The Lie That Made Food Conglomerates Rich...And Is Slowly Poisoning Us

Summary

The video script exposes the manipulative tactics of the food industry, drawing parallels with Big Tobacco's strategies to foster addiction and confusion around nutrition. It reveals how companies use salt, sugar, and fat to mask unpalatable tastes, and how they exploit nutritional advice to market unhealthy products as healthy. The script also highlights the industry's influence on scientific research and dietary guidelines, suggesting that ultra-processed foods are linked to serious health issues like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Takeaways

• 🚬 The script compares the tactics of the food industry to those of Big Tobacco, highlighting their manipulation of food science to create products that are addictive and harmful to health.
• 💰 Food conglomerates like Kraft and Kellogg's have made over $1 trillion through the manipulation of food science, aiming to turn their products from wants to needs.
• 🤔 The food industry benefits from public confusion about nutrition, as ultra-processed foods make up over half of the American diet with little scrutiny.
• 📉 The industry fears a drop in sales if consumers reduce their intake of ultra-processed snacks or meals, indicating the importance of maintaining this confusion.
• 🔍 The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is under pressure from food conglomerates, who are attempting to sabotage the committee's efforts to provide accurate nutrition advice.
• 🧐 Ultra-processed foods are defined as industrially produced items designed to be irresistibly delicious, including many breakfast cereals, granola bars, and frozen dinners.
• 🔬 The food industry uses ingredients like salt, sugar, and fat not only for taste but also to mask off-notes and extend shelf life, contributing to the addictive nature of their products.
• 🏥 Studies link ultra-processed foods to serious health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
• 💊 Food companies often partner with health organizations, using donations to gain endorsements that can mislead consumers about the healthiness of their products.
• 💼 The tactics used by the food industry to cast doubt on research and scientists mirror those used by tobacco companies in the past to downplay the risks of smoking.
• 🕊️ The script calls for clear, evidence-based dietary guidelines that are not influenced by industry funding, to help the public make informed decisions about their health.

Q & A

What is the main argument presented in the video script about the food industry?

The main argument is that the food industry, particularly large conglomerates, manipulates food science to create ultra-processed foods that are not only unhealthy but also addictive, similar to how big tobacco companies did with cigarettes.

How does the script suggest food companies are manipulating the public's perception of their products?

The script suggests that food companies use marketing strategies, partnerships with health organizations, and funding of research to create a perception that their products are healthy and beneficial, despite evidence linking them to various health issues.

What role do the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee play in this narrative?

The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is portrayed as a group that is supposed to provide the public with accurate nutritional advice, but their objectivity is questioned due to conflicts of interest with food, pharmaceutical, or weight loss companies.

What is the significance of the term 'ultra-processed foods' in the script?

Ultra-processed foods are highlighted as a category of industrially produced foods that are linked to numerous health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. The term is significant as it is a focal point of the debate over nutritional advice and industry influence.

How does the script connect the food industry's tactics to those of big tobacco companies?

The script draws parallels between the food industry's tactics and those of big tobacco by pointing out that some of the largest food companies were owned by tobacco companies, and that they use similar strategies of misinformation and manipulation to sell their products.

What is the role of salt in the production of ultra-processed foods as described in the script?

Salt is used in ultra-processed foods to mask off-notes and bad tastes that result from the manufacturing process, making the products more palatable and potentially addictive.

What does the script imply about the food industry's response to research linking their products to health problems?

The script implies that the food industry responds by casting doubt on the research, funding their own studies, and using their influence to shape public opinion and policy in their favor.

How does the script describe the concept of 'hyper-palatable foods'?

Hyper-palatable foods are described as those with combinations of nutrients that are unnatural and highly rewarding to consume, leading to overconsumption even when the body has had enough.

What is the potential impact of the food industry's tactics on public health as suggested by the script?

The script suggests that the food industry's tactics contribute to the widespread consumption of unhealthy, addictive foods, leading to a range of health problems and the perpetuation of misinformation about nutrition.

What does the script suggest about the future of dietary guidelines and the influence of the food industry?

The script suggests that the food industry's influence could continue to shape dietary guidelines in a way that favors their products over public health, unless there is a concerted effort to base guidelines on scientific evidence rather than industry funding.

How does the script characterize the role of industry-funded studies in shaping nutritional advice?

