The $20 Million Lie That Made Us All Sick

If you’re like me (and a ton of others), you’ve probably come to realize that the food pyramid you grew up with is a little… off. 

You know, the one that told us to eat mostly bread and cereal, avoid butter like the plague, and switch to vegetable oils to keep our hearts healthy? 

Turns out, it wasn’t just bad science that gave us the anti-meat and eggs narrative—it was bought-and-paid-for science.

Decades ago, the American Heart Association told Americans to ditch saturated fats and replace them with “heart-healthy” alternatives like vegetable oil. 

What they didn’t tell us was that they were paid the equivalent of $20 million by Procter & Gamble, the makers of Crisco, to make those recommendations.

And while the AHA pushed these claims as “settled science,” real studies—some even funded by the government—showed no connection at all between saturated fats and heart disease.

Of course we never saw those studies.

The damage has been catastrophic. 

Families swapped nutrient-dense foods like eggs, butter, and red meat for industrialized seed oils and processed “low-fat” alternatives, believing they were making the healthier choice, but all the while, chronic disease rates skyrocketed.

This lie is one of the most egregious examples of how corporations have manipulated science to protect profits, but it’s far from the only one.

In fact, this story is eerily similar to another scandal we cover in The Tuttle Twins Guide to True Conspiracies: the sugar industry’s decades-long effort to blame fat for what sugar was really doing. 

When early studies began linking sugar to rising rates of obesity and heart disease, Big Sugar paid scientists to shift the blame to fat instead. 

And it worked. Americans became sugar addicted, fat avoidant, and sicker than ever.

These patterns of manipulation by government and corporations continue to play out today. Whether it’s pharmaceutical companies, Big Tech, or government agencies, there’s a long history of those in power manipulating information to fit their needs—all with full confidence that the public won’t dig deeper.

And up until recently, most people didn’t. 

Thankfully, the years since the pandemic have made a lot of people healthy skeptics of the official story. And for good reason. Never has “the science” been so politicized and manipulated. Never have “the experts” shown themselves to be so untrustworthy. 

Following the lies and half-truths we were sold during the COVID years, we set out to write a book that would help kids see that these types of abuses of power and manipulation of the narrative were actually nothing new. 

The Tuttle Twins Guide to True Conspiracies was written to teach kids (and parents too) how to recognize these patterns, question narratives, and think critically about the world around them.

In addition to the fat and sugar scandal, we cover nearly two-dozen well-documented and proven-true stories like Operation Northwoods, Project MKUltra, and the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. 

Real, proven historical events where governments and those in power acted in ways that show us who they really are, and what they think they can get away with.

By teaching our kids about these stories, we’re helping them build a healthy skepticism that leads to real understanding of the way things are portrayed by those in power. We know that if they don’t learn to ask the hard questions now, they’ll grow up to take everything at face value.

And that’s not the future I want for my kids.

It’s time to empower the next generation to see the world clearly. To be inoculated against the propaganda machine, and to really learn how to think for themselves. 

True Conspiracies is a great family read. But more importantly, it’s a door to a worldview that is free from fear, helplessness, and the crushing power of propaganda.

A first step toward a life of freedom and flourishing.

— Connor