Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Ron Krupp, a gardener and author whose most recent book is “Lifting the Yoke — Local Solutions to America’s Farm and Food Crisis.”
I met Colonel Harlan Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame while attending the University of Kentucky in 1962. The Colonel sat down with my parents and I at one of his restaurants in Lexington, Ky. He wore his famous white suit and string tie and looked exactly as he did in his pictures. Today, you don’t hear the words, Kentucky Fried Chicken anymore — but rather KFC. “Fried” is no longer a politically correct word to use in our health-conscious world.
Every day in the news you read about the strong push towards eating less salt, sugar and fat as more than half of Americans are overweight and nearly one quarter of the adult population — 40 million people — are obese with high rates of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Nutritionists consider the big three — sugar, salt and fat — addictive substances. Processed foods and snacks make us hungrier and starchy and sugary foods cause glucose levels in blood to spike, which make us want to eat and drink more. One 20 ounce container of Mountain Dew contains 19.25 ounces of sugar. If you drank one every day, your weight would go up 30 pounds in a year. What’s clear is that the processed food industry is a public health menace, even worse than cigarettes.
Coca-Cola and Doritos won their success with complex formulas that tells the brain to not stop eating. It’s called the “bliss point.”
You might think the food industry would change its behavior. No way, Jose. There goal is to get people hooked on foods that are addictive, convenient and inexpensive. Back in 1999, a long line of town cars and taxis pulled up to the Minneapolis headquarters of Pillsbury. Eleven CEOs exited the vehicles. These are the men who control America’s largest food corporations including Nestle, Kraft, Nabisco, General Mills, Coca-Cola and Proctor and Gamble. There was one item on the agenda — the emerging obesity epidemic and how to deal with it.
You need to remember that these global corporations are in the business of competing against one another or what is called “stomach share” in the food industry. Stephen Sanger, the CEO of General Mills, told the audience that people buy what they like and what tastes good. And that was basically the end of the meeting.
Ordinary consumers are paid by the fast food industry to spend hours in rooms where they evaluate color and touch, feel, sip, smell and taste different products. Its not just a matter of comparing Color 23 with Color 24. Color 23 must be combined with Syrup 11 and Packaging 6. Coca-Cola and Doritos won their success with complex formulas that tells the brain to not stop eating. It’s called the “bliss point.”
Changes can be made with the will of the people. Finland made it a national policy to cut out one third of the salt in people diets and there was 75 percent decline in the number of deaths from strokes and heart diseases. There’s been a lot talk in the Vermont Legislature about taxing sugar drinks. We’ll see what happens. In the meantime, would you please pass the chips.