For over a decade, biomedical researcher Navindra Seeram praised maple syrup, calling it “hero ingredients” and “champion food,” and could have a wide range of health benefits.
Dr. Sheelam, dean of the University of New England's Pharmacy, has published more than three dozen studies celebrating the power of maple. Much of his work is bankrolled by the Canadian maple syrup industry and the Canadian and American governments.
At the same time, he took on another role: Maple Syrup Pitchman.
“I am uniquely qualified as a world-leading researcher on the benefits of maple health due to its scientific reputation and reliability to promote the sale of maple products,” he wrote in his grant application. He assures Canadian industry leaders that he will always support Quebec's maple, according to emails obtained in the request for public records.
As he spans the real-world meaning of his research and exaggerated health benefits, he distorted the real-world meaning of his research and exaggerated health benefits. Videos and press releases suggest that taking maple syrup can help stop illnesses like cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and diabetes. Other scientists said they thought he exaggerated and misleading the test and the findings of his lab.
Industry funding is common in nutrition research and could become even more important as scientists tackle drastic cuts in the Trump administration. Dr. Seeram's work illustrates the dangers of a science-sales intertwining that drives information that can shape consumer habits and public health.
At the University of Rhode Island, where he worked until last year, Dr. Sheelam oversaw a project awarded $2.6 million in US government funding, including grants aimed at explicitly increasing sales of maple syrup. That promotional work has produced streams of social media posts such as “The Benefits of Maple Syrup: Anti-Cancer, Antioxidants, Anti-inflammatory Agents.”
In a video posted to YouTube in 2019, Dr. Seeram said the nutrients in maple syrup “may prevent and/or delay the onset of conditions such as “cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, brain disease, and more.”
However, his research found something more limited. Maple syrup contains small amounts of polyphenols in plant compounds that are generally considered beneficial. To demonstrate their effects, he tested highly concentrated maple extracts in lab settings rather than people's consumption of commercial maple syrup.
Dr. Sheelam told the exam he believes in the power of natural medicines, part of the upbringing in South America. And he defended how he spoke about his findings. “No one can go back to quote directly from me.
His conclusions include the hedging language of maple syrup “potential” or “potential” or a disclaimer recommending further research. However, some researchers said the warnings were not enough to offset the broader health claims, and Dr. Seeram jumped too much from the lab's findings into practical applications.
“They fram it with a light that is far more positive than they should,” said Christopher Gardner, a nutritionist at Stanford.
In an interview, Dr. Sheelam accused his former Rhode Island colleague of stirring up what he said was an unfair scrutiny of his work. University officials said the school had investigated and had not found any research misconduct.
At a Maple Industry Conference in October, Dr. Sheelam described his work as “it's easy for moms to understand.”
“We have to convince consumers that this sugar is good for you,” he told the Maple Farmers audience, explaining how to reach the public.
Quebec Maple Syrup Producer, an industry association that sells and regulates most of the world's maple syrup, has long funded Dr. Sheelam's work. The association and the Canadian government together provided at least $2.8 million for his research, according to the 2019 grant application. The association disputed the figures but will not provide details. Dr. Sheelam didn't do that either.
The association also hired him for consulting and what he called “PR activities” for at least 10 years, according to emails and invoices. In 2023, his fee totaled $37,000, the email shows.
In response to one of several emails from association officials, he is grateful for his work, and wrote in 2018, “always work to find ways to promote maple products from Quebec.”
The Maple Society approached him in 2009. The owner of Pon Wonderful provided funding and used some of his research on pomegranate during the pomegranate epidemic of the 2000s to promote juice. (The Federal Trade Commission later issued a ceasefire order accusing the company of making misleading or false claims, in part based on the research he co-authored.)
Although Dr. Sheelam had not studied maple previously, he told the trial that it was intrigued by its migration to the northeast, an important produce. Over the next few years, Dr. Sheelam announced that he had discovered dozens of polyphenols in maple syrup, which includes a team named Quebekol.
Based on lab tests of concentrated compounds, he began to suggest that maple syrup has a wide range of uses for human health.
“Maple syrup is becoming a champion food,” he said in a 2011 press release. “Some of these compounds have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. They have been shown to combat cancer, diabetes and bacterial diseases.”
