Plain-English reference
What each term means, what each organization does, and why it is relevant to this investigation.
Artificial intelligence
Computer systems that generate, analyze or organize language and other information. GPT and Google Gemini are examples of generative AI models.
Why it matters here: AI helped research, challenge and present this investigation, but model agreement is not treated as proof.
Back to glossary index ↑Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
The principal policy-advisory office within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Why it matters here: Its research is cited when comparing U.S. prescription-drug prices with prices in other countries.
Back to glossary index ↑Body mass index
A screening measure calculated from height and weight. It is useful for population research but does not directly measure body fat or individual health.
Why it matters here: The evidence report uses BMI-based research while keeping the measure’s limitations visible.
Back to glossary index ↑The British Medical Journal
A peer-reviewed medical journal, now formally published under the abbreviated name BMJ.
Why it matters here: The site cites BMJ research on sugar-sweetened beverages and type 2 diabetes.
Back to glossary index ↑Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The main U.S. public-health agency for disease surveillance, prevention guidance and health statistics.
Why it matters here: CDC estimates establish the scale of diagnosed diabetes and prediabetes in the United States.
Back to glossary index ↑Drug Enforcement Administration
The U.S. federal agency that enforces controlled-substance laws and regulations.
Why it matters here: It appears in the evidence report’s documented corporate-accountability examples involving opioid distribution.
Back to glossary index ↑Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. federal agency responsible for protecting human health and the environment through regulation, research and enforcement.
Why it matters here: EPA enforcement involving PFOA is used as a comparison showing how profitable systems can externalize harm.
Back to glossary index ↑Federal Trade Commission
The U.S. agency responsible for consumer protection and competition enforcement.
Why it matters here: FTC evidence is used for food marketing to children and for the role of pharmacy benefit managers in drug pricing.
Back to glossary index ↑Generative Pre-trained Transformer
A family of language models that generates and analyzes text from learned patterns. ChatGPT uses GPT models.
Why it matters here: GPT helped test, research, structure and communicate the investigation after the human supplied its central structural hypothesis.
Back to glossary index ↑U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
The cabinet department overseeing major U.S. health agencies, programs and health-policy research.
Why it matters here: HHS offices provide evidence used in the site’s analysis of healthcare administration and prescription-drug prices.
Back to glossary index ↑Journal of the American Heart Association
A peer-reviewed, open-access cardiovascular and population-health journal.
Why it matters here: The evidence report cites a JAHA study estimating the share of new type 2 diabetes cases associated with obesity.
Back to glossary index ↑Journal of the American Medical Association
A major peer-reviewed medical journal and journal network.
Why it matters here: JAMA research is cited in the investigation’s discussion of health outcomes and industry influence.
Back to glossary index ↑JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data
A machine-readable format used to describe a page’s subject and structure to search engines and other software.
Why it matters here: The AI collaboration page mentions it while comparing approaches to making the investigation understandable and discoverable.
Back to glossary index ↑New England Journal of Medicine
A major peer-reviewed medical journal.
Why it matters here: NEJM studies provide important evidence about diabetes prevention and population risk.
Back to glossary index ↑National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health; it conducts and supports research and publishes patient and professional information.
Why it matters here: NIDDK is used for authoritative explanations of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, complications and remission.
Back to glossary index ↑Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
An international organization whose member countries cooperate on economic and public-policy research.
Why it matters here: OECD countries form the comparison group in evidence about international prescription-drug prices.
Back to glossary index ↑Office of Inspector General
An independent oversight office that audits and investigates programs within a government department.
Why it matters here: The HHS OIG findings cited here concern prior-authorization denials in Medicare Advantage.
Back to glossary index ↑Pharmacy benefit manager
An intermediary that manages prescription-drug benefits for insurers and employers, negotiates rebates and creates formularies and pharmacy networks.
Why it matters here: PBMs are relevant because their incentives and pricing arrangements can affect what patients pay and which medicines they can access.
Back to glossary index ↑Perfluorooctanoic acid
A persistent synthetic chemical formerly used in manufacturing and associated with environmental and health concerns.
Why it matters here: The DuPont/PFOA enforcement history is a comparative case about delayed recognition and externalization of harm.
Back to glossary index ↑RAND Corporation
A nonprofit research organization that conducts public-policy analysis. RAND began as a name derived from “research and development,” although it now operates under RAND Corporation.
Why it matters here: RAND analysis is cited in the comparison of U.S. and international prescription-drug prices.
