The Extraordinary Science of Junk Food

Oishii

I enjoyed this article. For me, the human, individual side is very interesting. A handful of (mainly) men have so much power, and a handful of scientists have the knowledge, skills and desire to change the status quo. I don't think anyone is presented as the 'bogey man' here, rather it is in an interesting article going beyond statistics an into the human stories behind them.

It's fascinating to think that reducing the sodium content might make people eat more sodium too :laugh:

jhc7324

I read this article and was a little startled. Perhaps I should have known food companies were aggressively creating very unhealthy products but I was surprised at the aggressive push to create very unhealthy junky foods for children.

The article made me very sad but I am glad I read it. As a mom, I need to continue to be vigilant of the foods my children get.

I'm not sure that they are "pushing to create unhealthy junky foods for children" as much as they are aggressively pushing to market foods that children will eat to children.

This is a very interesting issue since, it isn’t all that difficult for any individual to go out, find the information regarding how to eat healthier and then go and do it, but when the problems comes from millions and millions of unhealthy diets across society I don’t think we can just sit back and say “well, it’s your responsibility to eat healthier.” Yes, it would be great if that approach would work, but we’ve more or less done that for years and the obesity rates are getting worse.

A decent portion of the reason healthcare costs are so high here is due to the terrible diet the average American eats. Healthcare costs impact everyone, so standing by and saying that a healthy diet is everyone’s responsibility 1. Won’t work, and 2. Will continue to cost you more in the long run as healthcare costs keep going up.

I don’t know what the answer to the problem is, but it clearly isn’t just hoping that millions of unhealthy eaters will have an epiphany that their poor diet is the root cause of their weight/health problems.