Food Politics: How the Food Industry Infl uences Nutrition and Health 331context.^21 News outlets are not alone in focusing on single nutrients or foods;
researchers also do so. It is easier to study the effects of vitamin E on heart disease
risk than it is to try to explain how current dietary patterns are associated with
declining rates of coronary heart disease. Research on the effects of single nutrients
is more likely to be funded and the results are more likely to garner headlines,
especially if they conflict with previous studies. In the meantime, basic dietary
advice remains the same – constant, but dull.
Newspaper sales and research grants may benefit from confusion over dietary
advice, but the greatest beneficiary of public confusion is the food industry. Virtually
every food and beverage product is represented by a trade association or public rela-
tions firm whose job it is to promote a positive image of that item among consumers,
professionals and the media. These groups – and their lobbyists – can take advantage
of the results of single-nutrient research to claim that products containing the ben-
eficial nutrient promote health and to demand the right to make that claim on pack-
age labels. If people are confused about nutrition, they will be more likely to accept
such claims at face value. It is in the interest of food companies to have people believe
that there is no such thing as a ‘good’ food (except when it is theirs); that there is no
such thing as a ‘bad’ food (especially not theirs); that all foods (especially theirs) can
be incorporated into healthful diets; and that balance, variety and moderation are the
keys to healthful diets – which means that no advice to restrict intake of their par-
ticular product is appropriate. The Pyramid, however, clearly indicates that some
foods are better than others from the standpoint of health.
Promoting ‘Eat More’
In a competitive food marketplace, food companies must satisfy stockholders by
encouraging more people to eat more of their products. They seek new audiences
among children, among members of minority groups or internationally. They
expand sales to existing as well as new audiences through advertising but also by
developing new products designed to respond to consumer ‘demands’. In recent
years, they have embraced a new strategy: increasing the sizes of food portions.
Advertising, new products, and larger portions all contribute to a food environ-
ment that promotes eating more, not less.
Advertise, advertise, advertise
Advertising operates so far below the consciousness of everyone – the public, most
nutritionists I know and survey researchers – that it hardly ever gets mentioned as
an influence on food choice. The subliminal nature of food and beverage advertis-
ing is a tribute to its ubiquity, as well as to the sophistication of the agencies that
produce it. Extraordinary amounts of money and talent go into this effort. Food
and food service companies spend more than $11 billion annually on direct media