Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
The FTC number: $1.6 billion to market to kids
The FTC has released its new report on food marketing to kids. The big news? The food industry only spends $1.6 billion for this purpose, a figure nobody I know believes. The FTC had to subpoena this information and I’m sure that companies gave the lowest number they could. Kellogg may spend $32 million just for media advertising for Cheez-Its, but I’m sure it’s hard for the company to figure out how much of that goes for packages with cartoons on them. The FTC press release compliments food companies for all the great things they are doing to protect kids from what they used to do. It makes recommendations that begin with words like “work toward,” “encourage,” “continue,” and “consider,” but nothing much that says “stop!” I think $1.6 billion is likely to be an underestimate but it doesn’t really matter. The number should be zero, no?
