For more than a decade, Navindra Seeram, a vital medical researcher, praised the maple drink, describing it as a “heroic component” and “hero food” that could have wide health benefits.
Dr. Seram, Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy at New England University, has published more than ten studies that glorify the maple force. Many of his works were transferred by the Magdy drink industry in Canada and Canadian and American governments.
At the same time, he played another role: Pitchman maple syrup.
“I am uniquely qualified as the world’s lead researcher in the health benefits of maple with the scientific reputation and credibility to promote the sales of maple products,” he wrote in grant requests. Canadian industry leaders have confirmed that he will always support MAPLE from Quebec, according to emails obtained by requesting public records.
While he was wandering in the worlds of scientific investigation and promotion, he distorted the effects on his findings and exaggerated health benefits, according to a review through the exam and the New York Times newspaper of 15 years of his studies and public data. In videos and press data, I suggested that consuming maple syrup may help avoid diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes. Other scientists said to the exam and the times they believed had exceeded the results of his laboratory and made misleading claims.
Industry financing is common in nutrition research and may become more important as scientists wrestle with the comprehensive discounts of the Trump administration. Dr. Seram explains the risks of intertwined science and sale, and paying information that can form consumer and public health habits.
At the University of Rod Island, where he worked until last year, Dr. Seram supervised projects that were given $ 2.6 million in US government financing, including a grant that explicitly aims to increase maple syrup sales. This promotional work produced a stream of Social media publications Such as “the benefits of maple syrup: anti -cancer, anti -oxidant, anti -inflammatory.”
in video Posted on YouTube in 2019, Dr. Seeram said that the nutrients in maple syrup can “may prevent and/or delay the emergence of” cases such as “cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, brain diseases, etc.”.
But his studies found something more limited: that maple syrup contains small amounts of polyphenols, and vehicles in plants that are generally beneficial. To show its effects, tested very focused maple excerpts in laboratory settings – not people’s consumption of commercial maple drink.
Dr. Seram Al -Fasheh was told that he believed in the power of natural medicines, which was part of his upbringing in South America. He defended how he talked about his findings: “No one can return to direct readiness from me to say,” He will treat cancer, will treat diabetes. “
Its conclusions often include hedging language – that maple syrup “May” or “can” have meaningful health effects – or evacuate the responsibility to recommend more study. But many researchers said that the caveats were not sufficient to balance broad health allegations, and that Dr. Seram has jumped away from the laboratory results to practical applications.
“They frame it in a more positive light,” said Christopher Gardner, Stanford Nutrition Researcher.
In an interview, Dr. Seram blamed a former colleague at the University of Rod Island to raise what he said was unjustified for his work. A university official said that the school had achieved and did not find any misconduct in the research.
At a maple industry conference in October, Dr. Seram described his work as “it is easy for my mother to understand” that the drink is useful.
“We have to convince the consumer that this sugar is useful to you,” he told an audience of maple farmers.
Maplec Dick Producers, an industrial association marketing and organizing most of the maple syrup in the world, has long funded Dr. Seram’s business. The Canadian Association and the Canadian government provided at least $ 2.8 million to research, according to the 2019 grant. The association concluded this number but will not provide details; No doctor.
The association also rented it for consulting and what it described as “public relations activities” for a period of at least a decade, according to emails and bills. In 2023, the total of his fees was $ 37,000, and emails appear.
In response to one of many emails from the association’s officials who thank him for his work, he wrote in 2018 that “he will always work to find ways to promote maple products from Quebec.”
Al -Kaqib Society contacted him in 2009, after the owners of Pom Wonderful funded and used some research on pomegranate to promote their juice during Pomegranate madness From 2000s. (The Federal Trade Committee later issued an endowment and a later matter accusing the company of submitting misleading or wrong claims, based on a study it participated in its authorship.)
Although Dr. Seram had not previously searched the maple, he told the exam that he was fascinated because he recently moved to the northeast, where it is an important agricultural product. Over the next two years, Dr. Seram announced that he had discovered dozens of polyphenols in maple syrup, including his team called Quebicole.
Based on his laboratory tests for concentrated vehicles, he began to indicate that maple syrup had wide -ranging applications for human health.
He said in 2011: “The maple syrup has become heroic food,” he said in 2011. press release. “Many of these compounds have anti -oxidant and anti -inflammatory properties, which have been proven to fight cancer, diabetes and bacteria.”
But experts say that the low levels of these vehicles in the drink are unlikely to improve health. In the interviews, Dr. Seram admitted that the person will have to consume a gallon of maple syrup to obtain the nutritional equivalent of extracts. He also indicated, as he often has, that he does not encourage anyone to consume more sugar, just to choose maple syrup on alternatives.
