Some things in life seriously make me question humanity.
Drug companies hide unfavourable research…
Doctors choose not to acknowledge natural treatments…
Dietitians refuse to acknowledge a potential cure for millions of people…
Big companies exploit people, sacrificing their health and wellbeing to make money.
The most blatant example of corporations exploiting people would be the tobacco companies, but honestly I think the junk food companies are no better.
These companies sell and aggressively market products that they know are causing disease and death, by the millions.
What about our children?
Surely there must be a tiny ounce of honesty and humanity left, even in the greedy multi-million dollar corporations.
I mean come on, it’s our kids.
People wouldn’t knowingly manipulate kids in order to make money from them, knowing that their health will be damaged (even permanently) in the meantime?
Or would they?
Alas, yes. They would. They are.
They are doing it and they’ve been doing it for decades.
There are people in this world that do not care who they harm as long as they’re making money. Adults, old people and kids. Doesn’t matter to them, they’re just a potential source of income.
Unhealthy, dangerous, toxic food products are being marketed directly towards our kids.
The executives and marketers of the companies are well aware of how unhealthy these products are. They’re greedy, but not stupid.
They also know that advertisements like these can manipulate behavior. They also pay food engineers a lot of money for making these products so highly palatable that they lead to full-blown addiction.
Who hasn’t seen an ad for something cool on TV and felt almost compelled to buy it? This has happened to me multiple times, for example I saw an ad for the new Macbook Pro and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
The same kind of manipulation works on our kids. But instead of flashy, practical gear like a computer or a pair of jeans, they use colorful cartoons and funny characters.
I mean, some of the most famous fictional characters known to children are Santa Claus and Ronald McDonald. If you don’t know, Santa Claus was popularized by Coca Cola and Ronald McDonald by McDonalds.
Here are some examples of toxic junk foods that are marketed towards children:
It Gets Even Worse… Much Worse
Unfortunately, knowingly manipulating kids and sacrificing their health to make money off of them isn’t enough.
We know that the food companies are one of the most aggressive lobbyists in America, paying millions of dollars to influence policy making in order to make sure that they can continue their horrifying efforts.
They sponsor the nutrition authorities around the world in order to influence their “recommendations”, one of the main reasons I do not trust nutrition authorities or the biased pseudo-scientists that promote their harmful advice.
The scientists that are supposed to be protecting our health are sponsored by:
- The food companies, that are trying to sell us junk in order to make money off of us.
- The drug companies, that make a killing when we finally succumb and become sick.
The food companies make money. The drug companies make money. We’re paying for it.
American Dietetic Association, Sponsored By…
The food companies that sponsor the American Dietetic Association (Dietitians – tell us all to eat a high-carb low-fat diet, very likely contributing to the obesity and diabetes epidemic):
Image Sources: Diabetes-Warrior.net + EatRight.org.
How could anyone possibly trust a nutrition organization that is sponsored by Coca Cola, Kellogg’s, Pepsico and Mars?
To top things off, the American Dietetic Association, sponsored by the junk food companies, is going on a massive campaign trying to set laws that no one but them and their minions can give nutrition counseling.
American Diabetes Association’s Corporate Sponsors
The drug companies that sponsor the American Diabetes Association (gives diet advice to diabetic children – promoting a high-carb diet which makes them even sicker):
Full List Here (.pdf): 2008 Sponsors of the American Diabetes Association
How could anyone trust a diabetes organization that is sponsored by the companies that profit from people being sick?
This seems almost to insane to be true. But it is.
How Can These People Sleep at Night?
I feel that the executives of the food companies are no better than those of the tobacco companies.
They’re willing to sacrifice millions of peoples’ lives, even childrens’ lives, to make money (not that they don’t have plenty already).
These people have blood on their hands.
And the governments of the world are just as much to blame.
I mean, they’re the ones that make the laws where it is legal to market toxic foods towards kids, and legal for food and drug companies to sponsors the very “experts” that are supposed to protect their health.
If this isn’t child abuse, then I don’t know what is.
