“There’s a place called Hidden Valley Ranch where kids not only eat their vegetables, [THEY SMOTHER THEM IN BOTTLED RANCH DRESSING, NEGATING THEIR NATURAL, NUTRIENT RICH DELICIOUSNESS]. Hidden Valley Ranch, makes vegetables [TASTE LIKE SALT].”
Fixed that for you.
Clear evidence that Big Food wants to trick you.
I read about this somewhere a few months ago, but this is the first time I’ve actually seen the horrifying sight in real life.
Potato chips prominently displayed in the produce section.
Apparently, processed food companies are trying to work their products into the fresh/unprocessed food section of grocery stores to align them with healthier alternatives and boost sales.
Normally, (and I’m sure this is the case for many), I never travel down the chips aisle, but now here they are, right in the middle of two weekly staples: avocados and tomatoes. Perhaps a shopper was picking up some tomatoes for salad, then saw the chips, and thought… Mmm chips and guac! Delicious and totally fine.. except when a company is manipulating you when you’re not even aware.
Nothing makes me angrier. So BEWARE! Don’t let Big Food get a hand on your grocery list. Get that junk out of my produce aisle.
There are some things that make me shake with anger. A few:
The last one on the list is unforgivable, and unfortunately it happens constantly. This article, Big Food Exerts Unhealthy Influence on America’s Nutritionists, which I read on Grist.org, discusses a problem that I sometimes briefly forget is all too prevalent in the nutrition industry.
The processed food industry is trying to woo dietitians into promoting products that are usually labeled as “unhealthy” or “snack food.” With endorsement from a nutritionist or dietitian, these products receive credibility from a professional who’s job it is to tell the public what and how to eat right. The nutrition field is already rife with conflicting views, lies, and unclear data, and it’s only discredited further when dietitians partner with Big Food companies who’s goal is not public health, but to make a buck.
Often, food companies sponsor events for the American Dietetic Association, and other industry groups, providing housing, event space and food for free - an attractive option for groups lacking funds. But now these conferences are packed with booths for companies like Yum! Brands, Pepsico, General Mills, McDonalds, etc, and they are seriously influencing the people who matter.
A recent conference held a panel titled A Fresh Look at Processed Foods, which was attended by hundreds of RDs and health professionals. One panelist, Lindsey Loving of the International Food Information Council, announced to the audience that processed foods, “represent sources of important nutrients for consumers and should be eaten along with fresh fruits and veggies.”
How could a trained RD take this seriously? Impossible, right? Wrong. Unfortunately RDs and nutritionists can be bought, if not with a paycheck, then with fancy hotel rooms at conferences, free flights, gift baskets, and further recognition. I often find that dietitians partner with brands to make themselves more visible, giving them the opportunity to attend events, meet professionals and test new products. The dietitian’s customer base grows and the food company gets acknowledged by a trusted and trained professional. The cycle continues…
Dietitians and nutritionists who work with brands are breaking a code of ethics that is crucial to performing their job successfully and credibly. They are damaging the profession’s reputation and harming consumers, just to get ahead. If a dietitian wanted to make personal gains without any regard for the public, they probably should have gone into finance instead. Please leave the task of bettering the health of our nation to those who actually want to make a difference.
Ronald McDonald is an ambassador for McDonald’s, and he is an ambassador for good. He does not advertise unhealthy food to children.Jim Skinner, McDonald’s CEO
I just finished reading “Food With Benefits, or So They Say” from this weekend’s New York Times, and while there wasn’t much new information presented, it was great to see the topic reported on in the Times.
The health claims on products in the food store is starting to spiral out of control. Products claim they’re heart healthy even when they’re full of sugar, that they contain beneficial fiber but leave out the fact that you need to eat 3 servings a day, and they stop just short of saying they’ll making you smarter, more beautiful and cure you of all diseases. Enough!
I remember reading this quote from Michael Pollan a few years ago which has really stuck with me:
“If you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat.”