The script characterizes industry-funded studies as biased, with a high likelihood of showing results favorable to the sponsor and very few coming to unfavorable conclusions, which can distort nutritional advice.

Outlines

00:00

🚭 Manipulation Tactics of Big Food and Big Tobacco

This paragraph discusses the deceptive practices of food conglomerates like Kraft and Kellogg's, drawing parallels with those of big tobacco companies. It explains how these companies have manipulated food science to create products that are addictive and essential to consumers, similar to tobacco products. The goal is to keep the public confused about nutrition, ensuring continued sales. The paragraph also highlights the industry's fear of reduced sales if consumers opt for healthier choices and their attempts to sabotage the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's efforts to provide accurate nutrition advice. The script mentions the grim evidence linking ultra-processed foods to chronic diseases and the industry's tactics to cast doubt on research and researchers, while promoting their own funded studies that favor their products.

05:00

🧩 The Food Industry's Playbook: Misinformation and Endorsements

The second paragraph delves into the strategies food companies employ to maintain a positive public image while avoiding genuine product improvement. It describes how companies partner with health organizations to create an illusion of endorsement, using tactics similar to those of tobacco companies in the past. The paragraph outlines the industry's efforts to cast doubt on research linking ultra-processed foods to health issues, including by funding studies that support their interests. It also discusses the influence of corporate funding on research outcomes, with a review indicating a significant bias towards favorable results for the sponsor. The involvement of food industry executives with tobacco companies is highlighted, suggesting a direct link between the tactics used to promote both tobacco and unhealthy food products.

10:00

🍪 The Addictive Nature of Ultra-Processed Foods

The final paragraph focuses on the addictive qualities of ultra-processed foods, drawing a direct connection to the methods used by tobacco companies to hook consumers. It presents research findings that show foods produced by tobacco-owned food companies were more likely to be hyper-palatable, indicating a deliberate design to make these products irresistible. The paragraph includes an anecdote from a former Philip Morris lawyer, who admitted to being unable to resist the allure of Oreo cookies, despite his self-control in smoking. It discusses the rapid increase in the market share of ultra-processed foods and the food industry's efforts to shape dietary guidelines in their favor. The paragraph concludes with a call for accurate scientific information and evidence-based dietary guidelines, warning of the potential long-term consequences of not addressing this issue promptly.

Keywords

💡Ultra-processed foods

Ultra-processed foods are industrially produced items that require machinery and ingredients not typically available to consumers. They are designed to be irresistibly delicious and often contain high levels of salt, sugar, and fat to enhance their appeal. In the video, these foods are linked to health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, highlighting their role in the broader context of the food industry's impact on public health.

💡Food conglomerates

Food conglomerates refer to large corporations that dominate the food industry, such as Kraft and Kellogg's. These entities have amassed significant wealth through the manipulation of food science, aiming to create products that consumers will continually purchase, turning them from wants into needs. The video discusses how these conglomerates use their influence to shape dietary guidelines and public perception in their favor.

💡Manipulation

In the context of the video, manipulation refers to the strategic actions taken by food conglomerates to influence consumer behavior and maintain sales. This includes the formulation of food products to be addictive and the use of marketing tactics to promote these products as beneficial, despite evidence linking them to health problems.

💡Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee

The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is a group that meets every five years to review research and provide nutritional advice to the American public. The video suggests that food conglomerates attempt to sabotage this process by using their financial and political power to sway the committee's recommendations, thereby protecting their interests.

💡Addictive

The term 'addictive' in the video is used to describe the nature of certain ultra-processed foods that are engineered to be highly palatable and rewarding to the brain, leading to overconsumption. This concept is supported by research indicating that these foods are functionally addictive, with the potential to override physiological signals of satiety.

💡Health organizations

Health organizations, such as the American Heart Association and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, are mentioned in the video as entities that food companies partner with to lend an air of credibility to their products. By associating with these groups, companies can imply endorsement and health benefits, even if the products contribute to poor dietary habits.

💡Industry-funded studies

Industry-funded studies are research projects financially supported by the companies that stand to benefit from the outcomes. The video points out that these studies are often biased, with a high percentage showing results favorable to the sponsor, which can mislead the public and skew scientific understanding of nutrition and health.

💡Conflict of interest

Conflict of interest arises when a person or entity has a private or financial incentive that could influence their professional judgment or advice. In the video, it is noted that several members of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee had conflicts of interest with food, pharmaceutical, or weight loss companies, which could potentially compromise the objectivity of their recommendations.

