‘Stuffed’ Suggests How the Food Industry Can Battle Obesity

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I invite you all to visit Hank's website and blog for more information on this pressing topic.
www.stuffednation.com/blog

David of GA 10:54AM March 18, 2010

I agree with Lisa. With so many people involved, the problem has got to be bigger than individual willpower. Something is wrong with the food. It is possible, however, to 'vote with your feet'. If we simply stop buying overprocessed fatty, sugary food, food manufacturers will be forced to modify their products accordingly...

Amiria Gale 1:26AM February 28, 2010

WIC is a program that provides food to pregnant women and their children, but has anyone noticed what kinds of foods are WIC approved?
I walk through the grocery store and see super high-sugar cereals that are WIC approved. I see juices made with HFCS that are WIC approved.
Who hasn't seen a person in a gas station, buying sodas, chips, candy bars, etc with food stamps? A while back, I was friends with a couple with two young children, their family got food stamps. Every day, one of them would drive to the gas station to get huge fountain sodas and a few snacks.
Why are people allowed to get soda with food stamps in the first place?
When I go to the grocery store, most of what i see in other people's carts is soda, chips and a LOT of frozen pre-cooked foods. And while I'm busy putting fresh fruits and veggies in my cart, I see people walk right through the produce section without hesitation.
The soda thing is WAY out of control, too. When I was a kid growing up in the 80s, a soda was a treat. Nowadays, it's practically a staple. I hear people actually say that water is too expensive and that they don't like the taste of it.
Several months ago, I saw billboards and commercials advertising a double pack of coke with a handle that read, "enough for your meal" -- it was 2 - 50 oz bottles of soda, 100 oz of soda for one person, one meal?!!!???!!!!??? And now they are advertising these mini cans. Seems a bit odd.
I agree very much with the ideas in this article. If companies were rewarded for making a push in the right direction (towards health), they would hopefully be more inclined to do so. It's going to take more than just shrinking down cans of soda, though.
People have just gotten way too lazy about how they eat and grocery shop, and the food stamp program is only making the problem worse.
If you're on gov't aid, the last thing you should be doing with that money is buying effing soda and chips.

Anon of MO 9:38AM February 23, 2010

Stop using HFCS and high amounts of sugar in foods. Use Stevia.
Stop using so much wheat gluten (added to foods).
Require the food companies to accurately label.
STOP creating and growing harmful and totally unnecessary GMO foods.
Allow the chickens and other animals to mature naturally, run free, see sunlight, without shooting them with growth hormones.
Feed all cattle grass only. Stop feeding animals who are meant to be herbivorous, other animals.
and so on and so on. The food companies know exactly what to do but they won't. They want to punish the consumers and we have to pay the price.

jean of CA 6:30PM February 22, 2010

About two thirds of the American people or either overweight or obese; this is more than "a few" lazy individuals. This indicates that there is something extremely wrong with our food supply, not that people don't have will power. Notice that when foreigners either move here and adopt American dietary habits or start eating the food from American food companies selling abroad, they also become overweight and unhealthy just like most Americans. As far as I am concerned the American food companies selling and advertising their overprocessed, salty, fatty, sugary foods are no better than tobacco companies. We should tax the &$!$@ out of them.

Lisa Porter of CA 3:59PM February 22, 2010

Get the high fructose corn syrup out of everything for openers then the excessive sodium mg. ,you guessed it,in just about everything else.

A Train of NY 2:49AM February 22, 2010

I hope many people read this article.
-Joseph Andreula

joseph andreula of NJ 10:03PM February 20, 2010

You can legislate behavior and tax anything the voters will tolerate. Virtually all laws everywhere are about legislating behavior, and we have a rich history of taxing specific things like liquor, tobacco, gambling---and for that matter, nearly all retail transactions with sales (or "gross receipts" in some states) taxes.
But I did not call in my post for any new taxes. My preference would be that we do a better job of controlling our corporations and SPECIFICALLY their marketing messages. Oh, that's infringing free speech, you will say. I happen to believe that free speech is a right that the constitution granted to individuals, not corporations, and that citizens have every obligation to rein in their paper entities (corporations) as needed, even if one or more of Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, Roberts and Alito have to be replaced to do it. (Can't happen soon enough, for this specific reason.)
As for your concern that business is moving overseas, I would argue that that is not as much a reflection of our taxes and regulatory environment as it is a reflection of where the markets are growing.

Muser of NM 10:08AM February 20, 2010

you don't get it,you can't legislate or tax behavior.It's this tax and regulate mentality that's driving companies overseas,can't you see it? The more you demand the more you push these companies the more they fight back.They are in business to make money,not keep the goverment going.
Where in your book does personal responsability start? Or is it everyone elses' job to look after you?

Randy of WI 11:26PM February 19, 2010

We don't need to do anything about obesity. We can just spend outrageous proportions of GDP on health care---especially for preventable diabetes, heart disease and cancer while China and India move the center of world power to the Far East. This is likely to occur in a timeframe of between one and two generations from where we are now.
The "I can do what I want without government" crowd won't even notice.

Muser of NM 11:04PM February 19, 2010