America's Eating Habits And The Rise Of Fast Food Around The World

Coming up on this episode of the Doctor's Pharmacy. Sales are going down for soda and processed food in the US and Europe, but they're dramatically rising in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East. And it's not by accident, it's by design. Welcome to the Doctor's Pharmacy. I'm Dr. Mark Hyman, and that's Pharmacy with an F, F-A-R, M-A-C-Y, a place for conversations that matter. And if you care about what's happening around the world, explosion of chronic disease, the incredible burden on society, our economy, our populations, then you should listen to this podcast because we're going to talk about how the food industry not only has made Americans sick, but has made the world sick and what we can do about it because there's lots we can do and there's lots of policy change that actually is happening that's very encouraging and demonstrates a way for us to get out of this big fat mess. Now, the truth is that the intentions and the underpinnings of our current food system, our industrial agriculture and food processing system, were actually pretty well intended. There were a lot of diseases of hunger, starvation, vitamin deficiencies that were rampant in the early 20th century. And while many in the world are still food insecure, we've taken giant steps in fixing these issues with mass production of abundant, albeit highly processed, starchy calories and with vitamin fortification. But over the last 40 years, the various systems that helped humanity actually now endanger it and our environment. these methods of food production and agriculture production are a monstrous shift to turn and there's often resistance because of fear of financial loss and threats to business. I understand that. But these global problems of overconsumption, undernutrition, obesity, chronic disease, increasingly destructive agriculture production methods that are driving climate change, environmental degradation demand a whole new way of thinking about food production and food consumption. You know, the food and agriculture industry and monopoly sees change as a financial threat, but actually innovation and consumer market pressures are actually demanding change. Millennials want brand integrity, sustainability, health promotion, and they're driving lots of really great innovations in the food and ag sectors. But before we go further into that, I want to take a look, a sober look at the existing food system, the corporations behind it, and their behavior because we need to define the obstacles and the opportunities for transforming our food system. You know, these are not first world problems anymore. For a long time, I thought our Western diet was just that, a diet that was killing mostly people in developed world with access to lots of processed foods and fast food outlets. But it turns out we've created the worst diet on the planet and shipped it across the globe. Sales are going down for soda and processed food in US and Europe, but they're dramatically rising in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East. And it's not by accident, it's by design. See, the globalization of our processed industrial food has allowed Big Food and Big Ag to flood the world with their disease-causing products from Mexico to Nigeria, India, China, South Pacific, giant food companies are transforming local diets, uprooting healthy traditional foods that people have eaten for centuries and replacing them with ultra-processed Frankenfoods. It's a problem. Chains like McDonald's and Burger King and KFC have more locations in other countries than they have in the United States. Just a few years ago, Yum Brands, which runs KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, they had less than a third of their profits from outside the US. Today, more than 60% of their profits come from outside America. As of 2019, Yum Brands had more than a thousand pizza huts and KFC locations in Indonesia, 600 locations in Mexico, more than 800 fast food outlets in India, In Ghana, where KFC is a growing presence, and by the way, it's an aspirational brand there. It's a sign of affluence if you go to KFC or one of the processed food, fast food companies. They have in Ghana increased obesity rates by 650% since 1980. Obesity rates have tripled in children since 1980 and doubled in adults in over 70 countries. Two-thirds of the world's obese population doesn't live in affluent countries, but in low and middle income countries, which is terrifying. And many of these countries, as I mentioned, suffer the dual burden of malnutrition and obesity. I recently went to Cuba on my honeymoon and one of the consequences of the US embargo on Cuba is that there is no fast food there. There really isn't. There's no McDonald's, KFC, Taco Bell, nothing. and you know what? The population is thin. In fact, Cuba has a life expectancy that's greater than the United States and we spend about $10,000 per person per year on healthcare and they spend about $184. So what is the problem? Hmm, I wonder. There was a recent series of articles in the New York Times called Planet Fat which detailed some of the industry's tactics and how they infiltrate a global market and some of the things they do to promote their brands and suppress dissent. One terrifying example was Columbia, where soft drinks are cheaper than water and public health advocates who were advocating for a 20% soda tax and produced television commercials warning the public that soft drinks could lead to diabetes were threatened by the food industry. In fact, one anti-soda advocate raced through the streets of Bogota and food industry thugs chased her on motorcycles, warning her to keep her mouth shut. Other anti-soda advocates in Latin America accused the industry of spying on them, tapping their phones and hacking their computers with spyware. News outlets that published stories and columns criticizing the soda industry in Colombia faced enormous pressure from the food industry and censorship by the government. The food industry even managed to pressure the Colombian government to pass a law to make it illegal to talk about soda taxes in the media or on advertising. I mean, really? But there is good news