10 Things The Food Industry Doesn't Want You To Know

Two nutrition experts argue that you can't take marketing campaigns at face value

With America's obesity problem among kids reaching crisis proportions, even junk food makers have started to claim they want to steer children toward more healthful choices. In a study released earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about 32 percent of children were overweight but not obese, 16 percent were obese, and 11 percent were extremely obese. Food giant PepsiCo, for example, points out on its website that "we can play an important role in helping kids lead healthier lives by offering healthy product choices in schools." The company highlights what it considers its healthier products within various food categories through a "Smart Spot" marketing campaign that features green symbols on packaging. PepsiCo's inclusive criteria--explained here--award spots to foods of dubious nutritional value such as Diet Pepsi, Cap'n Crunch cereal, reduced-fat Doritos, and Cheetos, as well as to more nutritious products such as Quaker Oatmeal and Tropicana Orange Juice.

But are wellness initiatives like Smart Spot just marketing ploys? Such moves by the food industry may seem to be a step in the right direction, but ultimately makers of popular junk foods have an obligation to stockholders to encourage kids to eat more--not less--of the foods that fuel their profits, says David Ludwig, a pediatrician and the co-author of a commentary published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association that raises questions about whether big food companies can be trusted to help combat obesity. Ludwig and article co-author Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition at New York University, both of whom have long histories of tracking the food industry, spoke with U.S. News and highlighted 10 things that junk food makers don't want you to know about their products and how they promote them.

Click here to read the list...

Comments

[CurtisLudlow]

Hey Adam,

When Frito Lay or Pepsi promote their "Smart Spot"
products it makes me marvel at the b@lls these people
have. They know the food is not healthy.

They know this.

I know a food scientist who works for a large food manufacturer.

He refuses to eat the stuff that he creates!

The system is a giant mess.

http://bootcampfx.blogspot.com/2008/11/10-commandments-of-weight-loss-from.html

[Hallie117]

Seriously, it's not fair to advertise non-nutritional foods to children; this is our future generation. We should be advertising wholesome healthy foods to the young. Maybe this generation isn't all too healthy, but why can't the next one be? Why can't there be a cartoon character for broccoli, or even some other fruit, vegetable, or whole grain food,like there is for 'Lucky Charms', and 'Cookie Crunch'. Gee, I get really tired of this stuff.

[rpr]

Search for Marion Nestle (or start at http://www.foodpolitics.com/) if you want to know how the food industry manipulates the consumer. She is a professor and long time critic of the food industry.

[WilliePilgrim]

Lots of sound advice here but I'm a little surprised by what could be the leading health factor weighing on all the others is not really addressed: hypertension, and how it is so directly correlated with sodium intake. Healthy chips? sure, maybe an ounce or two but when consumed as they are packaged (who can eat just one?) they mean most americans are eating about triple the daily recommended allowance. And ironically much of the sodium isn't even added for taste specifically but for shelf life and handling. By elinimating extraneous salt and addinmg more natural fats (both animal and vegetable) the satisfaction gained has lower'd my b.p. without medication. The fear of fats, likewise, is overblown. A small portion of rich food with healthy natural fats and oils is far better than a temporary feast of low fat, hi carb chips or breads which are ususally very high in sodium as well. Eat what your great great grandparents woudl have eaten and you'll be doing far better...keep it rich, flavorful and natural...but in small portions, that I think could be the secret to the French enigma, a phenomenon that is dissappearing as the American style diet is being adopted, sadly.

[freebeer]

Hypertension has also been strongly linked to fluoride. Such an old issue that no one seems to care about anymore.....but we are all still drinking it, and our kids have never known untreated water.
More information for those who believed the spin for their entire lives. I was one till just last year.
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-2886269353175462948&q=The+Flouride+Deception

Food involves many choices and we must take some responsibility for our decisions.
We must drink water, and we have a right to clean water, don't we?

[Hallie117]

I agree. Our future generation is experiencing things how they are now, and don't know that there's really better, because that's gone. We need clean water, this tap water's full of chemicals.

[youronion]

Interesting article, but not a surprise at all. They are running commercials now where they try to convince the public that high fructose corn syrup is not bad for you, rather "fine in moderation". It's distressing the way people allow themselves to be lied to. Moreover, I think the American people as a whole do not want to hear about food being unhealthy for them as most foods in this country are on a par with drugs. People essentially turn to food for sollace. I have witnessed people at fast food restaurants loose their minds when they aren't served their Health-Pro­blems-In-A­-Wrapper-M­eal fast enough. If people could turn that outrage to the food industry, maybe we wouldn't have so many issues.

[zizyphus]

Can the American public be truthful with themselves and admit that white sugar is addictive and leads to several chronic diseases?

White sugar is a habit-forming substance that upsets the metabolism. Sugar has a profound effect on consciousness, which is often underplayed. I believe that it is "the gateway drug". Especially for some predisposed genetic groups. Alcohol use by previous generations may affect this somehow.

[youronion]

Sugar is the devil. It's the cocaine of food culture, only it doesn't keep you skinny! If food isn't tainted with HFCS, it's loaded with sugar, or another enemy, salt. I would also like to point out that eating healthy is actually more costly, which is extremely frustrating to deal with in recession times or any times for that matter. Just another broken dish in the kitchen....!

