Coco pops were a headache in my life when our children were small. When spending weekends at a hotel or at a friend’s house, these chewy empty globules, which were banned at home, are featured. Our children spent the morning at the height of sugar and wept at lunch.
So I couldn’t stop laughing at the announcement that the grain group Kellogg was suing the British government for not considering the benefits of milk in its new restrictions on fatty sugar foods. The problem is not milk. Your product makes up one-third of all the grains you can eat in the UK.
This legal objection is the clearest sign that Big Food is running. Kellogg knows that the new rules will demote the profitable portion of that range from supermarket promotions and prime shelf space. There our eyes stick to the crap and we can’t look away.
For many years, the food and beverage industry has argued that packing snacks is fine as long as it is part of a “balanced diet.” The problem is that we humans are not good at resisting temptation. Studies show that people want to eat healthier. But this conflicts with the reality of what we actually consume. The Covid pandemic has made us more aware of the dangers of obesity. However, Americans and British are actually overweight than they used to be, at the expense of stress and a sedentary lifestyle.
I am not a saint. For years as a journalist, I couldn’t meet the deadline without coke and the Yorkie bar. After sitting next to a colleague who made them the main line. I was saved by interviewing a scientist who was highly metabolized and convinced me that fat and sugar illuminate our brain as well as nicotine. After feeding the cheesecake to the rat in the lab, one researcher vowed that he would never see the cheesecake again. The dopamine hit was so fascinating that the rats jumped into the cheesecake and made themselves gorgeous. After all, some people preferred to starve rather than eat anything else. This is an effect compared to heroin.
We can claim that it is not an experimental mouse. We are not force-fed and can read articles about the importance of “five times a day”. However, Poface leaflets cannot compete with the marketing genius who has convinced us that super-processed products with little nutritional value are actually foods. And he persuaded the family who was suffering to spend money on it.
How did the staple foods such as bread and grains reach the minefield? Biochemist Terence Kealey once called an English-speaking breakfast a “weapon of high insulin doses.” This refers to how a sugary breakfast raises blood sugar levels. Water is free, according to researchers at Pennsylvania State University, but some American children drink sodas instead.
He was defeated in court by the industry when Michael Bloomberg tried to ban huge-sized soda drinks from New York. And it argued that the ban was an unconstitutional infringement of freedom. When I was a member of the British government that taxed the soft drink industry in 2016, the most noisy attacks came from Coca-Cola.
Governments that have been wary of telling people what to buy are finally beginning to realize that malnutrition poses a direct threat to their health budget. The NHS spends more than £ 6 billion annually on the treatment of obesity-related health problems, which is expected to rise to nearly £ 10 billion by 2050. The Boris Johnson administration’s obesity strategy is the product of the Prime Minister’s own epiphany. The experience of death by Covid — and the recognition that “leveling up” is an empty slogan unless we address the gap in health inequality between the rich and the poor.
There is also pressure from investors who may start to see junk food companies as potentially dangerous stranded assets. Until recently, this area was left to a few activist investors like Dan Loeb, who spoofed Campbell Soup with his own refrain from “hmm, hmm, bad.” But now, mainstream investors are awake. BMO and Legal & General are one of the investors who wrote to the boards of Kellogg, Danone, Nestle and Kraft Heinz asking for more disclosure of nutrition and health information. All of these companies need to be more transparent.
In the coming months, we’ll see a “healthier” range launched by brands such as Kettle Chips and Walkers Crisp. This is the same as re-prescribing the drink after collecting the soft drink. It’s true that companies like Kellogg have provided only what consumers want, the taste we love. But some personally welcoming laws to keep us all (buyers and sellers) away from the junk food cycle.
There will inevitably be controversy, including legitimate questions about how to judge nutritional value and whether the competition is truly equal. According to The Grocer, Kellogg is wondering why cereals are within government regulations when chocolate spreads are exempt. According to the company, it will remove 11,000 tonnes of sugar from 2011 and 60% salt from the 1990s, and will not increase the fat, salt and sugar content of children’s cereals by 2023. But the truth is that big and lasting changes will occur. Only achieved by regulation.
We hope that the court will give Kellogg a Frosty reception for our own protection. We have been experimental rats for a long time.
camilla.cavendish@ft.com