Holy Hell! I had no idea about the American Dietetic Assoc. and its sponsors. Wowsers. I did know that the American Diabetes Assoc. was a load of crap though… So, so sad. My neighbors young son (I think he’s about 13yo) was just diagnosed with diabetes and she was telling me how her and the whole family have started eating healthier now. You know, buying fat free peanut butter and stuff. Sigh.
Omg! My boyfriend used to buy fat free peanut butter for our daughter until I pointed out to him that it has the same number of calories because they added more sugar to it.
Kris, I am SO grateful to you for your work and concern (REAL concern) for human health! I appreciate you’re making us aware of the evils of the people who would rather build an empire than help build a world of bright, strong and healthy people.
I pray that you live a long time and keep your focus on the good things in life. May God bless you.
I believe in everything you have written thus far. Thank you. Donna Burns.
Will someone explain why and how it is that McDonald’s is still a sponsor for the Olympic Games?
Simple explanation: MONEY
Kris, totally agree with this article and your opinion of the food companies and government agencies sponsored by them. I think part of the blame can also be placed on us as a society, however. People should be thinking and reading and doing the research for themselves to learn what is healthy and what is not. Or at the very least, realize thatfoods like poptarts are all sugar. That’s common sense to me. Our society is too lazy and would rather pill pop than do some research and revamp their diet. Plenty of people would rage if McDonalds closed.
Hi Kris,
Thank you for getting the information to a wider audience. Just two points that I will make today:
1) As a former teacher of home economics I can tell you that the major food companies use their tremendous influence to steer the curriculum in their direction by providing tonnes of ‘free’ teaching materials to the classroom teacher. Of course all this comes with logos and familiar advertising phrases. Get them hooked while they’re young!
2) My teachers’ pension plan is heavily invested in soft drinks, major food corporations and junk food retailers. I have tried for 14 years to have the plan invest along ‘ethical’ guidelines–teachers, of all people, place ‘fiduciary responsibility’ above the health of the very children they are teaching. Such hypocrisy is unacceptable from anybody, let alone teachers who want to make money at both ends of the operation on the backs of their students. I have worked at a number of schools where the administration delivered breakfast muffins and later in the day, hamburgers, to the students. Unbelievable.
I totally agree with this. As a former mom who constantly purchased fast food, Pop Tarts, sugary snacks, everthing quick and easy to a mom who now purchases whole real foods, fruits, veggies, etc. and make just about everything from scratch that I can, the transformation in my children has been unbelievable! They never wanted a meal, just snacks. Now that they eat healthy, whole, real foods, they barely want to snack. Completely the opposite! It was a difficult switch at first, but now they’ve forgotten all the “crap” that I used to buy. I’m so glad that I’ve taken my families health in my own hands and they won’t grow with the main stream foods that, unfortunately, other children will grow up with. But none of this wouldn’t have happened had I not done my own research! There’s no excuse for putting personal health into someone else’s hands when the information is readily accessable on the Internet.
I live in a small town so small we didn’t have any McDonald’s, Burger King, or Wendy’s. That is until 3 months ago when a McDonald’s opened up. If we’re only going to have one nationally owned restaurant, I’d rather have something more like a TGI Friday’s or Applebee’s (the closest ones are 70 miles away).
I think it would make more sense to have a company like Green Giant as a sponsor. At least they sell vegetables. And hey, they even already have a fictional character for kids to relate to.
This is a good article. I read and watch a lot of these kind of conspiracy things myself and yeah it is terrible that they are able to get away with it.
It doesn’t help when parents make bad decisions for kids and make this part of their daily routine. My cousins kids are fed a pretty much wholesome diet. Carrot sticks being equivalent to chocolate and they are very well behaved children.
I believe that the same companies that promote foods that make people ill with dietary related diseases will quite happily and with no apparent sense of irony then sell the insulin or whatever, but some of the other comments about various conspiracies are sadly undermining to the argument.
