Sweet Deception: Unmasking the Sugar-Industry Fluoride Conspiracy That's Poisoned Generations, By Mrs Vera West and Mrs (Dr) Abigail Knight (Florida)
Lurking in the shadowy annals of corporate malfeasance, few tales rival the sugar industry's century-long hijacking of fluoride science, a calculated plot to peddle a "magic bullet" for tooth decay while burying the sticky truth about sugar's dental devastation. A bombshell study published September 29, 2025, in Environmental Health by Christopher Neurath (link below), research director for the American Environmental Health Studies Project, peels back the curtain on this 90-year saga. Drawing from internal documents of sugar giants, dental lobbies, and government agencies, Neurath exposes how Big Sugar didn't just fund flawed research, it orchestrated a public health pivot that shifted blame from sugary cereals and sodas to a chemical additive, all while concealing fluoride's neurotoxic risks. This isn't ancient history; it's the blueprint for today's chronic disease epidemic, with echoes in suppressed reports and ongoing lobbying that could explain why your kid's IQ might be tanking, while Big Sugar's profits soar.
The 1930s Origin Story: Sugar's Desperate Quest for a "Philosopher's Stone"
It starts in the Great Depression era, when mounting evidence linked sugar to rampant tooth decay, the very scourge threatening candy bar empires. Enter the Sugar Fellowship at Pittsburgh's Mellon Institute, a sugar-funded gig for chemist Gerald Cox. Tasked with exonerating sucrose or finding a workaround, Cox experimented on rats, force-feeding them sweets and fluoride. His 1939 results? Contradictory at best, sometimes more decay in fluoride groups, but he boldly proposed water fluoridation as the fix, without disclosing his sugar paymasters. Cox's tainted work infiltrated a 1952 National Research Council report, cementing fluoride as the anti-cavity hero and sidelining sugar restrictions.
Neurath's deep dive reveals this as no accident: The fellowship was alchemist-level scheming, hunting a "philosopher's stone" to neutralise sugar's harms without curbing consumption. By the 1940s, the Sugar Research Foundation (SRF, later International Sugar Research Foundation) formalised the hustle, hiring PR whiz Fice Mork (ex-ADA counsel) and Robert Hockett to woo dental elites. They flipped ADA policy from nutrition (e.g., vitamin D deficits, sugar limits) to fluoride fixation, funding a 1944 symposium for thousands of dentists, mailed gratis to 100,000 pros, while hiding SRF strings. ADA editor Harold Hillenbrand even leaked insider scoops to Hockett (who later jumped to tobacco).
Kellogg's piled on: An exec chaired ADA's policy committee, swapping sugar curbs for fluoride pushes, ensuring Frosted Flakes could peddle cavities without consequence. As Philippe Hujoel, a University of Washington dental prof, told The Defender, this was masterful obfuscation, hiding conflicts behind "confidentiality walls," a tactic demanding Herculean effort to debunk.
The Playbook Spreads: From Sugar to Tobacco, and Modern Cover-Ups
Neurath's bombshell? Sugar pioneered "bent science," exaggerating benefits, burying risks, that tobacco and chemicals later mimicked. At Harvard, sugar-backed Fredrick Stare founded the Nutrition Department on Big Food donations, churning pro-fluoride columns while ignoring sugar's sins. The 1971 National Caries Program? Its agenda echoed SRF language, dodging sugar limits for fluoride and vaccines.
Fast-forward: Coca-Cola, sugar's mega-pusher, donated $1M to paediatric dentistry in 2003. When NTP's fluoride-IQ review threatened the narrative (52/55 studies linking exposure to lower kids' IQ), industry struck back. Coca-Cola/Kellogg's funnelled millions to National Academies, stalling the report; ADA lobbied to bury it. Enter ILSI (Coke-founded front group): Its German arm published a "no harm" review, flipping NTP's high-quality studies to "low" and vice versa, without disclosing sugar ties. CDC's Oral Health Division huddled with ILSI authors to counter NTP, per FOIA docs.
Bruce Lanphear, neurotoxin expert, calls it a "smoke screen": Sugar's deflection tactic, now defending against IQ-loss evidence. X buzz echoes: FAN's posts on Neurath's work rack up thousands of views, with users decrying "Big Sugar's" fluoride push as a "have your cake and eat it" scam.
The Human Cost: Neurotoxicity Bombshell and the 2024 EPA Reckoning
Fluoride's "benefits"? Topical only, per 2024 Cochrane Review, ingestion yields zilch, especially now with better hygiene. Risks? Overwhelming: NTP's 2024-2025 reports (moderate confidence) link even "optimal" levels (0.7 mg/L) to IQ drops; 18/19 high-quality studies confirm. Other harms: Behavioural issues, thyroid disruption, gut microbiome chaos.
The dam broke in September 2024: A federal court ruled EPA must regulate fluoride under TSCA, as it poses "unreasonable risk" of IQ loss; first TSCA win forcing chem action. Judge Chen: Evidence "high certainty" at U.S. levels; EPA's denial was "institutional inertia." RFK Jr.'s "Make Our Children Healthy Again" report echoes: EPA review fluoride risks; CDC update guidance. States like Utah/Florida and communities are ditching it.
ADA/CDC cling to denial, but majors (e.g., American Cancer Society) quietly bail. Neurath: Dentists "unaware" of manipulation, industry hid ties from practitioners.
Legacy of Lies: From Heart Disease to Brains — Sugar's Endgame
Neurath builds on Cristin Kearns' exposés: Sugar paid Harvard to blame fat for heart disease in the 1960s, dodging its role. Tactics: Fund reviews, ghost-write, bury dissent; now fluoride's shield against decay blame. Result? Epidemic of obesity, diabetes, caries, sugar's "culprit No. 1," per Neurath.
This conspiracy's sweet poison lingers: Billions in chronic care, dumbed-down kids, eroded trust. As Lanphear urges, re-examine fluoridation, ditch the industry script. X users rage: "Big Sugar corrupted fluoride research," with FAN's alerts going viral. Time to rub out the lies, ban the additive, tax the sugar, reclaim our health. The evidence is damning; the verdict? Long overdue.
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