A reader from Phoenix, AZ, Maria Zafonte, sends this from a local Safeway: From her standpoint—and mine—this is a great way to encourage overeating. As she explained, if she bought just one bag of chips, each would cost $5.99. But if she bought four, the unit cost was only $1.97 each. As she put it: The problem is what am I going to do with four bags of Doritos?? The healthier choice is financially penalized. It is very frustrating! Indeed, it is. One of the hallmarks of ultra-processed food products is their enormous profitability.  You can bet that Safeway is not losing money on ..read more

I think it’s time to start a new “of the week” series of posts—this one on egregiously marketed food products. Thanks to Jerry Mande, who sent me this email: Are you writing about Veggie Cheerios? An especially egregious case of misleading marketing. This could be Rob Califf’s Citrus Hill Fresh Choice moment. Particularly troubling is that original Cheerios, a go to finger food for moms of infants and toddlers, is lower sugar and higher in fiber than Veggie Cheerios  –  which only have 2g sugar plus 4g fiber. These new Cheerios have 8g sugars – from corn syrup – and only 2g fiber. C ..read more

I’m talking about the mushrooms in grocery stores here, not the psychodelic varieties.  A reader who is a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, but wishes to remain anonymous, forwarded this message to members of the academy. From: Mushroom Council <info@mushroomcouncil.com> Date: August 18, 2023 at 11:04:09 AM EDT To: [REDACTED] Subject: Re: New, free meal plans for your clients + cognition research update Reply-To: Mushroom Council <info@mushroomcouncil.com> NUTRITION NEWS ABOUT MUSHROOMS  | …Researchers have been exploring the potential role of mushroom co ..read more

My distant but dearly loved cousin, Michael Kravit, has scored again: “Not Healthy.” According to the company’s website, these things are “Tasty purffs.  Five flavors.  No health claims…So unhealthy, I bought 15 bags for my family and friends…If you are worried about FFUPs being healthy, you’re on the wrong website.  Go eat some carrots! [Not a bad idea, this last one]. I managed to find the Nutrition Facts for one of them.  They have a lot of salt—320 mg per ounce.  The ingredient list: Besides salty, how do these things taste?  If you can find some, please let ..read more

My distant (but dearly loved) cousin, the food package designer Michael Kravit, thought I would enjoy seeing this example of first-rate food marketing—and of a healthy product yet. First, open the box. Cut. Scoop. Enjoy! You aren’t sure how?  The company even supplies a video. I’d like to see more like this. The post The latest in food marketing: an easy-to-eat healthy snack appeared first on Food Politics by Marion Nestle ..read more

Earlier this week I wrote about the UNICEF-WHO meeting I went to in Geneva on implementing the 1981 International Code governing marketing of infant formulas. UNICEF has just issued an update: What I [meaning you] Should Know about the Code This new publication—a one-stop shopping guide to the issues—summarizes UN resolutions on the Code since 1981 as well as subsequent research on breastfeeding and infant formula marketing, most notably the Lancet Commission reports I wrote about earlier. Incontrovertible evidence demonstrates how inappropriate marketing of infant formulas undermines br ..read more

I am indebted to the daily newsletter, Food Navigator Europe, for keeping me up to date on the latest developments in European food marketing. With all of the fuss at my university about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the way we live, I was riveted by this article. Artificial intelligence designs soda for Swiss market: ‘We were gripped by AI fever’ Its subtitle: It took just two days for Swiss beverage company Vivi Kola to develop the artificial intelligence-designed beverage using ChatGPT, Midjourney and Unreal Engine. AI to make yet another sugary drink?  THIS is what AI i ..read more

Jonathan Rees.  The Fulton Fish Market: A History. Columbia University Press, 2022. I really wanted to read this book and was appy to do a blurb for it. Rees’s history of Manhattan’s Fulton Fish Market is an elegy for a place that reached peak vibrancy in the 1920s, only to decline steadily as a result of overfishing, developers, the Mafia, unions, politics, refrigeration, real estate prices, and, eventually, more developers.  Rees’s thoughtful analysis of these themes has much to tell us about the clash between the natural and built worlds in American cities over the last couple o ..read more

TODAY: @Stphn_Lacey will moderate at 1:00 p.m. ET. Register HERE. ******** The Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) has just released this report. The report documents how marketing of unhealthy food and beverages is linked to complex political, social, historical, cultural and economic forces that make it a key driver of unhealthy food environments: Ultra-processed food and beverage product (UPP) marketers…saturate the marketplace with junk products through tactics that are aggressive, insidious and everywhere. Consumers are ambushed with food marketing through the sponsorship of their f ..read more

Two items about inappropriately targeted marketing. I.  Online marketing to kids A coalition of 21 leading advocacy groups, led by Fairplay, a nonprofit children’s advocacy group, and the Center for Digital Democracy, has filed a petition with the Federal Trade Commission to stop online platforms from manipulating children into spending excessive time online. The petition describes how the vast majority of apps, games, and services popular with kids: Generate revenue primarily via advertising Employ sophisticated techniques (e.g., autoplay, endless scroll, and strategically tim ..read more