So true! These are marketing techniques, not magical cure-alls. The research is conducted entirely by the brands and they can manipulate the variables however they’d like in order to get a desired result. The best example I’ve heard of this practice was mentioned in the article:
“Kellogg had indeed commissioned a study that compared children who ate Frosted Mini-Wheats for breakfast with children who had only water for breakfast. But only about half the children in the Mini-Wheats camp showed any improvement in attentiveness after three hours, compared with their baseline before breakfast, according to the F.T.C., which filed its complaint in 2009.”
First of all - they compared the mini-wheat eaters with kids who were just drinking water for breakfast? That sounds pretty misleading to me. A kid who’s consumed a bowl of sugar is probably going be more attentive than one who’s stomach is growling.
I have a simple solution to avoiding products with health claims, even if it seems a little crazy. What is it? Don’t buy products that come in a box. Obviously I make some exceptions (hellooo Annie’s Mac & Cheese), but for the most part I buy real food that hasn’t been processed or marketed to the same extent as Cheerios. [This is cheaper too!] And it seems like my health is doing just fine, so Big Food can keep it’s health claims to itself, thank you very much.
I get a little too excited when The New Yorker publishes essays about food. My favorite magazine writing articles on my favorite topics? They’re always good. This week I read “Snacks for a Fat Planet,” a piece about PepsiCo and their shift towards becoming a “good company.” The current CEO, Indra Nooyi, is spending a great deal of money on researching products that are healthier alternatives to their sodas and chips.
Of course, the plan is full of marketing techniques and lies, but she’s making an impressive effort. Impressively ludicrous. My jaw dropped open a few times while reading the article and I’d like to share those key bits with you:
1. Nooyi: “I’m providing the same great taste - that’s the common denominator - so you don’t have to make a choice between health and taste.”
2. “Lay’s does make baked potato chips, but not from actual potato slices. Baked chips are fabricated from potato flakes that are shaped into chips after baking.”
3. “PepsiCo’s newest crusader - a robot that the company’s scientists have fitted with human taste buds - in the quest for the holy grail, a natural, zero-calorie sweetener that tastes exactly like sugar…’Before the robot we had people tasting all those things, and it took forever. But now the robot tells us what we’ve got.”
4. “Let’s say you give a kid a carrot,” Nooyi explained. “And he says, ‘I don’t want to eat a carrot.’ But you say, ‘I tell you what, I’ll give it to you in a wonderful drinkable form that’s still as close to the carrot as possible.’ All of a sudden, what have I done? I’ve drinkified a snack!”
There are so many more gems in this article, but I’ll leave with those. I’m going to make a smoothie out of strawberries, peanut butter and milk. LOOK WHAT I DID! I DRINKIFIED A SNACK!
I spent a lot of time sitting in a car in Los Angeles. Apparently this is not unusual. I didn’t drive to many places - just from the airport to hotel and back and then to Long Beach and back. But hellooooo traffic! Along the way, I noticed similar billboards popping up every few blocks:
After I saw a few of these, I started taking a closer look. They are EVERYWHERE! I finally realized that they’re advertisements for lap band surgery. Whoever is paying to put these up sure didn’t want to make it obvious… This was the first billboard I saw that said LAP BAND. (Notice how they leave out the word “surgery.”)
These billboards have so little information! Lap Band surgery is not an insignificant procedure. It can be dangerous, and in most cases, is probably not the best solution to weight problems. During the surgery, a band is literally placed around the stomach in order to restrict the amount of food the stomach can hold.
While this surgery is safer and less invasive than gastric-bypass, it still involves putting a foreign object around your stomach in order to accelerate weight loss. Lap band surgery forces the patient to eat less, rather than providing necessary education to learn to maintain a healthy lifestyle that would promote natural weight loss and overall improved health.
The billboards (which I’m sure are a direct reflection of the company’s attitude) are making lap band surgery seem like the easiest, safest way to end weight problems and that is an absolute lie.
These billboards could not be avoided:
(Ugh, in this one you can see the poster for our movie beneath the billboard!)
How would you even know what this billboard is for?
Almost missed that one.