However, experts say low levels of these compounds in syrup are unlikely to improve health. In an interview, Dr. Sheelam admitted that a person must consume gallons of maple syrup in order to obtain the equivalent nutrition of the extract. He noted that, as he often has, he does not encourage anyone to consume more sugar.
Another important benefactor, the USDA, awarded more than $2.6 million for Dr. Sheelam's work. This included nearly $500,000 in 2017 to see if maple syrup extract could improve health in obese mice. Their health did not improve and in some cases worsen, according to findings cited by government websites and student papers. The results are not published in the Academic Journal. Dr. Seeram, who stopped answering questions from the exam in recent weeks, did not answer questions about the study.
In 2018, the USDA awarded a group led by Dr. Sheelam $500,000 for a promotional campaign featuring maple research on the University of Rhode Island website. Dr. Seeram's grant application stated that he is responsible for translating science into “general terms.”
The website, which was supervised by his team called Maple Syrup, says, “It's very healthy for you.” And it published a disclaimer that more research is needed, but it issued a misleading statement linking the study of maple extracts reduced to the consumption of maple syrup, such as:
He also said that quebecol compounds could become “potential cancer prevention drugs,” and that they are “very similar” to the breast cancer drug tamoxifen.
In the interview, three cancer researchers called the comparison misleading. Jeffrey Green of the University of Chicago said it was like expecting the concert violinist brother to become a concert violinist because he looks similar.
When asked why he used his research to promote maple products, Dr. Sheelam said he simply met the requirements for government grants. A USDA spokesperson said the University of Rhode Island is in charge of the website's claims.
The university did not comment on the study. The website was deleted after an inquiry from a reporter. The university said this is part of a broader effort to remove dormant pages.
One of Dr. Sheelam's studies involved feeding genetically modified worms maple syrup extracts to examine the effects associated with Alzheimer's disease. His team observed that some worms got better, but on average it was getting worse. Nevertheless, a top-line summary of Dr. Seeram's paper, published by the journal Neurocemical Research in 2016, ignored negative results and stated that the syrup extract “showed a protective effect” of the worm.
In a press release from the Industry Association, Maple Syrup Extract, on a disclaimer that it requires more research, said it extended the lifespan of the worms despite deaths earlier on average. That nuance has been lost in headlines in Canada, India, the UK and the US, declaring that maple syrup can protect against Alzheimer's disease.
Christopher Link at the University of Colorado Boulder, who pioneered research into Alzheimer's disease on such worms, criticized the study, citing the lack of basic details such as the number of worms tested and whether the experiments were replicated. Dr. Link said dozens of plant extracts have produced positive results in similar experiments, but that doesn't mean they have real applications.
In a statement, Maple Association's Julie Barbaud said it was sticking to strict ethical rules and “has no effect on the scores of research projects it supported.”
The papers of at least a few dozen Dr. Sheelam, whom the Maple Association said were funded, did not reveal the relationship. Also, his paper does not reveal it. His role as a paid consultant and patents for Canadian maple extracts that he and Barbaud were co-inventors.
Six publishers of Dr. Seeram's work said they are requesting the author to declare a potential conflict of interest. Dr. Sheelam did not answer any questions about his disclosure.
In an official statement, he acknowledges financial support from the Maple Association. And in a previous interview, he said industry funding is essential due to a lack of other research dollars. He also defended his patent, saying, “The driver here will not make me rich.” The Maple Association said it protects its intellectual property.
Last year, the association welcomed a new study funded as a “first human clinical trial” for maple syrup.
Participants replaced a small amount of sugar in their meals with maple syrup. For example, to make coffee sweeter. Scientists told Newsweek that the results published in the Journal of Nutrition showed that maple syrup could help improve blood sugar, blood pressure and fat measurements and reduce the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Sheelam, who was not the author of the study, said the results validated his work.
However, three independent experts who reviewed the study said the conclusions were exaggerated and highlighted some positive results among dozens of measures, and the study did not appear to show any meaningful differences between maple syrup and refined sugars.
“They went too far,” said Kimber Stanhope, a nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis.
Lead researcher Andre Mallett of Laval University said the difference between maple syrup and refined sugar is “subtle,” but meaningful. Through a public relations company hired by the Industry Association, he was “cautious to state that there was a need to further demonstrate the clinical relevance of the work.”
In the meantime, the findings reached the general public. “Sweet!” promoted the headline in a women's magazine last fall. “Maple syrup in coffee helps you lose weight.”
Mago Torres reported.
