William Dietz
Biography
William Dietz's title as Director of the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Centers for Disease Control is testament to his weighty role in the expanding field of obesity hype. In a paper titled "Possible lessons from the tobacco experience for obesity control," Dietz and his co-authors argued that because "most regulatory strategies that might affect food consumption cannot yet be justified ... the identification of these linkages must remain a high priority." In other words, Dietz is looking to demonize and control certain foods in the same way as tobacco products.Dietz was a scheduled speaker (although he ultimately did not attend) at the 2003 Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) conference titled "Legal Approaches to the Obesity Epidemic," which was "intended to encourage and support litigation against the food industry." Scheduled to speak in 2004 -- and again canceling -- Dietz has framed the fight against obesity as finding "the equivalent of a non-smokers' rights campaign."
Dietz was doctoral advisor to fellow PHAI conference speaker Aviva Must, with whom he has co-authored three obesity papers. Two of those papers included co-author Graham Colditz, the author of a famous but deeply flawed study that erroneously concluded obesity costs the U.S. economy $117 billion each year. And one of those papers was also co-authored by fellow PHAI speaker Stephen Gortmaker, who also co-wrote an anti-soda study that first gained scaremonger David Ludwig notoriety.
According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest's online database, Dietz has been a consultant to Roche Laboratories and Knoll Pharmaceuticals, both of which manufacture weight-loss pills and stand to make billions from the obesity hype created by researchers like Dietz.
Dietz is a former president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO). That group boasts of its role as a founding organizer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Reimbursement Initiative -- chaired by Dietz -- which successfully lobbied for a governmental rule change that allows Medicare to consider covering obesity treatments.
NAASO is the U.S. affiliate of the International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO) -- a pharmaceutical-company funded organization that hypes the health risks of being overweight. Dietz has also chaired the child obesity project of the obesity-scaremongering International Obesity Task Force (a subsidiary of IASO), which receives a heavy portion of its funds from drug companies.
Associated Organizations and Foundations
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