💡Tobacco companies

Tobacco companies are highlighted in the video as having a history of using deceptive marketing practices and casting doubt on research that linked their products to health risks. The connection between tobacco companies and food conglomerates is made evident through historical ownership ties, suggesting that the food industry has adopted similar strategies to manipulate public perception and obscure the health effects of their products.

💡Hyper-palatable foods

Hyper-palatable foods are those with an unnatural combination of nutrients that make them highly rewarding to consume. The video discusses how these foods, often produced by companies with ties to the tobacco industry, are more likely to be classified as hyper-palatable, indicating a deliberate design to create addictive products that drive sales.

💡Nutritional advice

Nutritional advice in the video is portrayed as being heavily influenced by the food industry, leading to confusion among consumers about what constitutes a healthy diet. The industry's tactics include funding studies that promote their products or cast doubt on the need for dietary changes, thereby shaping the public's understanding of nutrition in a way that benefits their bottom line.

Highlights

Food conglomerates like Kraft and Kellogg's have made over $1 trillion through the manipulation of food science.

The goal of the food industry is similar to big tobacco's: to turn their products from a want into a need.

Food industry profits from keeping the public confused about what to eat.

Ultra-processed foods make up over half of the American diet with little scrutiny.

Food industry is terrified of even a small reduction in ultra-processed food consumption leading to a 7% drop in sales.

Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is under pressure from food conglomerates to avoid negative portrayal of their products.

Ultra-processed foods are linked to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Many ultra-processed foods are functionally addictive, as explained by molecular biologist and nutritionist Marion Nestle.

Ultra-processed foods are industrially produced and designed to be irresistibly delicious.

Examples of ultra-processed foods include breakfast cereals, granola bars, diet foods, and frozen dinners.

Salt is used in food manufacturing to mask off-notes and bad tastes from the process.

Food companies partner with health organizations to create an illusion of endorsement.

Industry-funded studies are statistically more likely to show results favorable to the sponsor.

Food industry attempts to sabotage the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's review process.

Tobacco companies owned some of the biggest food companies until the mid-2000s, sharing misinformation tactics.

Hyper-palatable foods, often produced by tobacco-owned companies, are more likely to be addictive.

Food companies design their products to maximize profits, even at the expense of consumer health.

The stakes for the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee include providing accurate health information on ultra-processed foods.

Trade groups are urging the committee to discontinue the term 'ultra-processed' due to lack of consensus on definition.

The need for good scientific information and dietary guidelines that reflect evidence rather than industry influence.

Transcripts

What if I told you these ridiculous ads...

Did you say I’ll feel better smoking Philip Morris?

[Narrator] Yes, you’ll feel better!

...are not all that different from these ads?

Now, every box of Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal has antioxidants and nutrients

that help support your child's immune system.

For decades, massive food conglomerates like Kraft and Kellogg's have made over $1 trillion

through the manipulation of food science and food scientists,

and ultimately us.

And their goal is much like big tobacco's:

to do and say whatever they can to get people to buy their product over and over and over again

until their product is no longer a want, but a need.

until their product is no longer a want, but a need.

To whose advantage is it to keep the public confused about what to eat?

Well, obviously it's the food industry's advantage.

Ultra-processed foods make up over half of the American diet,

and do so with little scrutiny from health experts or government officials.

And the food industry is terrified.

Even if Americans skip one ultra-processed snack or meal a day,

sales would plummet by 7%.

Every five years, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee meets to review the relevant research

and give the American public advice about the latest nutrition science,

a process food conglomerates are attempting to sabotage as we speak.

I mean in every possible way in which they can use

their money and political power to encourage people

to think their products are good and are willing to help them sell their products,

they're going to do that.

The evidence is grim.

Ultra-processed foods are being linked in study after study to things like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Researchers are beginning to understand that many of them are functionally addictive.

So who will win in this battle between big food and science?

We set out to investigate, and in the process learned the disturbing truth

about how Big Tobacco's lies continue to make Americans sick.

So what exactly are ultra-processed foods?

We asked molecular biologist and nutritionist Marion Nestle.

These are foods that are industrially produced.

They require machinery and they require ingredients that you don't have access to.

So industrially produced, designed to be irresistibly delicious—

that's their purpose.

