WASHINGTON, D.C.—Courtney Gaine represents a commodity she believes has been unfairly targeted by regulators and inappropriately linked to America’s obesity crisis through emotional arguments and poor science.
Gaine, who holds a Ph.D. in dietetics, was promoted about a year ago to be president and CEO of the Sugar Association, charged with providing a scientific voice on behalf of 12,000 U.S. cane and beet sugar growers. She’s in a familiar role in her current sugar assignment, having helped the nation’s potato industry respond to strikingly similar criticisms a few years ago.
“They’re different foods, but the way they’ve been treated in nutrition policy discussions, there are a lot of parallels there,” Gaine said.
As a former staff member with the consulting firm Food Minds, Gaine assisted the National Potato Council in reversing restrictions on potatoes in the national school lunch program and in the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. Gaine said she helped to “package” the narrative that potatoes aren’t just empty carbohydrates, but deliver crucial fiber and potassium.
Gaine said current restrictions could also lead to unintended nutritional consequences by ignoring facts, including that sugar makes healthy foods more palatable. For example, new research for the association finds just 3 calories of sugar is sufficient to mask the bitterness of kale.
Both spuds and sugar have been “villainized” by observational studies without cause-and-effect relationships, she said.
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