Like the tobacco industry adding extra nicotine, the food industry employs taste engineers to accomplish a similar goal: maximize the irresistibility of their products.
The Role of Corporate Influence in the Obesity Epidemic
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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
The plague of tobacco deaths wasn’t just due to the mass manufacture and marketing of cheap cigarettes. Tobacco companies actively sought to make their products even more craveable by spraying the sheets of tobacco with nicotine, and additives like ammonia, to provide a bigger nicotine “kick.” The food industry employs taste engineers to accomplish a similar goal: maximize the irresistibility of their products.
Taste is the leading factor in food choice. Salt, sugar, and fat are used as the three points of the compass to produce “superstimulating” “hyperpalatability” to tempt people into impulsive buys and compulsive consumption. Foods are intentionally designed to hook into our evolutionary triggers and breach whatever biological barriers help keep consumption within reasonable limits.
Big Food is big business. The processed food industry alone brings in more than $2 trillion a year. That affords them the economic might to manipulate more than just taste profiles, but public policy and scientific inquiry as well. The food, alcohol, and tobacco industries have all used similar unsavory tactics: blocking health regulations, co-opting professional organizations, creating front groups, and distorting the science. The common playbook shouldn’t be surprising, given the common corporate threads. At one time, for example, Philip Morris owned both Kraft and Miller Brewing.
In a single year, the food industry has spent more than $50 million to hire hundreds of lobbyists to influence legislation. Most of these lobbyists were “revolvers,” former federal employees in the revolving door between industry and their regulators, who could push corporate interests from the inside, only to be rewarded with cushy lobbying jobs after their “public service.” In the following year, the industry acquired a new weapon—a stick to go along with all those carrots. On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court’s 5 to 4 Citizen’s United ruling permitted corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on campaign ads to trash anyone who dared stand against them. No wonder our elected officials have so thoroughly shrunk from the fight, leaving us largely with a government of Big Food, by Big Food, and for Big Food.
Globally, a similar dynamic exists. Weak tea calls from the public health community for voluntary standards are met with not only vicious fights against meaningful change, but massive transnational trade and foreign investment deals that cement protections of food industry profits into the laws of the lands.
The corrupting commercial influence extends to medical associations. Reminiscent of the “Just what the doctor ordered” cigarette ads of yesteryear, the American Academy of Family Physicians accepted millions from the Coca Cola Company, in part explicitly to “develop consumer education content on beverages and sweeteners.”
On the front line, fake grassroots “astroturf” groups are used to mask the corporate message. In the footsteps of Get Government Off Our Back (memorably acronymed GGOOB)— a front group created by RJ Reynolds to fight tobacco regulation— Americans Against Food Taxes may as just well be called Food Industry Against Food Taxes. The power of front group formation is enough to bind bitter corporate rivals: the Sugar Association and the Corn Refiners Association linking arms with the National Confectioners Association to partner with Americans for Food and Beverage Choice.
Using another tried-and-true tobacco tactic, research front groups can be used to subvert the scientific process by shaping or suppressing science that deviates from the corporate agenda. Take the trans fat story. Food manufacturers have not only long denied that trans fats were associated with disease, but actively worked to limit inquiry and discredit research findings.
At what cost? The global death toll from foods high in trans fat, saturated fat, salt, and sugar is at 14 million lost lives. Every year. The inability of countries around the world to turn the tide on obesity “is not a failure of [individual] will-power,” said the Director-General of the World Health Organization. “It is a failure of political will to take on the powerful food and soda industries.” She ended her keynote address before the National Academy of Medicine, entitled “Obesity and diabetes: the slow-motion disaster,” with these words: “The interests of the public must be prioritized over those of corporations.”
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Perry CL, Creamer MR. The childhood obesity epidemic: lessons learned from tobacco. J Pediatr. 2014;164(1):178-85.
- Ortiz SE, Zimmerman FJ, Gilliam FD. Weighing in: the taste-engineering frame in obesity expert discourse. Am J Public Health. 2015;105(3):554-9.