Corn on the cob is unprocessed.

Canned corn, frozen corn are processed.

Doritos are ultra-processed.

It's not just junk food, to be clear.

Many breakfast cereals, granola and protein bars, diet foods, frozen dinners

sauces, and yogurt fit the ultra-processed label and are implicated in causing disease.

A few years ago, I was writing about salt, and I went to the biggest companies

and I said, look, you know, salt has become like this public enemy number one because of its links

to heart disease and—why aren't you, like, cutting back on your use of salt?

And Kellogg's, you know, said to me, hey, come on in, we'll show you.

That's Michael Moss, journalist and author of Hooked,

a book about how food giants exploit our addictions.

And we put some saltless corn flakes in the bowl.

I didn’t even know corn flakes had salt, but they do.

But these saltless corn flakes went in a bowl, we put some milk on it, took a bite,

and before I could say anything, the chief spokeswoman for Kellogg's was sitting there with me,

and she gets this look of horror on her face,

and she swallows and she blurts out, "Metal! I taste metal! M-e-t-a-l!"

And I was kind of thinking the same thing, which was one of my fillings

had come out and was sloshing around.

And the Chief Technical Officer was sitting there too, and he's kind of in charge of all things scientific,

he laughs and he goes, "You know, not all people taste it,

but one of the beautiful things about salt for us

is that it will mask," cover up,

"some of the off-notes," bad taste,

“that are inherent to kind of the manufacturing process.”

And so the reason you see so much salt, sugar, fat and other sort of problematic ingredients

in these products is that the companies are using those ingredients as part of the industrial process

for the manufacturing, for the shelf life,

things you don't need to worry about as a home cook.

While our food environment is saturated with the salty and sugary goodness of ultra-processed food,

something else is happening.

We are constantly bombarded with nutritional advice about how to stay healthy,

what foods can ward off cancer or diabetes, and which ones are slowly killing us.

And these two realities are actually deeply related.

Let's go back to 2015, when Kraft successfully marketed their singles,

which cannot legally be called cheese, as a health food.

Kraft American Singles have double the calcium

of many other American slices, plus vitamin D to help grow strong bones.

In 2015, Kraft teamed up with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics,

it's a professional group of nutritionists and dietitians, in a campaign called Kids Eat Right.

[Jon Stewart] What if a company wants the positive PR of going healthy

but doesn’t want the hassle of actually improving their product?

Well, there’s a solution for them too.

We do want to move now to a new “Kids Eat Right” label that will soon be appearing on Kraft Singles.

One of the things that food companies do is they partner with health organizations:

the American Heart Association,

the American Diabetes Association, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

And the idea is, if you can donate to those organizations and support those organizations,

then the organizations will thank you on their products

and they will say, you know, “a partner of,” or whatever,

and this makes it look like it's an endorsement of the product.

As researchers begin to understand the real effects of ultra-processed food on our health,

food companies continue to exhaust every option

to make sure the science of their foods doesn't hurt their bottom line.

Sound familiar?

Tobacco companies had a big problem.

You know, 50—more than 50—70 years ago,

there was research coming out that linked cigarette smoking to lung cancer.

So the first thing they did was to cast doubt on the research.

Not enough people in the trial, wasn't adequately controlled,

could have been due to other problems.

When it comes to ultra-processed food, the industry is stacking

panels and writing op-eds doing just that:

Ultra-processed foods are too broad a category, they say.

People might accidentally forgo a healthy food that fits the bill.

And listen, there's good scientific questions around the ultra-processed label,

fringe cases and exceptions to the rule, for instance.

But food companies aren't trying to further the science.

They're trying to torpedo it.

So, number one, cast doubt on the research.

Number two, cast doubt on the researchers.

Then you buy your own researchers.

You recruit researchers to do their own studies, and you give them a lot of money to do that.

And here lies the tactic behind not just the fight over ultra-processed food,

but all of the confusing nutritional advice we get exposed to through the media.

Is the problem with childhood nutrition that they don't receive enough vitamin D or calcium?

Kraft sure thinks so.

Is exercise more important than diet for weight loss?

I sure don't know, but Coca-Cola funded a bunch of studies that say so,

just in case you thought about cutting back on soda.

Food companies and their trade associations literally flood the academic space with money.

Ever heard that people who eat breakfast are healthier than those that don't?

