No Wonder We're Getting So Fat

James Tillotson  


According to the USDA, we now eat an overweight-guaranteeing 2,700 calories per day, a 530 calorie or 24.5 percent increase since 1970!

Waiting at the supermarket checkout counter, are you ever struck by the fact that most shoppers tend to buy the same brands of soft drinks, candy, salty snacks, cookies, and ice cream?

Indeed, one or two huge food companies control 50 to 75 percent of the total market for each of these tasty categories. Eight mega-companies -- Coca-Cola, Kraft, PepsiCo (Frito-Lay), Nestle, Mars, Unilever, Kellogg, and Hershey -- have a hammerlock in supplying the majority of our fun foods. Six are among our 10 largest food companies; the other two among the 20 largest.

With two-thirds of adults now overweight or obese, and many children unhealthily heavy, what relationship is there between this snack food market concentration and American obesity?

A study from Dr. Gladys Block at the University of California recently reported that one-third of all Americans' calories now come from "junk food." Many of these calories are supplied by the mega-eight. These eight food behemoths, empowered by economic size, marketing muscle, tasty products, and vast sales and distribution networks, are significant in shaping our diets.

The inescapable implication is that directly (through advertising and promotion) and indirectly (through wide distribution and share of market) these mega-eight are a key source of Americans' "empty" calories, further adding to our too-calorie-rich diets. Too many empty, unused calories are a prime cause of obesity.

Being overweight or obese sets us up for nasty chronic diseases -- diabetes, heart problems, strokes, high blood pressure, some cancers, asthma, gall bladder disease, joint malfunctions, possibly Alzheimer's disease -- and the list of painful, debilitating diseases grows longer as science learns more about the dangers of chronic overweight.

By being overweight -- or worse, obese -- not only are we likely to live shorter (and more painful) lives, but the present (and future) costs of weight-related illnesses are staggering. There are credible estimates that the total costs (direct and indirect) are already $69 billion to $117 billion per year.

The Rand Corporation calculated that our country's obesity-related medical costs now rival those of smoking. Obesity costs are predicted to continue rising, unless more effective obesity-controlling policies are put into place.

Current public policies allow the mega-eight companies (along with the rest of the 40 largest that sell 80 percent of our groceries) to market any food in any legal manner they choose. There are no legal requirements for companies to consider the weight implications of their marketing and product activities. According to the USDA, we now eat an overweight-guaranteeing 2,700 calories per day, a 530 calorie or 24.5 percent increase since 1970!These 40 large companies, which have grown significantly in their market shares, are the source of many of these calories (fun food and otherwise). The mega-companies' market structure -- coupled with the epidemic of overweight Americans -- compels an examination by the US Congress, not for any legal wrong doing, but for their all-persuasive influence on our unhealthy eating.

Present government policies are based on the belief that a person's weight is his or her sole responsibility, with government's role being to advise the public about health matters with the general dietary guidelines and nutritional labeling of food packages. But is that enough?

Obviously, these government policies have not prevented obesity. Given the projected health problems, economic costs, and human suffering, Congress should reexamine today's failed policies and fix them.

Given obesity's devilish complexities, only Congress has the power to mobilize our nation to solve this health plague. However, given the political power of commercial food interests determined to retain the status quo, does Congress have the political will to deal with this difficult health problem?

James Tillotson is a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.

Published in the Boston Globe © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company

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