- McCrory MA, Suen VM, Roberts SB. Biobehavioral influences on energy intake and adult weight gain. J Nutr. 2002;132(12):3830S-4S.
- Zimmerman FJ. Using marketing muscle to sell fat: the rise of obesity in the modern economy. Annu Rev Public Health. 2011;32:285-306.
- Scrinis G. Big Food corporations and the nutritional marketing and regulation of processed foods. Canadian Food Studies. 2015;2(2):136-45.
- Smith J, Cianflone K, Biron S, et al. Effects of maternal surgical weight loss in mothers on intergenerational transmission of obesity. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2009;94(11):4275-83.
- Moodie R, Stuckler D, Monteiro C, et al. Profits and pandemics: prevention of harmful effects of tobacco, alcohol, and ultra-processed food and drink industries. Lancet. 2013;381(9867):670-9.
- Lobbying spending database food & beverage, 2009. Center for Responsive Politics.
- Steier G. Dead people don’t eat: food governmentenomics and conflicts-of-interest in the USDA and FDA. J Environ Public Health. 2012;7(1):1-77.
- Citizens United v Federal Election Commission. 130 S.Ct. 876 08-205 (Roberts Court 2010).
- Swinburn BA, Sacks G, Hall KD, et al. The global obesity pandemic: shaped by global drivers and local environments. Lancet. 2011;378(9793):804-14.
- Brownell KD. Thinking forward: the quicksand of appeasing the food industry. PLoS Med. 2012;9(7):e1001254.
- Swinburn B, Vandevijvere S. WHO report on ending childhood obesity echoes earlier recommendations. Public Health Nutr. 2016;19(1):1-2.
- Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company Campaign: Doctor ordered. Tobacco.Stanford.edu.
- Kirk SF, Penney TL, Freedhoff Y. Running away with the facts on food and fatness. Public Health Nutr. 2010;13(1):147-8.
- Yanamadala S, Bragg MA, Roberto CA, Brownell KD. Food industry front groups and conflicts of interest: the case of Americans against food taxes. Public Health Nutr. 2012;15(8):1331-2.
- About. Americans for Food and Beverage Choice.
- Barnes DE, Bero LA. Industry-funded research and conflict of interest: an analysis of research sponsored by the tobacco industry through the Center for Indoor Air Research. J Health Polit Policy Law. 1996;21(3):515-42.
- Mialon M, Mialon J. Corporate political activity of the dairy industry in France: an analysis of publicly available information. Public Health Nutr. 2017;20(13):2432-9.
- Schleifer D. We spent a million bucks and then we had to do something: the unexpected implications of industry involvement in trans fat research. Bull Sci Technol Soc. 2011;31(6):460-71.
- Beaglehole R, Bonita R, Horton R, et al. Priority actions for the non-communicable disease crisis. Lancet. 2011;377(9775):1438-47.
- Chan M. WHO Director-General addresses health promotion conference. World Health Organization. Published June 10, 2013.
- Chan M. Obesity and diabetes: the slow-motion disaster. Milbank Q. 2017;95(1):11-4.
- Chan M. Obesity and diabetes: the slow-motion disaster keynote address at the 47th meeting of the National Academy of Medicine. World Health Organization. Published October 17, 2016.
Video production by Glass Entertainment
Motion graphics by Avocado Video
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
The plague of tobacco deaths wasn’t just due to the mass manufacture and marketing of cheap cigarettes. Tobacco companies actively sought to make their products even more craveable by spraying the sheets of tobacco with nicotine, and additives like ammonia, to provide a bigger nicotine “kick.” The food industry employs taste engineers to accomplish a similar goal: maximize the irresistibility of their products.
Taste is the leading factor in food choice. Salt, sugar, and fat are used as the three points of the compass to produce “superstimulating” “hyperpalatability” to tempt people into impulsive buys and compulsive consumption. Foods are intentionally designed to hook into our evolutionary triggers and breach whatever biological barriers help keep consumption within reasonable limits.