There were several more that I couldn’t capture in time, but by the end of an hour long car ride, I was totally disgusted. Just one google search of “1-800-Get-Thin” pulled up a slew of articles about this scam.
Here’s a quote from an LA Times article:
The tragedy of Ana Renteria’s life was in the way it ended: her body ravaged by infection 10 days after she had the Lap-Band weight-loss operation advertised on those billboards and radio spots bearing the phone number 1-800-GET-THIN.
Is there no regulation to stop companies from advertising surgeries like this one so prolifically? How many complications and deaths will it take to get these taken down?
This is a seriously disturbing article that I unearthed from 1987 detailing how the Nestle Corporation convinced poor mothers in Africa that they should feed their infants baby formula instead of breast milk, arguing that it was better for the babies. Which is untrue in 99% of cases.
They achieved this by sending salespeople dressed as nurses to hospitals, sent doctors incentives (like buying them new medical equipment) to push the product, and bombarding mothers with gimmicky advertisements.
In 1981 UNICEF passed a code prohibiting companies from marketing their formula to third world countries in such an insidious way, but Nestle did not always stay true to the code. [I should note that out of 118 votes, the United States under the Reagan Administration was the only country to vote against it.]
This was 30 years ago, but it’s not something that should be easily forgotten.
It’s definitely worth a read.
I stumbled upon this online pamphlet published by Yum Brands, the company that owns KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Long John Silvers. I’ve been staring at it all day trying to figure out how to write this blog post because I was so appalled and excited at the same time.
Basically, the pdf contains several colorful pages adorned with photos of farmland and fresh ingredients, on top of which they printed perfectly crafted statements about their products being nourishing and natural and delicious.
And they do a DAMN good job of it! They are seriously convincing - it is no wonder why so many Americans have no idea how bad the food actually is for your health. I’m not arguing against eating fast food - I’m arguing against the LIES. Consumers should at least be aware of what they are eating. So I’m going to throw up a few screenshots of the pamphlet and let my feelings out of my system.
1.
High food quality? You mean genetically modified produce and animals fed unnatural diets and raised in CAFOs? And you say you’ve been raising industry standards? That’s interesting because I don’t see these companies pushing for better organic standards or animal welfare laws.
2.
Dear Yum Brands. Did you know that 36.6% of Americans are overweight and 26.5% are obese? Or how about the fact that when Western diets are adopted by other cultures, it results in a health care crisis? Maybe you shouldn’t boast about your statistics.
3.
I don’t even know what to say about this. KFC Chicken shouldn’t even pass as chicken. Their hens are grown to have such large breasts that the chickens are actually unable to walk. There is nothing wholesome or high quality about KFC ingredients. You’d be better off eating dirt.
4.
Which is a good thing because their meat is practically MADE OUT OF CORN after all the corn based feed fed to animals.
5.
I’ll just leave this here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/the-top-ingredients-in-taco-bells-beef
Alright. My rant is done. I feel better. Companies like Yum Brands will continue publishing lies and I’ll still be here to expose them!
The empowerment of public opinion in North America concerning negative effects of the sweetened beverages industry was acknowledged by an executive of Coca Cola in 2007, who declared: “Our Achilles heel is the discussion about obesity. It’s gone from a small, manageable U.S. issue to a huge global issue. It dilutes our marketing and works against it. It’s a huge, huge issue.
If you enjoy reading nutrition papers and research findings, this is a good one and it’s not very long. I find lot’s of good stuff on Marion Nestle’s blog, www.foodpolitics.com
There are hungry people everywhere. UNICEF got it all started. We’ve seen the babies with the extended tummies, the walking skeletons, told that kids can’t learn unless they’re fed. We’ve been guilted into pouring resources on the problem. And now, now, the latest crisis is that there is obesity among those who are impoverished. Because we are sympathetic, we are compassionate people, WE HAVE RESPONDED BY LETTING OUR GOVERNMENT LITERALLY FEED THESE PEOPLE TO THE POINT OF OBESITY. At least here in America, didn’t teach them how to fish, we gave them the fish. Didn’t teach them how to butcher a — slaughter a cow to get the butter, we gave them the butter. The real bloat here, as we know, is in — is in government.
