Big gulp or our last gasp? Corporate profiteers supersize Americans

Newsweek and the Washington Post have finally noticed that America is getting awfully fat. Bush's Secretary of Health & Human Services has acknowledged obesity as "the fastest-growing disease in America," and it was on Clinton's watch that the Surgeon General concluded that the junk food industry costs U.S. taxpayers $117 billion a year (mostly in health-related problems).

Corporations exist to make money and to maximize profits for their shareholders. If a corporation's main product is a carbonated blend of corn syrup, caffeine, and food coloring, and it costs pennies to manufacture each serving, then that corporation has a strong incentive to spend billions of dollars a year on advertising to make it seem like the product is worth buying for 75 cents to $2 per serving–and that it will make you "cool"–and that it doesn't have harmful side effects.

If a corporation makes fast-food burgers or greasy pizza, it has a strong incentive to invest heavily in advertising to polish the image of products that can lead to heart attacks, diabetes, depression, and other complications of obesity.

With enough money, it's easy to convince consumers–especially impressionable children and teens–that such products are sexy, refreshing, delicious, and nourishing.

So it's no surprise that 34 percent of U.S. adults are now overweight, and 30 percent (59 million) are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, and that obesity is the second leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States.

Some public school districts are starting to wake up, having sold out for too long to soft drink and candy companies in exchange for paltry sponsorships of basketball scoreboards and a few measly dollars. Los Angeles Public Schools will stop selling sodas next year. New York City schools recently decided to ban candy and sodas from school vending machines.

Here in Montgomery County, there has been no such leadership within the school system, but Councilmember George Leventhal (D-At Large) has convened several meetings of health, education and nonprofit experts. Del. Joan Stern (D-District 39) has indicated that in the next session of the Maryland General Assembly, she'll introduce obesity-related legislation–for instance, insurance premium discounts as an incentive to avoid obesity.

The county school board, meanwhile, has actually gone on record in opposition to a moderate State Senate bill introduced by Paul Pinsky (D-District 22) to limit advertising and consumption of junk food in our public schools. (Nothing in the way of leadership on this issue from reps Franchot, Rubin, Hixon and Murray, but there's at least hope that they'll vote for rather against legislation). DC At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson has introduced legislation in which restaurants must list the nutritional content (fat, carbohydrate, cholesterol, etc.) in their menus.

Of course, consumers don't have to swallow industry lies while lawmakers take these slow and tiny steps forward. Trial lawyers have noticed the similarities between junk food and tobacco: harmful products marketed to kids with a dishonest spin about known health hazards–products made to look sexy by almost subliminal placements in film and TV and by branded apparel, and made to look socially responsible by branded charitable giving. (This can be strikingly perverse. A major youth soccer league is underwritten by Snickers!)

So parents, nutritionists, activists, and the few elected officials concerned about the public health impact of fast food have a new ally: the legal system. In a 2001 lawsuit, the McDonald's Corporation was ordered to pay $12.5 million in a legal settlement after misleading the public with ads that implied McDonald's fries were vegetarian. (They were cooked in beef fat.)

The prospect of similar lawsuits will inspire better behavior from junk food manufacturers. For instance, in France, where the country is facing an obesity scare, McDonald's urges consumers to visit the chain only once a week. In the United States, Pepsi subsidiary Frito-Lay is eliminating dangerous "trans-fats." Coca-Cola has bought Odwalla, a manufacturer of healthy juices and energy bars. Bottled water sales are being pushed by all the companies. And even McDonald's is aggressively marketing salad.

But in return for these little gestures, junk food companies will continue to recite the lines used by the tobacco industry 30 years ago: nobody is forced to buy our product, we just advertise. It's a matter of individual choice and individual responsibility.

That argument worked until it became clear that Joe Camel was pushing a dangerous product on children and teens, people not required to be quite so responsible in their choices; and the junk food dealers often have the imprimatur of the school behind them, as the schools deliver their captive audiences up daily to a multibillion-dollar barrage of advertising. Is it balanced out by images of popular artists and athletes eating healthy diets?

Manufacturers of fast food, soft drinks, and candy will show their good faith (if any) by suspending advertising in schools and withdrawing their vending machines. We can talk later about TV and print advertising and commercials in movie theaters. Politicians will show their good intentions (if any) by declining campaign contributions from junk food interests.

That, coupled with a curriculum sadly lacking in physical education, leaves the door open for parents of children who have contracted diabetes while in our schools, or who have gained excessive weight, to hold school and elected officials culpable and liable.

Big Macs and 64-ounce sodas are greasing our children toward a future of diabetes and heart attacks, and we can hold the dealers and venders culpable and liable. School officials, too, might be called to answer in court for selling access to impressionable children who, while in school, develop diabetes or dangerous obesity.

We can also make the junk food industry pay up front for the health care costs it imposes on the taxpayers. Certain snack foods are subject to sales tax, and in Montgomery County, so are soft drinks; but the revenue isn't earmarked for public health education or counter-propaganda in our schools, let alone universal health care–even for children.

Let's make Maryland get serious about a junk food tax, as 27 other states are exploring.

Finally, we should simply not buy this crap. In addition to the public health menace and dishonest advertising, we're talking about an industry that is replete with bad corporate citizens. Coca-Cola has been linked to the deaths of union organizers in Colombia, and it has been cited for failing to supply available HIV/AIDS medicines to its workers in Africa. The City of Takoma Park boycotts companies that do business in Burma, and the military dictatorship there is practically owned by Pepsi. The leading critic of the Myanmar regime, Aung San Suu Kyi, won the Nobel Peace Prize for her courage and suffering; every dollar you spend on Pepsi is a slap in the face of her people.

There's no question that corporations that spend huge amounts of money projecting a positive image must be held more accountable for their actions. And that leaders in the health, education, and civic sectors need to pay more attention to the public health impact of junk food –particularly in low-income communities, where people can access fast food and low-grade junk, or the fried and fatty specials at Giant, Safeway, and Shoppers Food Warehouse, more easily than the healthier products available from the TPSS Co-ops or Whole Foods Market. (Check out the extensive amount of fried food in the prepared food section at the newly remodeled Giant at the Blair Towers complex at East West Highway and Colesville Road.)

But we as consumers, taxpayers, parents, activists, and people need to be more careful too. We should not be so quick to swallow the junk food industry's advertising, its self-serving philanthropy, its laissez-faire legal arguments, or its products. We need personal de-programming–rejecting the ads that pushed all the unhealthy, fat- and cholesterol-laden products at us since birth, such as soda, candy bars, pizza, donuts, burgers, and fried chicken. Instead, we need to opt for real nourishment–fresh veggies, fruit, salads, non-fat treats, etc.

The industry has a point, after all: no one is forced to buy anything. But nobody is forcing us to tolerate lies, either. We have the right and the power to keep the industry honest, make it pay for the avoidable health problems caused by its successful marketing, and–first of all–kick it out of the public schools.