{"id":1018,"date":"2022-09-28T17:31:22","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T00:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/workoutstructure.com\/?p=1018"},"modified":"2023-01-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T00:00:00","slug":"americas-food-system-the-problem-with-our-plate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.workoutstructure.com\/updates\/2022\/09\/28\/americas-food-system-the-problem-with-our-plate\/","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s Food System: The Problems With Our Plate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PART 2<\/em><\/strong>
\nTHE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM : HOW TARGETED CORPORATE MARKETING AND GOVERNMENT LOBBYING AFFECTS OUR FOOD SYSTEM<\/h3>\n

Big junk food companies spend nearly 12 billion a year in marketing efforts aimed primarily at children.\u00a0 Some 80% of American schools have contracts with soda companies.\u00a0 As discussed in Part 1 of this blog, over 15 million children and adolescents in the US are not just overweight, but obese! Conditions related to obesity (even among adolescents) include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, breathing problems such as asthma and sleep apnea, and joint problems.\u00a0 Current childhood obesity rates (average ages 6-18) are fast approaching 22% in the US. In our country alone, some regions (ex: southern states like MS, KY, and LA) or ethnic populations experience even higher obesity rates.\u00a0 In fact, obesity prevalence is 26% among Hispanic children, 25% among Black children, and 29% among Native American youth.\u00a0 Two-thirds of the world\u2019s<\/em> obese population live in low or middle income-class countries; this is reflected in America\u2019s slums as well.\u00a0 The populations in these \u201cfood ghettos\u201d are preyed upon hardest by junk food companies\u2019 marketing; in fact, big food companies often time their junk food marketing to air right before SNAP benefits are released each month.<\/p>\n

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\u201cU.S. minorities are losing more kids to the sweets than the streets; drive-throughs ARE NOW MORE deadly than drive-bys.\u201d<\/em><\/h5>\n

In my travels across many isolated Indian reservations, I\u2019ve been appalled to see an abundance of cheap, sugary, or fried foods packing the only grocery stores in tribal towns, while the few healthy fruits or veggies in supply cost three times as much! Truth be told, there is a long-running history of our government subsidizing junk food to relocated tribes.\u00a0 As natives who historically grew corn and lentils and hunted buffalo and deer for many years, many tribes were accustomed to storing limited amounts of body fat over long periods of time in order to survive long seasonal droughts when crops or game were scarce.\u00a0 But upon being newly introduced and bombarded with white refined flour, confectionery sugars, and alcohol in the early 1800\u2019s \u2013 and having no metabolic enzyme adaptations in place for their digestion – the Indians quickly gained excess fat, and their health began a long downward spiral that continues today.<\/p>\n

So how do we move on from being a fast-food nation?\u00a0 How can our federal trade commission (FTC) allow Big Food to market billions worth of junk foods that cause weight gain, diabetes, and fatty liver? With more and more Americans dying earlier from poor dietary habits than ever before, wouldn\u2019t it make more sense for us to go after the predators rather than the consumers?\u00a0 It requires a cautious approach.\u00a0 For example, at least 35 countries now have a federal soda tax \u2013 some tiered based on each beverage\u2019s sugar content.\u00a0 But these sugary drink taxes are often regressive (i.e., they hurt the poor most in the wallet).<\/p>\n

Another dilemma is that the food industry spends just as much on nutrition research (over $12 billion each year) as they do on marketing.\u00a0 This becomes a problem when companies promote false science by tainting the design or analysis of their study\u2026which happens more often than we\u2019d like to believe.\u00a0 If CEOs don\u2019t like the study\u2019s results, they retain the monetary rights to keep it from being published.\u00a0 Furthermore, faculty researchers and health professionals are constantly accepting gifts, meals, and additional funding by industry reps of Big Food, Big Ag, and Big Pharma \u2013 contributing more pressure to skew the results in their favor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the last decade alone, Big Food companies have spent over 50 million lobbying to fight laws requiring labeling of GMO containing foods.\u00a0 Public health groups designed to protect us (like the ADA, AHA, and AAP) are still accepting millions in strategic donations from food industry giants whose products continue to poison the American people.\u00a0 This needs to stop.\u00a0 We need regulations to make sure that researchers have full <\/em>independence to publish study results \u2013 while allowing companies to contribute less directly to research efforts.\u00a0 And instead of regressive taxes on hard-to-eliminate junk food or drink, we must instead incentivize food producers so we can lower the prices of healthy<\/em> foods.\u00a0 Giving everyone<\/em> access to them.\u00a0 To better America\u2019s food system, before we can get to our preferred destination, we need to begin taking steps in the right direction. \u2013 CHRIS BORGARD<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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CHRIS’ TOP 5 FOOD SYSTEM BOOKS :<\/h4>\n
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  1. FOOD FIX (by Mark Hyman)<\/li>\n
  2. FAST FOOD NATION (Eric Schlosser)<\/li>\n
  3. THE END OF FOOD (Paul Roberts)<\/li>\n
  4. FOOD POLITICS (Marion Nestle)<\/li>\n
  5. THE OMNIVORE\u2019S DILEMMA (Michael Pollan)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    PART 2 THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM : HOW TARGETED CORPORATE MARKETING AND GOVERNMENT LOBBYING AFFECTS OUR FOOD SYSTEM Big junk food companies spend nearly 12 billion a year in marketing efforts aimed primarily at children.\u00a0 Some 80% of American schools have contracts with soda companies.\u00a0 As discussed in Part 1 of this blog, over … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “America\u2019s Food System: The Problems With Our Plate”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.workoutstructure.com\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.workoutstructure.com\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.workoutstructure.com\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.workoutstructure.com\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.workoutstructure.com\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1018"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.workoutstructure.com\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1043,"href":"https:\/\/www.workoutstructure.com\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018\/revisions\/1043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.workoutstructure.com\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.workoutstructure.com\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.workoutstructure.com\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}