coming from South America as well. It's from Chile, where about three-quarters of adults are overweight or obese and half of all six-year-olds are overweight or obese. Half of all six-year-olds. The good news is that one of the leaders in the Senate and the new president of Chile at the time, Michelle Bachelet, were both doctors. In fact, Michelle Bachelet was a pediatrician who was the president of Chile and they decided to tackle the food industry head on and change its food policies and they created an extraordinary new legislation called the Food Labeling and Advertising Law which created sweeping changes and they brought in some of the experts from around the world to help them develop these policies. Now, there's issues with them but they were incredibly effective and I think they have the food industry running scared. First, food companies had to display big, black warning logos in the shape of a stop sign on processed foods that are high in sugar, salt and saturated fat or calories. Now, we can argue about salt and saturated fat and so forth. And there are problems with labeling things based on reductionist views we call nutritionism, where you're single out of cecal nutrients because then the food industry can kind of manipulate that. But it was a step in the right direction. Remember, snack about cookies, low-fat diets, the whole thing, you know what I'm talking about. So good idea, but has some issues. Second is they had strict limitations on food advertising, especially those aimed at kids less than 14. Now, they banned the use of cartoon characters to market junk food to kids. Tony the Tiger was removed from Frosted Flakes. Toucan Sam was pulled from the boxes of Fruit Loops. Candies that had trinkets in them to lure kids like Kinder Surprise were banned. And it probably is the most important and effective piece of legislation. I spoke with Barry Popkin, who's doing a study of the impact of these policy changes in Chile and said the most important policy change was not the soda tax, which was 18%, which is a lot. It was the shift in advertising. They also implemented significant restrictions on the sale and marketing of junk food to kids. No longer can ice cream, potato chips, chocolate chip cookies be sold in schools. They can't be advertised during cartoons. They can't be on websites that target kids. In fact, junk food commercials are no longer allowed on television or radio between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.. They also have to incorporate messages that promote physical activity and healthy eating in their ads for some of their products. So when the food company doesn't add, just like a drug company, it has to actually improve that. And then they had an 18% soda tax on top of that. And the restriction on food marketing had a fourfold reduction in consumption of bad foods because they didn't advertise it. The good news is that Chile's policy change has inspired more than half a dozen countries, including many of its neighbors in Latin America. For example, Argentinean officials are looking at what they're doing. Brazilian health authorities are actually including similar measures Uruguay and Peru already have taken concrete steps to slapping the warning labels on junk foods. But one of the most amazing new food labeling systems is in Israel, where health authorities have created a new law that requires negative warning labels for junk foods and positive logos for nutritious foods like fresh produce, whole grains, and legumes. So basically a positive message for good stuff and a negative message for bad stuff, and it actually is working. Now, I understand why food companies would resist this. They're protecting their bottom line, their shareholder value. et cetera, et cetera. But at some point we have to sort of come to terms of the fact that we can't keep causing the harm we're causing by the food we grow, produce, process, and eat. That we have to create new incentives to do the right thing and disincentives to do the wrong thing. And making those laws and changing policy, it's not going to be easy. There's a lot of resistance, especially in the United States. But global leaders and thinkers and policy makers are making these changes, which inspires me to know that is possible. And it will change the behavior of these companies. They will reformulate their foods. They will change their agricultural methods. They're starting to do that already. And we can make that change. So I would encourage you to go to foodfixbook.com, you can get the action guide which teaches you all the things you can do and the policymakers can do and businesses can do to actually change our food system. And you'll have access to free videos and other resources on how to change the food system, how to be empowered, in our own homes, our own communities, and our own families to do the right thing and to pressure policymakers to change what needs to be changed and to pressure food companies to change their behavior. All this has to happen along with innovation that's happening. It's actually a very exciting time. So yes, it's the worst of times, best of times, but I have hope after researching this book for thousands of hours, talking to dozens and dozens of experts, I believe that there's a way forward to get us out of this mess and save our health. save our economy, save our communities and our planet. Just go to foodfixbook.com and you can get access to my free video, five steps to save the planet and your health. You'll also get access to my action guide, which guides you in exactly what you can do to change your health and to be an actor in changing the food system. We all have to play a part. This needs a movement and a revolution, and you got to be part of it because it ain't going to happen by itself. And if you love this podcast, please share with your friends and family on social media. Leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And we'll see you next time for another minisode on Food Fix on the Doctor's Pharmacy. Don't forget, there's a way to listen completely ad free. With Hyman Plus on Apple Podcasts, you can enjoy every episode without any breaks. Just open Apple Podcasts and tap Try Free to start your seven-day Day free trial.