Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Things the food industry doesn't want you to know

Adam Voiland offers the list in U.S. News and World Report, along with a wealth of links to the supporting evidence, based in large part on a recent perspective article by Marion Nestle and David Ludwig in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
1. Junk food makers spend billions advertising unhealthy foods to kids.

2. The studies that food producers support tend to minimize health concerns associated with their products.

3. Junk food makers donate large sums of money to professional nutrition associations.

4. More processing means more profits, but typically makes the food less healthy.

5. Less-processed foods are generally more satiating than their highly processed counterparts.

6. Many supposedly healthy replacement foods are hardly healthier than the foods they replace.

7. A health claim on the label doesn't necessarily make a food healthy.

8. Food industry pressure has made nutritional guidelines confusing.

9. The food industry funds front groups that fight antiobesity public health initiatives.

10. The food industry works aggressively to discredit its critics.

4 comments:

freude bud said...

Have you had occasion / interest to take a look at Prop 2 in California?

Informed comment would be welcome.

usfoodpolicy said...

Thanks for the question! But, I just ran out of blogging time for the next couple days. Must work. What do you think of the proposition?

freude bud said...

I am not an ag expert, so it's very hard for me to tell.

It sounds morally appropriate to prevent farms from keeping animals in small cages.

But, if to institute the proposition would in fact be likely to make conditions worse for some of the animals while at the same time making food more scarce and thus more expensive in the midst of a recession where food banks are empty, then, obviously, no.

Plenty of esteemed people appear to endorse both sides of issue.

Cleaning & Logistics said...

Wow thanks man, you opened my eyes, I didn't know that.