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.”
Are food companies part of the solution to obesity?
The June 2012 e-mailed newsletter from the International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO) quotes from a speech by IASO’s Tim Lobstein at the recent Nordic Nutrition Conference.
Dr Lobstein suggests that claims by large food companies to be an essential part of the solution to obesity should be challenged.
These companies do not manufacture essential food items….They produce branded, mass-produced, processed snacks and beverages which are not necessary in a healthy diet.
Such companies should not be claiming a right to be included in policy decisions, and should not be displacing producers of healthier foods, such as fruit and vegetable growers, who are a legitimate part of the solution.
Think of that the next time you see ads from the American Beverage Association?
