'Big Food'...Big Problem!

I was forwarded a link last week to an article that caught my attention. The article is co written by Kelly Brownell a psychologist who serves as the director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, who has written on obesity & its links to practices of the food industry and Kenneth Warner, a tobacco researcher and Dean of the University of Michigan's School of Public Health. In the paper, The Perils of Ignoring History: Big Tobacco Played Dirty and Millions Died. How Similar is Big Food? the authors examine the similarities and differences between 'Big Food' and 'Big Tobacco' industries in a context of culpability for health damage. It then goes on to highlight what can be learned so that mistakes made in the past around tobacco and it's role in health outcomes can be avoided now with the food industry which is heading down a similar path.

One particularly interesting piece from the paper is a comparison of the two industries and their attempt to instill doubt in the public so as to diminish the link between the industries and negative health outcomes. By presenting scientists who doubt the association, trashing the science, or through highlighting studies where there is just enough doubt, the tobacco industry was able to stall public health policy far longer than it should have been able to. And the same is now true of the food industry, where stakeholders are scrambling to position the right people and present favorable results that they are not responsible for health issues like obesity as they've been accused.

The introduction & marketing of 'safer' products by the industries is also something the industries have in common. In the tobacco industry, this played out as the introduction of filtered cigarettes. Following a drop in sales in the early 1950's due to health concerns, the industry introduced 'safer' cigarettes. Marketing campaigns where tossing around messages that filters removed the dangerous substances while preserving flavour and sales began to creep back up. Ironically enough, the filter of the first highly successful brand of filtered cigarettes in fact added asbestos to the list of dangerous substances in cigarettes.

And now we are beginning to see the food industry take on a similar strategy. Products are marketed with reduced amounts of ingredients that are thought to cause harm. General Mills for example has launched a massive marketing campaign for their cereals that are made with whole grains, including the cereals that are very high in sugar like Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Consumers may over estimate the benefit of the grain change and increase consumption of a product that is only marginally better than its original version.

The article goes on to examine other aspects of 'Big Tobacco' and 'Big Food' including Industry Self Regulation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Influence of the Government, Personal Responsibility and Addiction Manipulation & Denial. Overall the article is a great read and I highly recommend checking it out if you can.

I attached the link to the full article here!