I'm not saying all science is bought and paid for, but every study that says one thing is bad, there is always one that says it is nit. It is important to see who is paying for it as it can effect the outcome. As someone said before it is important to do your own research. Studies can conflict and you have to take the time to study for yourself.
This link states 11200 studies listed. Some conflict is my point.
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/06/sucralose-harmful-effects.aspx#safetyquestion
I think this is attitude is a bit of a generalization. I have spent a lot of time on pubmed and read a lot of research - some of which is very good, some of which is ok, some of which I disagree with methodology or conclusions, and some of which I highly question as being possibly biased, faked, etc.
I have also spoken with some of the people who conduct these studies - you'd be surprised at how willing to help and discuss things a lot of these people are if you email them. I'd say about 50% or more of the researchers I have emailed have responded in a positive manner.
These people work hard and want to find answers to questions and they are really trying to push our knowledge of certain areas forward.
In that light, I can see why people who have any ties to the "industry" might take offense with the supposition that "it all depends on who paid for the research".
To your point, yes - there are issues. Studies don't get published, unfavorable results are glossed over or "made to fit", and sometimes (rarely) there is outright fraud. Peer review is SUPPOSED to help with this, but it is far from perfect and the entire system does have flaws.
BUT - that is why science is so important. Knowledge and experiment is not limited to a person in a white coat. There is no "authority" in science. There is no hidden knowledge. If you question something, put your mind to work and test it yourself. Run your own experiment and find an answer. This can be difficult to do if you're running n=1 studies, and your own studies will be flawed in this case (a point which shouldn't be lost on someone that claims people running larger studies are bought and paid for - if it is near impossible to run a perfect study for your own knowledge, how hard must a large scale study be?).
It is like the idea of the earth being round or flat. There is no authority that says one way or the other and you have to accept it. You are free to question it...and you can run your own tests and figure it out for yourself. You may say, "well I don't have a rocket ship to fly up high enough to see"...but use your mind. Place some sticks in the ground and measure the shadows, look in the sky at all the other planets and stars, make observations and then come back and tell me what is really plausible? Try figuring out how your GPS works if the earth is flat. Reality leaves clues - find the clues.
Also, part of the reason we have so many conflicting studies is because we understand SO little about this stuff. A lot of times, even the scientists are operating under binary assumptions - either this or that. It takes the right study, the right observation, the right intellect to come along and say, "Ah ha- it is neither - the two actually work together and that's why we have this apparent contradiction".
This isn't a knock on you or anyone; and I'm not claiming to be some great scientist either - but this is how I see it and it is what makes science so fascinating to me. It is actually an active pursuit of knowledge, with no real authority - anyone can discover anything (yes, resources help).
Feel free to show these supposed studies you're referring to. You linked to mercola which is a scam site to sell books on pseudoscience crap.
It is kind of tough to argue that the guy selling books for a profit has better knowledge than the guy doing research for a profit.
I sometimes want to like Mercola though. Some of his stuff actually seems to have SOME good info behind it, but he usually takes a little bit of a good idea and runs it off the cliff.
I've had a lot of discussions with local doctors taking care of family members where you can tell they have just become jaded and skeptical of any suggestions outside of their peers - because they must get crazy internet ideas presented to them all the time.
