Creation and marketing of junk food

[DebSP]

One thing I wanted to add. I understand the time commitment and not eating processed foods. I am not sure I could have managed it when my children were younger but I sure wish I had tried. I feel like I have passed on some horrible eating habits to two of the people in the world that I care most about. My daughter is 27 now and she is living with me and is tweaking her diet to cut back on processed foods now which is great! Unfortunately my son is away at uni and I can't figure out how to help him change his habits. I buy most of his food so I try to include some better choices for him and he does cook his own dinner almost every day. But breakfast and lunch are meals that he needs to be quick and easy so he resorts to cereals and bagels and soups etc. Maybe not the worst but still processed and high in sodium. But I will keep talking about better nutrition and maybe eventually he will choose carefully!

[Melalvai]

The coke commercial...made me want a coke. :P
I liked learning about "libertarian paternalism"-- influence behavior while preserving choice. It's something McDonald's discovered decades ago. If you say "You want fries with that?" everyone will agree. So they trained cafeteria workers to say "Do you want an apple with that?" and increased 1) the amount of apples taken, 2) the number of apples eaten, and 3) the amount of each apple eaten. (It was fruit, not just apples.)

Presumably increasing the amount of apples eaten decreases the amount of junk food eaten. But even if it doesn't, I believe--contrary to what many people believe--the junk food really is less unhealthy if it is eaten with something healthy. Not that they cancel each other out exactly. But the glycemic index is a factor of all the food, and the healthy food pulls the GI down while the junk food pulls it up. Attenuating the insulin surges & crashes is at least as important--if not more important-- than focusing solely on the absolute number of calories consumed.

[OakLeaf]

More: http://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/1...autostart=true

"Hot Coffee" indeed. Remember how these ideas were ridiculed - without anyone bothering to look up the evidence - when fast food companies were sued?