Your article does not go down that road, and I hope that that is not your agenda – these people just want to make money, A LOT of money, and yes, they do not give a shit about your children or mine. They will tell you, if you ever actually met one of these people, that we all have a CHOICE and that we should be exercising greater control over our children etc etc. Whilst all the time working on the best ways to get our kids to ‘pester power’ us into submission.
Ultimately it IS about control, but I suggest that it is teaching our kids to make healthy choices, rather than insisting that they have what we put in front of them, Put the work in when you DO have all control over their diet and you will find that your kids are more amenable to real food as they get older. I am happy to say that my kids have never eaten a pop tart or at Macdonalds. We are by no means purists, we love our junk food, but we are vegetarians, and that helps us stay away from the worst offenders.
If anyone can tell me what ‘fat free peanut butter’ is I’d be most grateful. I can’t imagine such a thing as peanut butter is about 60% fat! Sugar in peanut butter is disgusting – I ate it when I was in the US – practically all processed foods tasted sweet there.
Man you are absolutely right. It’s all about money there is no limits or regulation to stop big companies. Profit rules and nothing else matter.
Of course there are limits. We are not yet confined to internment camps without choices of what we put into our mouths.
You vote with your feet, your eyes and your money. They aren’t forcing you or anyone else into buying their junk. Read the labels. Find out what the those words mean. Make informed decisions. YOU set the limits. YOU regulate them in YOUR life. You don’t need a government entity to do that for you . . . not yet anyway . . . you need to use your head and your make the right decisions.
I like what Dr. Mehmet Oz recommends; Eat 80% healthy and 20% in the world. That’s practical advice. It won’t tear your health down and you still participate in social gatherings with others. Just keep the garbage out of your own kitchen. Let those bad foods be treats, comfort foods; saved for special occasions . . . not daily staples.
Some people don’t even have a choice. Walk into a grocery store in a poor neighbourhood in America and try to put together a healthy meal. It’s not possible.
No options = no choice. How can it be personal responsibility if you don’t have a choice?
For others, it still is’nt always a simple choice. The foods are hyper palatable and addicting, advertisements are everywhere and the junk foods are pushed in our faces almost everywhere we go (movies, gas stations, etc.).
It is difficult, next to impossible for some people, to display cognitive inhibition over the biochemical drive that is going on in the brain calling for hyper palatable, dopamine-releasing junk food, which is what happens when the brain has become addicted to it. This is common, but doesn’t happen to everyone.
It isn’t always as clear cut as you may think.
Like anything else, it has to start with parents. If parents aren’t educated they can’t teach their children. Although I do acknowledge that the food companies do bare some of the blame. They are outright manipulating people and oftentimes people get so confused they just throw their hands up. Parents have to lead their families or the kids won’t know any better.
There was an interesting documentary on UK Channel4 TV tonight showing how the food manufacturers have hijacked the five portions of fruit and veg a day health message as a marketing tactic to promote sugary, fatty, salty products like ready meals, soups and drinks and even a sugar filled ‘fruit’ drink from MacDonalds aimed at kids. It was shocking to watch and I am sure many parents are fooled by this marketing and think they are feeding their kids healthy food when nothing could be further from the truth.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od
Thanks for the tip Diane – I will be watching that with my child tonight!
I watched the programme. Now I am glad that I DIDN’T watch it with my child as he could possibly got the wrong message as the companies do their best to confuse the consumer. I can’t be there every second to police it! Looking up ‘food labelling scam’ I quickly came across the US equivalent:
This is from 2009:
http://www.naturalnews.com/027077_food_marketing_Tufts_University.html
This site has loads of interesting stuff about food issues – and making me glad I do not live in the US as it is clear that here in the UK we aren’t quite as bad – yet!
My daughter is 11 years old and I am trying to teach her that you can’t always trust what they tell you in food advertisements. I watched the programme with her and it was a real eye opener for her. She is starting to understand and we are starting to have some fun with making our own meals and desserts with fresh ingredients.
She is still struggling with the fat message though. She hears me tell her that fats like butter and cream and coconut oil are good and don’t cause heart disease but she says how come everyone else says fat is bad and gives you heart disease and what if I am wrong about it.