The Young and Obese

The food production industry replies to the demands of consumers, but are they still to blame in the childhood obesity epidemic? Is it possible that consumers are not always fully aware of the psychological and scientific manipulation that food companies use in order to even marginally increase their sales? On February 20, 2013, Michael Moss of the New York Times published an article titled, “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food,” in which he gives several small case studies that show the reasoning behind food production and its sales due to the perspective of an insider from that specific industry. After dealing with some of Moss’s listed case studies, we must each ask ourselves the question: Who is to blame for childhood obesity?

Moss begins the article by beginning with the dispute over the amount of liability that should be placed on food companies with respect to the increasing problem of childhood obesity. Moss brings up this point by explaining how several years ago the CEO’s of America’s largest food companies came together to attempt to deal with the growing childhood obesity problem and the CEO of General Mills, Stephen Sanger, vehemently refused to make any changes. He cited that because “consumers were fickle, this meant that “people bought what they liked, and they liked what tasted good” (Moss). Former CEO and DePauw graduate Stephen Sanger felt that in selling to customer appeal and sales, he was doing nothing immoral.

The second case study in the article explains the creation of Lunchables and it offers insight to the company’s thought process. Initially, Oscar Meyer sales of bologna were declining so Oscar Meyer’s VP of business, Bob Drane, organized a project based on the concerns of mothers. He learned that mothers always felt like they were on a time crunch and essentially wanted efficiency. This is what inspired Drane to create Lunchables. Drane explains to Moss how the company chose crackers instead of bread due to the long shelf life of crackers. Drane’s reasoning behind the choice of foods also explains the reasoning behind the highly processed foods in grocery stores. Bob explained to Moss how year by year the company noticed that an increase in its salt, sugar and fat content correlated to an increase in more and more customers. This happened so much so that the company eventually began adding M&Ms, Snickers and sugary drinks like Capri Sun and Coca Cola.

From this article it is evident that the food industry has a hand in America’s childhood obesity. Although I think this, I also believe that childhood obesity cannot be caused by simply one factor. Along with the food companies, I think that today’s environment and parenting also contribute to the prevelence of the disease. Naturally, adults live a busy lifestyles and cannot always actively plan out healthy meals so there is always the tendency to purchase cheap and food that initially may seem harmless. Furthermore, from the mindset of a parent you would not think that crackers with slices of turkey, ham and cheese along with a side of a “fruit juice” are considered unhealthy. This would be relatively true if not for the highly processed nature behind keeping a high self-life for these foods. For example, Bob Drane noted how it would be implausible to switch out crackers with bread due to bread’s short shelf life. The same applies to healthier cheeses so it can be argued that companies are forced to supply lesser quality processed cheeses.

Again, I don’t think that the food companies are necessarily off the hook because if you have gone shopping for groceries, the healthier foods are more expensive and for everyday consumers. Also, it can be argued that is has become increasingly difficult to judge food as healthy. Moss gives the example of recent Lunchables commercials that target kids with commercials during Saturday morning cartoons. Ads that say things like, “All day, you gotta do what [parents] say… But lunchtime is all yours” (Moore). A lot of this also has to do with the ethics behind playing towards emotions of young impressionable children with commercials that entitle children to feel in control.

Couldn’t it be argued that children are more influenced by the commercials from food industries that are selling these unhealthy foods to our kids? From the perspective of a parent: No matter how consciously healthy you purchase, it seems unrealistic to believe that your child is not being influenced by food companies through their targeted television commercials. Commercials that persuade “fun” foods such as GoGurt to children are effective in that they are directly catering to their young and impressionable audience. Since this is the case: is this not considered a form of brain washing?

Citations

Moss, Michael. ““The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food.” The New York Times 20 Feb. 2013. Print.