Big Food is big business. The processed food industry alone brings in more than $2 trillion a year. That affords them the economic might to manipulate more than just taste profiles, but public policy and scientific inquiry as well. The food, alcohol, and tobacco industries have all used similar unsavory tactics: blocking health regulations, co-opting professional organizations, creating front groups, and distorting the science. The common playbook shouldn’t be surprising, given the common corporate threads. At one time, for example, Philip Morris owned both Kraft and Miller Brewing.
In a single year, the food industry has spent more than $50 million to hire hundreds of lobbyists to influence legislation. Most of these lobbyists were “revolvers,” former federal employees in the revolving door between industry and their regulators, who could push corporate interests from the inside, only to be rewarded with cushy lobbying jobs after their “public service.” In the following year, the industry acquired a new weapon—a stick to go along with all those carrots. On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court’s 5 to 4 Citizen’s United ruling permitted corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on campaign ads to trash anyone who dared stand against them. No wonder our elected officials have so thoroughly shrunk from the fight, leaving us largely with a government of Big Food, by Big Food, and for Big Food.
Globally, a similar dynamic exists. Weak tea calls from the public health community for voluntary standards are met with not only vicious fights against meaningful change, but massive transnational trade and foreign investment deals that cement protections of food industry profits into the laws of the lands.
The corrupting commercial influence extends to medical associations. Reminiscent of the “Just what the doctor ordered” cigarette ads of yesteryear, the American Academy of Family Physicians accepted millions from the Coca Cola Company, in part explicitly to “develop consumer education content on beverages and sweeteners.”
On the front line, fake grassroots “astroturf” groups are used to mask the corporate message. In the footsteps of Get Government Off Our Back (memorably acronymed GGOOB)— a front group created by RJ Reynolds to fight tobacco regulation— Americans Against Food Taxes may as just well be called Food Industry Against Food Taxes. The power of front group formation is enough to bind bitter corporate rivals: the Sugar Association and the Corn Refiners Association linking arms with the National Confectioners Association to partner with Americans for Food and Beverage Choice.
Using another tried-and-true tobacco tactic, research front groups can be used to subvert the scientific process by shaping or suppressing science that deviates from the corporate agenda. Take the trans fat story. Food manufacturers have not only long denied that trans fats were associated with disease, but actively worked to limit inquiry and discredit research findings.
At what cost? The global death toll from foods high in trans fat, saturated fat, salt, and sugar is at 14 million lost lives. Every year. The inability of countries around the world to turn the tide on obesity “is not a failure of [individual] will-power,” said the Director-General of the World Health Organization. “It is a failure of political will to take on the powerful food and soda industries.” She ended her keynote address before the National Academy of Medicine, entitled “Obesity and diabetes: the slow-motion disaster,” with these words: “The interests of the public must be prioritized over those of corporations.”
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Perry CL, Creamer MR. The childhood obesity epidemic: lessons learned from tobacco. J Pediatr. 2014;164(1):178-85.
- Ortiz SE, Zimmerman FJ, Gilliam FD. Weighing in: the taste-engineering frame in obesity expert discourse. Am J Public Health. 2015;105(3):554-9.
- McCrory MA, Suen VM, Roberts SB. Biobehavioral influences on energy intake and adult weight gain. J Nutr. 2002;132(12):3830S-4S.
- Zimmerman FJ. Using marketing muscle to sell fat: the rise of obesity in the modern economy. Annu Rev Public Health. 2011;32:285-306.
- Scrinis G. Big Food corporations and the nutritional marketing and regulation of processed foods. Canadian Food Studies. 2015;2(2):136-45.
- Smith J, Cianflone K, Biron S, et al. Effects of maternal surgical weight loss in mothers on intergenerational transmission of obesity. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2009;94(11):4275-83.
