Many people, especially on social media here, confuse being SCIENTIFIC with authority, articles, consensus, expert opinion, that isn't science... that is the trappings of authority. Science is experimenting on yourself, testing a theory, eating a weird food for a week to see if your metrics change... Science is something you can verify for yourself. If you can't verify something (no falsifiable hypothesis) then your not in the realm of science, your in the realm of faith.

Food guidelines should come from evidence, not faith.


We are.... Carno, Ovo, Lacto, Pesco, Pollo Vegetarian 18:30

[-] jet@hackertalks.com 1 points 1 day ago

Fundamentally you can’t use evidence, data, statistics, or any science to persuade someone from a position they arrived at by faith, prejudice, tradition, or bias.

This also makes conversations with the faithful very frustrating, there is no point, no data, no evidence, no perspective that will move the discussion forward. At best, they will see it as a rhetorical battle, if they can't beat a point they pivot to a-what-about-ism. At worst, they don't care about the conversation at all, and just want to use you as a platform to repeat their talking points (i.e. ignore what you say, talk past you, just repeat it like they are winning).

this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2025
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