Rush Limbaugh
I hate to give him more publicity, I really do, because I know he is just trying to get a rise out of people. But this time, damnit, he succeeded. And the problem is, PEOPLE LISTEN TO HIM and they believe him.
He is spreading a horrible misconception. A high percentage of low income families are overweight because the food made available to them by our government is NOT ACTUALLY FOOD. It’s garbage. Empty calories, sugary, salty, fattening junk that is available to them because it costs almost nothing at all. And what about food deserts? Take the train out to Bushwick and try to find some fresh food out there. You won’t.
Hunger in America does exist and it upsets me when people of power who know better and have access to all the clear and factual information continue to spread lies such as this one.
Doritos are not bad for you….They’re nothing more than corn mashed up, fried up in oil, and flavored in the most delectable way.
PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi
What happens next is America, a nation lacking proper nutrition education, follows the words of the food company and chows down on Doritos. Americans become overweight and unhealthy and are angered by the company’s lie. Food company tells Americans they need to accountable for their own health. Vicious cycle.
I definitely have a strong opposition to false advertising, especially when it involves food, but at some point consumers need to be accountable as well. We live in a world where most grocery store items are full of junk. Read the labels. Nutella is not nutritious; it’s a deliciously nutty, chocolatey spread.
ALTHOUGH, a quick trip to the Nutella website left me a bit in shock.
Q: What is the best breakfast to serve my child in the morning?
Connie: The “best” breakfast is the one that will be eaten! With the unique taste of Nutella®, kids may think they are eating a treat for breakfast, while moms are helping nourish their children with whole grains.
Ok, that’s confusing. But I still stand by my first response. Read the damn labels if you’re feeding it to your child.
”’Diet Pepsi will soon be available in a ‘taller, sassier new Skinny Can’ that the company says is a ‘celebration of beautiful, confident women.’”
PepsiCo, you absolutely disgust me. You don’t give a damn about women feeling beautiful and confident. If you did, maybe you wouldn’t push a product that is packed with aspartame, a chemical known to cause migraines (women LOVE those), and possibly higher cancer rates, brain tumors, and could even mess up your metabolism. What’s diet about that?
You’re thinking, maybe if we rebrand this shit consumers will totally forget about the harmful ingredients and drink more of it. Real sassy.
Really, no surprise here. Products claiming health benefits are LIARS! Especially when they are called COCOA KRISPIES.
The food industry works tirelessly to trick consumers, but at some point we have to be accountable too. Hopefully there is no one out there buying Cocoa Krispies for their kids thinking that it really does help support immunity.
The consumer protection group reviewed dozens of products that are marketed as healthy to children, and discovered that it just ain’t so. They compared the products’ nutritional value to criteria derived from the US Dietary Guidelines and the National Academies of Science. Here are some sad numbers:
- More than half (57%) of the study products qualified as high sugar
- 95% of products contained added sugar
- More than half (53%) were low in fiber.
- More than half (53%) of products did not contain any fruits or vegetables; of the fruits and vegetables found, half came from just 2 ingredients – tomatoes and corn.
- 24% of prepared foods were high in saturated fats.
- More than 1/3 (36%) of prepared foods & meals were high in sodium
- 21% contained artificial coloring – additives with potentially harmful health impacts, while offering no benefits whatsoever
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Welcome to my blog! I’m Michelle, a 26 year old vegetarian, runner, future doctor, and healthy-living enthusiast. My life revolves around food. Cooking food, eating food, discussing the politics of food. We’re surrounded by so many false advertisements and misconceptions about nutrition, its difficult to know where the truth lies. This is my attempt to make everything a bit clearer.
Follow me while I eat delicious food, cook healthy meals, run marathons, and strive to separate the food truths from lies, while living an exciting life in the Big Apple.
Questions/Comments? Send me an email! Michelle@thehonestpalate.com
