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SCIENCE-THE DARK SIDE 267
vast. They can corrupt the good name of institutions of which they are
a part and, most importantly, they can create vast confusion among the
public, which often cannot know who is who. You might turn on the
TV one day to see an expert praising McDonald's hamburgers, and then
read a magazine the same day that you should eat less high-fat red meat
to protect yourself against cancer. Who is to be believed?
Institutions also are part of the dark side of science. Committees like
the Public Nutrition Information Committee and the American Council
on Science and Health generate lopsided panels and committees and
institutions that are far more interested in promoting their point of
view than debating scientific research with an open mind. If a Public
Nutrition Information Committee report says that low-fat diets are
fraudulent scams, and a National Academy of Sciences report says the
opposite, which one is right?
In addition, this closed-mindedness in science spreads across entire
systems. The American Cancer SOCiety was not the only health insti-
tution that worked to make life difficult for the AICR. The National
Cancer Institute public information office, Harvard Medical School
and a few other universities with medical schools were highly skepti-
cal of the AICR and, in some cases, outright hostile. The hostility of
medical schools first surprised me, but when the American Cancer
Society, a very traditional medical institution, also joined the fray,
it became obvious that there really was a "Medical Establishment."
The behemoth did not take kindly to the idea of a serious connec-
tion between diet and cancer or, for that matter, virtually any other
disease. Big Medicine in America is in the business of treating disease
with drugs and surgery after symptoms appear. This means that you
might have turned on the TV to see that the American Cancer Society
gives almost no credence to the idea that diet is linked to cancer, and
then opened the paper to see that the American Institute for Cancer
Research says what you eat impacts your risk of getting cancer. Who
do you trust?
Only someone familiar with the inside of the system can distinguish
between sincere positions based in science and insincere, self-serving
positions. I was on the inside of the system for many years, working
at the very top levels, and saw enough to be able to say that science
is not always the honest search for truth that so many believe it to be.
It far too often involves money, power, ego and protection of personal
interests above the common good. Very few, if any, illegal acts need to