Those were studies sponsored by Kellogg's and other breakfast food manufacturers.

It's the food industry's advantage to keep the public confused.

We can actually quantify how corrupt funding from corporations and trade groups can be.

One review looked at industry-funded studies and found that [almost] 60% showed results favorable to the sponsor.

That doesn’t seem so bad, except that only 3% came to an unfavorable conclusion.

The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee should, in theory, cut through all of that noise and give

the American public good scientific information so that they can make their own decisions.

But nine of the 20 members of the committee had some conflict of interest

with food, pharmaceutical or weight loss companies.

The food industry doesn't want any suggestion in dietary guidelines of eating less of their products.

It's really simple.

Remember those oddly similar ads we played a few minutes ago?

It turns out that some of the biggest food companies were owned by tobacco companies until the mid-2000s.

Philip Morris owned Kraft and General Foods,

R.J. Reynolds owned Nabisco until Philip Morris eventually bought that too.

So it's no wonder why the same misinformation playbook is being used.

What I really wanted to know was, how far did the similarities go?

Did the execs at Philip Morris coach Kraft on how to hide the health consequences of their products?

Did they go even further and actively try to get people hooked on their products?

My name is Tera Fazzino.

I'm an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Kansas.

For a number of years now, I've studied what are called hyper-palatable foods,

For a number of years now, I've studied what are called hyper-palatable foods,

and they have combinations of nutrients that typically don't occur in nature,

and they have combinations of nutrients that typically don't occur in nature,

and so they tend to be really rewarding to consume in kind of an unnatural way.

So we may find ourselves, like, continuing to eat these foods even though,

like, we're getting physiological signals telling us, oh, please stop, we've had enough.

So peanut butter, which is almost all fat, is not hyper-palatable.

But if you add the right amount of salt or sugar, it is.

Like if this jar had a bunch of added sodium

or we had a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

We conducted some analyses and found that the foods

We conducted some analyses and found that the foods that

were produced by tobacco-owned food companies were 29% more likely to be classified

as being hyper-palatable foods relative to the same types of foods that were sold

during the same period of time by companies that were not tobacco-owned.

Michael Moss described to me the moment during his research

when his perspective on the addictive nature of these foods flipped.

It took place during a meeting with a former Philip Morris lawyer.

Steve Parrish, the general counsel, we were sitting and chatting.

And he said to me, “You know, Michael, I'm one of those lucky people who could smoke one cigarette a day,

put the pack away and not have any compulsion to pull it out again

until the next business meeting, or the next day or whatever.

But I couldn't go near a bag of our Oreo cookies

for fear of losing control and eating half the bag in one setting.”

And it was, like, so revealing to me because it reinforced to me that they know.

I mean, the heads of these companies don't eat their own products.

While the tobacco industry got out of the food business for the most part in the 2000s,

other companies took a lesson from their success in selling these addictive foods.

They accounted for roughly 50% of the food supply in '88,

and by 2018, they were, you know, almost 69% of the food supply.

So we had like a 14 percentage point increase, which was pretty dramatic.

The non-tobacco-owned food companies observed the successes of the tobacco-based food companies

in the market and reformulated to keep up.

As someone who studies addiction, I think a lot of the rhetoric is, well, you know,

if you open a sleeve of Oreos and eat the whole thing, it's on you.

It's your lack of self-control.

I mean, what is your sort of take on that?

I think that narrative serves the food companies and not us as people.

These foods are designed this way and they maximize, you know, they can maximize company profits.

These are the current stakes for the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.

What will the federal government come out and tell the American public

about the health effects of ultra-processed foods?

The Food and Beverage Issue Alliance,

a mega trade group of other trade groups like the Sugar Association

and the American Beverage Association, have already given this statement:

Another trade organization has urged the committee to discontinue using the term “ultra-processed”

until there is consensus on an evidence-based definition.

I'm not going to tell you what to eat or even how to eat,

but I think it's a reasonable expectation for anyone to have access to good scientific information,

to have dietary guidelines that reflect evidence rather than industry funding.

Ultimately, this is a first step in a long process.

One of the first studies linking tobacco to cancer was done in 1950.

It wasn't until 1998 that the tobacco companies conceded

and struck a deal to pay states for the medical damage

they'd done and stop their aggressive and deceptive marketing practices.

If we don't start now, we won't get another chance to set the record straight until 2029.