Back to glossary index ↑Securities and Exchange Commission
The U.S. federal agency that regulates securities markets and requires disclosures by public companies.
Why it matters here: SEC rules and investor guidance help explain shareholder returns, executive incentives and public-company accountability.
Back to glossary index ↑World Health Organization
The United Nations agency responsible for international public health, evidence synthesis and health guidance.
Why it matters here: WHO research and guidance support the investigation’s discussion of food marketing and the commercial determinants of health.
Back to glossary index ↑The disciplined process of judging whether one factor helps produce another, rather than merely appearing alongside it.
Why it matters here: The site distinguishes causal inference from direct experimental proof so its structural conclusion is not overstated.
Back to glossary index ↑The expansion of medical ways of defining, monitoring and managing human conditions or risks, often through tests, drugs, devices and continuous surveillance.
Why it matters here: Related research uses the term to examine how diabetes and diabetes risk can become durable markets for treatment and monitoring.
Back to glossary index ↑The ways business practices, products, market structures and corporate influence affect population health.
Why it matters here: This recognized research field closely matches the investigation’s upstream focus on incentives and commercial systems.
Back to glossary index ↑Costs or benefits created by an activity but borne by people who were not part of the transaction. Healthcare costs shifted to families, employers or taxpayers are negative externalities.
Why it matters here: The concept explains how a system can remain profitable even when part of its true cost appears elsewhere.
Back to glossary index ↑A research problem in which another factor may partly or wholly explain an apparent relationship between an exposure and an outcome.
Why it matters here: Diet studies try to adjust for confounders such as age, activity and income, but observational research cannot guarantee that every alternative explanation has been removed.
Back to glossary index ↑A sustained return of blood-glucose measures below the diabetes range without glucose-lowering medication. Remission is not necessarily permanent and continued monitoring remains important.
Why it matters here: The observations page discusses remission while avoiding the claim that every person can achieve it.
Back to glossary index ↑The growing influence of investors, financial markets, debt, shareholder returns and financial performance measures over corporate decisions.
Why it matters here: The related research uses it to explain how capital-market pressure can shape food-company strategy.
Back to glossary index ↑A legal duty requiring directors and officers to act loyally, carefully and in the interests of the corporation under the applicable law.
Why it matters here: It matters because the site examines how corporate law and governance shape decisions without claiming that the law literally requires endless growth.
Back to glossary index ↑A condition in which cells respond less effectively to insulin, causing the body to need more insulin to manage blood glucose.
Why it matters here: It is a central biological pathway through which type 2 diabetes can develop.
Back to glossary index ↑A statistical method that combines results from multiple studies to estimate an overall effect.
Why it matters here: Meta-analyses strengthen the evidence base by testing whether a relationship appears consistently across studies.
Back to glossary index ↑Blood-glucose levels above the normal range but below the diagnostic threshold for diabetes.
Why it matters here: Its prevalence indicates how many people are already on the risk pathway before receiving a diabetes diagnosis.
Back to glossary index ↑Research that follows a group of people forward over time and compares later outcomes with earlier exposures or behaviors.
Why it matters here: These studies cannot eliminate every confounding factor, but they can show whether dietary patterns precede higher diabetes risk.
Back to glossary index ↑A comparison of risk between groups expressed proportionally. A 50% relative reduction may represent a large or small absolute change depending on the starting risk.
Why it matters here: The site labels relative effects so readers do not mistake them for absolute percentage-point changes.
Back to glossary index ↑The business-governance view or practice that gives shareholder interests, especially financial returns, priority in corporate decision-making.
Why it matters here: The investigation examines how this pressure can reward growth even when some wider health costs fall on the public.
Back to glossary index ↑A structured review that uses a predefined method to find, assess and synthesize all relevant studies addressing a question.
Why it matters here: Systematic reviews help show whether a conclusion rests on a broader body of evidence rather than a selectively chosen study.
Back to glossary index ↑A condition or system that shapes the more immediate events leading to an outcome. It sits earlier in the causal chain than the biological mechanism where disease becomes visible.
Why it matters here: The investigation uses the term for commercial and institutional forces that shape food exposure before insulin resistance develops.
Back to glossary index ↑A research classification for industrial formulations typically made with refined ingredients, additives and processes uncommon in home cooking. The category does not mean every packaged food has the same health effect.
Why it matters here: Research links higher consumption of some ultra-processed-food categories with higher type 2 diabetes risk, while the site preserves important category differences.
Back to glossary index ↑