[DanSmith]

Raw Vegan Diet Rules! The secret is to eat enough calories from fresh organic fruits, veggies, nuts, and seeds. It'll change your life for sure.

[peace1970]

I'm vegan trying to eat raw as much as I can....people need to be more informed about the food industry and I'm glad to see these articles becoming more main stream...there is hope!! :)))

[PapaPig]

The increase in junk food commercials has been canceled by the increase in drug commercials. Eat all you want, then take our pills.

Only in America

[Tamoomoo]

In the 80s, you had one obese kid per grade, maybe. Now half the class is obese. You barely saw junk food commercials, but I remember soda commercials and Doritos commercials beginning to increase in the late 80s heavily. And now you see these horrible pro-HFCS commercials that sicken me, they say they have "the same calories as sugar!" UM. Yeah. Not a good thing, idiots!

[blondecuban]

If you want your kids to lose weight, take them off processed foods, get rid of the diet soft drinks, count their calories, and take away the video games and replace them with bicycles, skateboards and inline skates.

[Tags]

The best book exposing the food industry ploys & front groups is Michele Simon's

Appetite for Profit

[peace1970]

Thanks for the tip!! I love John Robbin's as well!!

[peace1970]

I just ordered it!!

[fightorleave2]

Madam, your doctor nailed it, but I don't think he knows it. He put his finger on the crux of the matter.
"but makers of popular junk foods have an obligation to stockholders to encourage kids to eat more--not less--of the foods that fuel their profits, says David Ludwig, a pediatrician."

No, corporate executives are not obliged to sell crap. In fact, that is THE problem. The acceptance of anyone, or even a nation, that a corporation is obliged to lie, cheat and steal so that its shareholders benefit is not only unethical and immoral, but, yes, criminal. Indeed, I can't even buy food in a grocery store these days. After reading labels, the only thing I bought was a couple of apples, and I'm not even sure they are safe. It is people like your doctor who are responsible for the mess we are in.

[Rosey]

Only 10 things?

[twinfern]

Tropicana orange juice is "nutritious"? Check the label. Part of it comes from China, that 4 star source of tainted foods.

[Horus45]

All of the growing obesity and diabetes problems in this country can be attributed to ONE food ingredient.

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP!!!!

Humans have evolved over the past couple of centuries consuming Sugar.
When the food industry switched from Sugar to HFCS to save money and increase profits they sold out the health of our nation all in the name of profits.

Now the Corn Processing industry is running misleading ads trying to rebut the growing number of nutritionists who have "seen the light" about the health problems associated with HFCS.

The FDA approved the use of HFCS without any long term research into the possible side effects.
Now almost every commercially produced food contains HFCS.
Another side effect of consuming HFCS is that it suppresses the natural hormone produced that makes you feel full after eating, since that hormone is suppressed people are more apt to overeat.

Two years ago my health was very bad, I was obese and my liver was beginning to fail.
I cut out all food that contains HFCS and it was NOT easy.
After 16 months I had lost 70 lbs and my liver problems ceased.
The most amazing part for me was regaining the ability to feel full and satisfied after a meal.
After cutting out all HFCS foods it was much easier to lose weight, which had been a struggle to accomplish my entire life.

Do your bodies a favor and stop eating food made with High Fructose Corn Syrup.

[mheister]

Word.

High Fructose Corn Syrup doesn't do the human body any favors in the diabetes department either.

I tend to shy away from granulated sugar myself. Fortunately there's a great healthier alternative that tastes great and also has a low Glycemic index - agave nectar.

[Horus45]

I use Stevia, a lot of people don't like it but I do.

[Skyeblue]

Right on!

[LightningJoe]

You're right about HFCS, as far as I know. What is a bit off is your perception of the time-span of human evolution.

In one sense, humans have been "evolving" since the first proto-bacteria started competing on who could form a fat-protein coat better, and who could get rid of their metabolic wastes before they were poisoned by them. In this sense, our evolutionary history stretches back roughly (very roughly) two or three billi000,000,000n years.

In more recent times, since we've walked upright, say, our history as a species goes back to perhaps 3 milli000,000n years.

This is more, by a factor of ten thousand, than the century time-scale. Evolution does operate on the century scale, but certainly not in such considerations as basic metabolism. It takes on the scale of tens of thousands of years or so (the time it took humans to spread from Africa through Europe) for humans to adapt well to new sources of food energy.

The sweeteners we're best adapted to are honey, which early humans probably harvested, and ... fructose, which sweetens berries and other fruit.

That said, CORN sweeteners are not the same as real FRUIT sugars -- at least not in the quantities we consume.

[Horus45]

Our species has not stopped evolving.
Evolution is a never ending process.
Biologically speaking our DNA has evolved over the past few hundred years adapting our bodies to survive on the locally available food sources.
People of European descent are not adapted to certain foods that Asians eat regularly; like soy.
People of European decent have been using Cane Sugar as a sweetener for hundreds of years, how to digest it is written into our DNA.

[verhaftik1]

The food industry is the antichrist. The AMA/physicians range from worthless to complicit with respect to food co. agendas. 21st century America must feature the end of the era of the packaged food industry. Otherwise the results - in our children - will be self-evident. If they are not already.

Is not the message clear yet? Fat + packaged food = (many forms of) cancer.
Anybody? Anybody?