“I couldn’t go to sleep without posting this video.  I’m just absolutely furious… It’s very seldom that I get furious about something like this…Over the years as I’ve studied this, I’ve become really desensitized to the corporate marketing machine, and all the lies, and all the deception.  Today just really took the cake.”

These are the passionate words from a video titled “Oprah: Rethink KFC,” posted by Sean Croxton of Underground Wellness (UW), a fast-growing natural-minded nutritional counseling forum including a radio show and an expanding YouTube archive.

According to Underground Wellness, this video had over 30,000 views in just 5 days, ranking 4th in ‘news and politics’ for the week, alongside President Obama.  What Diet and Lifestyle Coach Sean speaks so passionately about is the advice that Oprah Winfrey gave viewers on May 5, 2009.  According to Underground Wellness, Oprah told her audience to eat “healthy” grilled, rather than fried, chicken from KFC, and even offered it free to anyone who downloaded a coupon within 24 hours.  That’s when the “Oprah Effect” occurred, referring to the mayhem caused by sheer onslaught in demand from an Oprah promoted item.  According to a May 8 CNN report, more than 10 million people downloaded that coupon and made their way to KFC. Demand was so overwhelming that KFC’s across America ran out and had to turn customers away, prompting an official apology and a promised “rain check” by corporate KFC.

Using the “Oprah Effect” to promote a questionably healthy food is exactly what made Coach Sean so upset.  So the “Health Detective,” as he is called at UndergroundWellness.com, went to KFC’s website and looked up the ingredients for the grilled chicken Oprah was promoting and several ingredients with known health risks, including partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oils.

“Obviously, Oprah did not consult with Doctor Oz before she made this deal…” referring to Doctor Mehmet Oz, who directs the Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital, and was one of Oprah’s regular guests and consultants at one time.   Coach Sean finishes his statement, “…because Doctor Oz would have told her, and actually Oprah should already even know this, that a partially hydrogenated oil is a trans fat and trans fats clearly cause heart disease.”  Coach Sean continues, “So you’ve got a neurotoxin (referring to other ingredients) and you’ve got something that causes heart disease (referring to trans fats) in this free chicken.”

UnthinkKFC.com claims that “All of your KFC chicken products contain Zero Grams Trans Fat per serving” even while their ingredients indicate otherwise.  The Food and Drug Administration’s website, fda.gov, says that trans fats are created in a process called hydrogenation and can be found in foods made with partially hydrogenated oils.  Trans fats increase the shelf life of food products, keeping them from spoiling past their natural limit.  As in so many media-sponsored-advertising circles, the conclusion falls to the probability that somebody must be making a lot of money somewhere along the line.

Greed is a way of life that can sweep so many in its path.  Then there’s hope.  In response to his YouTube broadcast, Underground Wellness experienced its own Oprah Effect.  Coach Sean told his audience, “A lot of offers have come my way…to be in documentaries, a little movie, to do some corporate work, to do some promotions for some big products.”  One particular company offered “a few hundred thousand dollars” to be a corporate spokesman.  “Wow!” Coach Sean said conflictingly, “this is going to take care of my bills, my car payment, going to help family, and take away a lot of the problems I have in my life.”

Coach Sean could instantly be debt free.  He could have a larger apartment and a new car. He could easily end his bills, take his friends to Vegas, and save for his family all in one shot.  All he had to do was post a YouTube video publicly apologizing to Oprah and sign on the dotted line.

The only catch…he would have to alter his content to fit the agenda of these companies.  They would have the right to tell him what he can and can’t say.  Coach Sean would be working alongside people he “strongly disagrees with who would have creative control” over what he does.  As he puts it, “I would have to compromise my integrity.”  In fact, in order to establish his commitment as corporate spokesman, and take his first step on the road to fame and fortune, he was first required to formally apologize to Oprah.

If you’d like to view his public apology, it is titled “My Oprah Apology” on YouTube, posted via Underground Wellness, lasting 9 minutes and 32 seconds.  Coach Sean starts off telling viewers about the success of his last video and how he has finally hit it big, literally landing the dream position for an alternative health educator.  He tells us that he sat down to write the Oprah apology, thinking of his current money circumstances and tiny apartment in San Diego, “It’s what I have to do.” So he started writing what he would say and reciting it in preparation for his retraction video. But then, he says laughing, “I couldn’t bring myself to do the video.”

With a face that makes you want to cry in disbelief and shout for joy at the unbelievable morals of an honest man refusing to give an inch to the “Corporate Greed Machine,”  Coach Sean says he couldn’t find the words, nor would he have meant them.  He says what possessed his blatant refusal of money and fame was because, “For one week, I was the voice.”  Coach Sean explains, “People were finally listening.  Look at the comments on that video!” he says proudly, discussing those who practice sustainable and humane farming as well as those who stand for truth in nutritional labeling.  A couple posts even suggest wiring Sean money as a “bonus” indicating that “we, the people, can reward an individual who tells the truth just as well as [food corporations] can reward someone who lies for them.”

As a fellow nutrition and lifestyle coach, with more bills than my family knows what to do with, I wonder if I would have made the same choice.  The most powerful method of changing the way food politics are manipulated in this country is for strong ethical people to make the same choice that Sean made.  With people like Coach Sean Croxton at Underground Wellness, I am inspired that change can be made.