Last week we wrote about a paper by Milbank Quarterly which found parallels in the behavior of the tobacco industry 50 years ago and the behavior of the food industry today. The authors of the paper did state that there are distinct differences as well (cigarettes are bad. Period. But almost no food can be categorized as just bad.)

It’s disappointing to read the response of the American Dietetic Association, basically siding with the food industry, and not the consumers whom it’s 70,000 dietitians serve.

Instead of stepping up to the plate and demanding a ban on marketing of junk food to kids, creating objective standards for defining what healthy foods are, and dismissing the industry’s “personal responsibility” schtick, Martin Yadrick, President of the American Dietetic Association had this to say:

“When it comes to public health, we have to focus on synergy,…Food labels, trans fat substitutions and many other recent changes have come about because everyone worked together and I think all those involved in these changes recognize that.”

In this regard, his views were broadly resonant with those expressed by the Grocery Manufacturers Association regarding industry’s efforts to move towards healthier formulations. The GMA said that industry had reformulated over 10,000 healthier products and would continue to play its part in tackling obesity.

read more from Food Navigator…

The response of GMA, touting the tiny efforts of the food industry to date,  is to be expected, they are well representing their constituents. But why is the ADA on the wrong side of the discussion?

To be fair, Mr. Yadrick did mention that industry funded studies tend to side with conclusions favorable to the funders, but he did not go as far as to explicitly condemn the practice. It would certainly help us consumers to know food research is not funded by the corporations that have vested interet in the results.

Come to think of it, how can you blame the ADA. Just look to find who pays it bills. Membership fees are not enough to cover the cost of ongoing activities. As a result, the organization has to accept sposnorships from…you guessed it, food corporations.

The Coca Cola Company, PepsiCo, Mars Company, Unilever, General Mills and Kellogg’s, to name the biggies.

In speaking with several RDs across the country, we have heard that these sponsorships are a source of great uncomfort to them, but heck, the membership dues are already quite high for someone living off of a dietitans salary.

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The Milbank Quarterly, a peer-reviewed journal of population health and health policy, provides an assessment of the social, legal, and ethical dimensions of health care policy in the US.

Their March issue is dedicated to obesity, a disease that has become a top priority due to the heavy toll it is putting on us both financially and medically.

One of the interesting articles is entitled The Perils of Ignoring History: Big Tobacco Played Dirty and Millions Died. How Similar Is Big Food?

In 1954 the tobacco industry paid to publish the “Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers” in hundreds of U.S. newspapers. It stated that the public’s health was the industry’s concern above all others and promised a variety of good-faith changes. What followed were decades of deceit and actions that cost millions of lives.

The article was written by two well respected public health researchers – Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, and Kenneth Warner, dean of the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Here’s what the researchers found.

Tobacco companies:
1. emphasized personal responsibility rather than industry responsibility.
2. criticized “junk” science that found harms associated with smoking.
3. paid scientists to produce counter-studies.
4. created self-regulation to preempt stricter government control.
5. lobbied with huge financial forces to stifle government action.
6. introduced “safer” products.
7. Denied the addictive nature of their products.
8. Denied the fact that they were marketing to children.

What you need to know:

Food is very different and much more complex than cigarettes. Our bodies need food, whereas they certainly don’t need cigarettes.

There is also a huge variation in food products and their nutritional values, whereas tobacco products are very limited in scope.

Therefore it is very difficult to pinpoint one specific product as so dangerous that it warrants the same treatment as a cigarette. Many foods have both beneficial nutrients along those better to restrict.

In addition, some nutrients are required up to a point and then become dangerous. For example, our bodies must get a daily dosage of sodium in order to function properly, whereas no nicotine is required at all.

Having said that, there certainly are similarities between the two industries:
* Personal responsibility is a biggie – you’re fat because you have no willpower to stop eating, not because an entire system has been built to offer you something fat/sweet/salty to stuff in your mouth every single minute of every single day.
* Many industry sponsored studies have lead to health claims on food labels that are questionable at best.
* Self regulation – take a look at the various industry initiatives to create front of label nutrition scoring (Smart Choices, Guiding Stars, etc…) as well as voluntarily providing calorie information on menus at Pizza Hut in order not to have to provide much much more.
* Lobbies – Ask the folks at the USDA and Capitol Hill about the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the power it wields, just as an example.
* Safer products – those would be, for example, low-fat, low-carb, reduced-sugar (but how safe are some artificial sweeteners), and omega-3 fortified products.
* Marketing to children – Any parent taking a kid to a supermarket knows that those cartoon characters on cereal boxes, yogurts, and ready-pastas are not there for our pleasure, rather for our kids to be able to nag us till we give in.

What to do at the supermarket:

Our usual recommendation is to choose minimally processed foods, those that have been around before Big Food. Sticking to the perimeter of the supermarket, where you can find fresh produce, meat and milk, as well as grains, is a good start.

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