Food scientists need to have a little more experience with media....

If I Google my top three favorite food scientists and writers (Lustig, Wansink, Seneff), they aren't exactly positioned in top health and alternative health websites, my team is not getting very much coverage (relatively speaking).[1] Results:

Name                                                                                                  # hits

Robert Lustig (Bitter Truth/UCSF)              7,300,000; 27,000 in Google scholar

Brian Wansink         (Cornell)                                268,000; 2,000 in Google scholar

Stephanie Seneff (MIT)                                          46,800; 1000 in Google scholar

Ancel Keys                                                                             232,000

Gigi Berardi                                                                             959,000;  305 in Google scholar

T Colin Campbell (China Study)                    11,000,000; 78000 in Google scholar

Erminio Monteleone

 (Sens.TasteSci/U Florence))                          464,000; 102 in   Google scholar (English)

Johannes Wirz (Goetheanum)[3]                                   17,900; 45 in Google scholar

Walter Willett (Harvard)                                             1,520,000

Deepak Chopra (health celebrity)                  14,000,000

Andrew Weil (health celebrity)                      3,460,000

Mehmet Oz    (health celebrity)                     5,970,000

Joseph Mercola (health celebrity)                  2,680,000

Marion Nestle (NYU, writer)                         437,000

Michael Pollan (journalist)                             3,090,000

Jamie Oliver (food celebrity)                          47,100,000

Mark Bittman (writer)                                     840,000

Molly Kimball (writer)                                    1,220,000

At the top of the list (in terms of number of hits) are those selling good stories as well as health aids of various sorts (Deepak Chopra (http://store.chopra.com/ and Mehmet Oz http://www.doctoroz.com/), exciting writers or food personalities (Jamie Oliver) or masters of story-telling with an academic base, in this case, Cornell (T Colin Campbell).

Aside from the popularity contest, what do these health celebrities, academics, and others have in common, besides the fact that many have ties with industry? No, seriously, there actually is one common theme: No or reduced sugar, and mostly, no or reduced processed foods.

Many of these academics have little experience with media. That’s a pity – because the media exposure advances their names and work, a type of work that is systematic although encouched in caveats, reluctant to make generalizations and recommendations – and even when they do, are not very accessible.

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[1] Although consider, too, many top academic researchers/nutrition writers – many of which we may have never heard of http://academic.research.microsoft.com/RankList?entitytype=2&topDomainID=6&subDomainID=16&last=0&start=1&end=100, Google them and see how little is their reach.

[3] Molecular genetics and anthroposophical scholar profiled in an upcoming book.