Informed Eating:
A Newsletter of
Food Politics and Analysis
October, 2003
In This Issue
Book Review of Food Fight
The Big Snapple’s $166 million
Price Tag
Dietary Guidelines Revamp Underway
Food Industry Conference on Children’s “Nutrition”
California Passes Landmark Legislation on Beverages in Schools
Lawsuit Against McDonald’s Thrown Out (again)
Battling
the Bulge
Book review by Michele Simon
FOOD
FIGHT
The Inside Story of the Food Industry, America's Obesity Crisis, and What We
Can Do About It
By Kelly Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen
Public
health experts agree that obesity has become a national crisis. Less clear is
what should be done about it. While government health officials tout exercise
and "personal responsibility," more and more nutrition advocates are
blaming the food industry for creating a world where Whoppers, Big Gulps, and
Twinkies are more available and much cheaper than tofu, brown rice, and
broccoli. Enter Food Fight, the
latest book to take a deeper look at the social and public health consequences
of America's love affair with junk food.
The
book's primary author, Kelly Brownell, is the Yale psychology professor who
coined the phrase "toxic food environment." He has been making quite
a name for himself by helping to move the public discussion of obesity beyond a
focus on diets and behavior modification. True to form, big food corporations
have accused him of being a member of the "food police," a
"nanny" bent on saddling them with advertising restrictions, junk
food taxes, and other pesky regulations.
To read the full review, visit: http://www.informedeating.org/docs/battling_the_bulge.html.
New Bites
The Big Snapple’s $166 million Price Tag
Under a five-year $166 million
deal announced with much fanfare last month, Snapple has become the official
beverage of New York City. Under the arrangement, Snapple will have exclusive
rights to place vending machines in the city's 1,200 public schools, as well as
other city properties, including office buildings, police stations and
sanitation depots. In return, Snapple will pay the schools at least $8 million
a year for five years and the city will get about $13 million a year, based on
sales.
As part of the deal, Snapple is
developing four new 100 percent juice drinks to comply with the city's recent
ban of soda, candy and other sugary snacks from school vending machines. However,
like soft drinks, many fruit juices provide calories from sugar and not much else.
When asked about the appropriateness of selling the Snapple brand in schools,
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg dismissed the concern saying: "We already have
vending machines in every school. They have other brand names on them. So
that's a bridge that has long ago been crossed and I don't think in this day
and age we can or should take the vending machines out of the schools." Now
there’s strong political leadership for you.
Source: New York Times 9/10/2003
Dietary Guidelines
Revamp Underway
It’s that time again when the federal government gets ready to take another stab at trying to tell the American public just what and how much to eat. The first step (expected any day now) is announcing the members of the committee that will conduct the required five-year update of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
While the nation’s ever-expanding girth is a sure sign that not many people are paying attention to the tepid nutrition guidelines, they are still important because all federal nutrition programs, including the school lunch program, are based on them. That’s why even minor wording changes in the guidelines can make industry go ballistic. As a result, groups such as the National Dairy Council, the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, and the Soft Drink Association have submitted names of candidates to best serve their interests. Stay tuned for the ensuing controversy that’s sure to erupt when certain proposed committee members’ ties to the food industry are revealed, as they have been in the past.
Source: Wall Street Journal 8/8/03
In a related story, the USDA is calling for public comments on revisions to the Food Guide Pyramid, which is technically just one part of the dietary guidelines. The public comment period ends Oct. 27. For more information on how to submit comments (and see some amusing comments submitted thus far) go to: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/pyramid-update/index.html.
Food Industry Conference on Children’s “Nutrition”
Want to visit New Orleans in November and hobnob with Big Food reps? For a cool $3,000, you too can attend the Food & Beverage Exchange’s first annual “Kids Nutrition” conference, entitled, “Developing & Marketing Healthier Products to Meet the Needs of Young Consumers & Help Reduce Obesity.”
According their Web site, the conference “will provide answers to the most
pressing questions surrounding Kids Nutrition”, including:
- Increasing your market share;
how should you place your product to make it a desirable commodity within
school vending machines?
- How can food companies and
nutritionists work together to improve child health through diet?
- As a community, what should we
do to ensure food companies are working with the nutritionists to resolve child
obesity?
And with workshop titles such as,
“Responsible Marketing - Balancing What Is 'Appropriate' With What Is
Profitable,” along with an odd mixing of experts from the likes of McDonald’s and Coca-Cola with New York University and Yale
University, how could you go wrong?
For more information, visit www.foodbevx.com
Legal Strategies Update
This new section of Informed Eating highlights the innovative ways that lawyers, policymakers, and nutrition advocates are pushing the envelope at the federal, state, and local levels, in the courts, the legislature, and in communities. In case you missed it, you can read CIFC’s article, Is Junk Food the Next Tobacco?, published in the Oakland Tribune on June 8, at: http://www.informedeating.org/docs/junk_food_tobacco.html.
California Passes
Landmark Legislation on Beverages in Schools
On September 18, Governor Davis signed SB 677 into
law. Beginning July 1, 2004, only healthy beverages (based on certain
nutrition standards) will be sold in elementary, middle, and junior high
schools. Unfortunately, high schools were dropped from the original bill, thanks
to pressure from the soda industry. Nevertheless, this is still an important
victory. For a detailed description of the bill, visit: http://www.publichealthadvocacy.org/legislation/legislation_2003.html.
Lawsuit Against
McDonald’s Thrown Out (again)
On September 4, U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet dismissed the class action that accused McDonald's of misleading customers about its products and blamed the fast food giant for diet-related health problems. Sweet had thrown out an earlier version of the suit, but allowed the plaintiffs to re-file the case with new information, virtually providing them with a roadmap for how to do so. However, the judge held that nowhere in the new complaint did the plaintiffs claim to see any of the advertising they cited. He also said the plaintiffs failed to show an adequate connection between their consumption of McDonald's food and their alleged injuries. Despite this courtroom strategy defeat, we are likely to see more attempts by litigation attorneys in the future.
Source: New York Times, 9/04/03
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