- Moodie R, Stuckler D, Monteiro C, et al. Profits and pandemics: prevention of harmful effects of tobacco, alcohol, and ultra-processed food and drink industries. Lancet. 2013;381(9867):670-9.
- Lobbying spending database food & beverage, 2009. Center for Responsive Politics.
- Steier G. Dead people don’t eat: food governmentenomics and conflicts-of-interest in the USDA and FDA. J Environ Public Health. 2012;7(1):1-77.
- Citizens United v Federal Election Commission. 130 S.Ct. 876 08-205 (Roberts Court 2010).
- Swinburn BA, Sacks G, Hall KD, et al. The global obesity pandemic: shaped by global drivers and local environments. Lancet. 2011;378(9793):804-14.
- Brownell KD. Thinking forward: the quicksand of appeasing the food industry. PLoS Med. 2012;9(7):e1001254.
- Swinburn B, Vandevijvere S. WHO report on ending childhood obesity echoes earlier recommendations. Public Health Nutr. 2016;19(1):1-2.
- Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company Campaign: Doctor ordered. Tobacco.Stanford.edu.
- Kirk SF, Penney TL, Freedhoff Y. Running away with the facts on food and fatness. Public Health Nutr. 2010;13(1):147-8.
- Yanamadala S, Bragg MA, Roberto CA, Brownell KD. Food industry front groups and conflicts of interest: the case of Americans against food taxes. Public Health Nutr. 2012;15(8):1331-2.
- About. Americans for Food and Beverage Choice.
- Barnes DE, Bero LA. Industry-funded research and conflict of interest: an analysis of research sponsored by the tobacco industry through the Center for Indoor Air Research. J Health Polit Policy Law. 1996;21(3):515-42.
- Mialon M, Mialon J. Corporate political activity of the dairy industry in France: an analysis of publicly available information. Public Health Nutr. 2017;20(13):2432-9.
- Schleifer D. We spent a million bucks and then we had to do something: the unexpected implications of industry involvement in trans fat research. Bull Sci Technol Soc. 2011;31(6):460-71.
- Beaglehole R, Bonita R, Horton R, et al. Priority actions for the non-communicable disease crisis. Lancet. 2011;377(9775):1438-47.
- Chan M. WHO Director-General addresses health promotion conference. World Health Organization. Published June 10, 2013.
- Chan M. Obesity and diabetes: the slow-motion disaster. Milbank Q. 2017;95(1):11-4.
- Chan M. Obesity and diabetes: the slow-motion disaster keynote address at the 47th meeting of the National Academy of Medicine. World Health Organization. Published October 17, 2016.
Video production by Glass Entertainment
Motion graphics by Avocado Video
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Title
The Role of Corporate Influence in the Obesity Epidemic
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
Are you mad yet? Here in an election year, let us all reflect on how important campaign finance reform is in removing the Big Food stranglehold industry has on our body politic. To sum up my answer to the question underlying this entire webinar––What Triggered the Obesity Epidemic? The answer? It’s the food. I close next with my wrap-up video: The Role of the Toxic Food Environment in the Obesity Epidemic.
Here are the rest, if you missed any:
- The Role of Diet vs. Exercise in the Obesity Epidemic
- The Role of Genes in the Obesity Epidemic
- The Thrifty Gene Theory: Survival of the Fattest
- Cut the Calorie-Rich-And-Processed Foods
- The Role of Processed Foods in the Obesity Epidemic
- The Role of Taxpayer Subsidies in the Obesity Epidemic
- The Role of Marketing in the Obesity Epidemic
- The Role of Food Advertisements in the Obesity Epidemic
- The Role of Personal Responsibility in the Obesity Epidemic
If the political angle interests, I’ve got a bunch of other such videos:
- Big Food Using the Tobacco Industry Playbook
- How Smoking in 1959 Is Like Eating in 2019
- Sugar Industry Attempts to Manipulate the Science
- The Food Industry Wants the Public Confused About Nutrition
- A Political Lesson on the Power of the Food Industry
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