The US Department of Agriculture, another important donor, granted more than $ 2.6 million to Dr. Seram. This included approximately $ 500,000 in 2017 to study whether the maple syrup extract can improve the health of obese mice. Their health did not improve, and in some cases it was agreed, according to the results of the study mentioned by a Government site And the student’s thesis. The results were not published in an academic magazine. Dr. Seram, who in recent weeks, stopped answering inquiries from examination and times, did not answer questions about this study.
In 2018, the US Department of Agriculture Gave 500,000 dollars for a group led by Dr. Seram for a promotional campaign that would display maple research on the web site at the University of Rod Island. The request of a grant, Dr. Seram, said that he will be responsible for translating the flag into “life -friendly terms.”
The site, supervised by his team, is called Maple Syrup.Very healthy for you“Although she bore the evacuation of responsibility that more research was needed, it was made with misleading data linking the studies of low sugar maple sugar to consuming maple syrup, such as:” Have you ever thought that you can fight High blood sugar With some sugary and delicious things like maple syrup? “
also He said The Quebicol compound can become “a potential drug for the prevention of cancer”, ” With reference It looks “significantly similar” to breast cancer, Tamoxifen -A comparison Dr. Seram was also presented in presentations.
In interviews, three cancer researchers launched this misleading comparison. Jeffrey Green of the University of Chicago said it is similar to the expectation of the violinist’s brother for concerts, as well as music player because she looks similar.
When asked why he used his research to promote maple products, Dr. Seram said that he simply was achieving the conditions of the government grant. A spokeswoman for the US Department of Agriculture said that the University of Rod Island was responsible for the site’s claims.
The university will not comment on the research. After inquiries from the correspondents, the site was dropped. The university said this was part of a wider effort to remove sleeping pages.
One of the study of Dr. Seram included giving maple syrup extract to genetically modified worms to examine the effects associated with Alzheimer’s disease. His team noted that some worms were better, but on average it was worse. However, the summary of the upper line in Dr. Ceram, It was published in 2016 by Neurochemic
Industry Association press release The maple syrup extract that affected the life of worms – although they died on average sooner – was evacuated with the responsibility that more research was needed. These differences in the headlines of Canada, India, England and the United States have lost that maple syrup can protect from Alzheimer’s disease.
Christopher Link of the University of Colorado Bolder, who was a pioneer in Alzheimer’s research on this type of worm, criticized the study, noting that there are no basic details such as the number of worms tested and whether the experiment was repeated. Dr. Link said that dozens of plant extracts have achieved positive results in similar experiences, but this does not mean that they have applications in the real world.
In a statement, Julie Berbo of Al -Kaqib Association said she adheres to strict ethics rules and had no “at all influence” on dozens of research projects that she supported.
At least dozens of the papers of Dr. Seram, which the Al -Kaqib Association, which is funded, did not reveal that relationship. It was also not disclosed in his papers: his paid consultant role and the extraction of the Canadian maple Patent This calls him and Mrs. Parbo as participants.
Six publishers of Dr. Seram’s work said they were asking the authors to announce the conflict of potential interests. Dr. Seram did not answer questions about his disclosure.
In general data, he admitted to receiving financial support from the Al -Kaqib Association. In previous interviews, he said that the financing of industry is vital, because other research dollars are rare. He also defended patents, saying: “The driver here is not to sing.” The Kaqib Association said it was protecting its intellectual ownership.
Last year, the association praised a new study, funded by it, as the “first clinical clinical experience” of the maple drink.
Participants replace a small amount of sugar in their diet with maple syrup – for example, to sweeten the coffee. Scholars Newsweek said The results, published in the Magazine of Nutrition, showed that maple syrup improves blood sugar measures, blood pressure and fat, and may help reduce the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Seram, who was not an author of the study, said the results have proven the validity of his work.
But three independent experts reviewed the research said that the conclusions are exaggerated – with a focus on some positive results between dozens of measures – and it seems that the study does not show any difference meaning between maple syrup and refined sugar.
“They took it too far,” said Kimber Stanop, a dietary biologist at the University of California, Davis.
The main researcher, Andrei Marit of the University of Laval, said that although the differences between maple syrup and refined sugar are “modest”, they were meaningful. Through a public relations company that was rented by the Industry Association, he said: “We were keen to mention that the clinical importance of the work would need to prove more proof.”
Meanwhile, the results reached the general public. “sweet!” Advance a the address In the women’s magazine last fall. “Coffee syrup in coffee can help you lose weight.”
Mago Torres contributed to the reports.