Ask AI Mark argues that voluntary nutrition labeling and weak rules on marketing junk food to kids actually enable obesity. He calls for mandatory regulations that would force the food industry to be transparent about what people are eating.
[New speech] Do we really think that the food industry is going to please themselves and restrict marketing junk food to kids? I don't think so. In 2011, the Federal Trade Commission or FTC and other government agencies announced new food marketing guidelines. Sounds good. These agencies would like big food to refrain from marketing foods to children with with trans fats or more than 15% saturated fat or more than 210 milligrams of sodium or more than 13 grams of added sugar per serving. Sounds like a great idea, right? But this was only a suggestion of guidelines that the FTC encouraged the food industry to consider implementing in five years. Suggestions for guidelines that they only have to do in five years. That's like suggesting tobacco companies Consider not marketing cigarettes to children five years from now. We need tougher policies, not buckling into lobbying interests. The food industry has decided to preempt any food labeling regulations that would give consumers real and credible information about those disease-causing or health-promoting effects of their products. At the request of the CDC, the Center for Disease Control, and the Institute of Medicine, which is an independent scientific body, they came out with food labeling recommendations in late 2011. That's why in early 2011, two major food industry trade associations, the GMA, Grocery Manufacturers of America, and the Food Marketing Institute, announced a new and voluntary nutrition labeling system. Sounds good, right? But major food and beverage companies will use it on the front of packages to help Busy consumers make informed choices. Sounds great, right? But not really. It's to confuse the heck out of them. Their system lists the percent of various nutrients at their discretion. Most nutrition experts would have a hard time figuring out if the food was healthy or not, and that's the intent. So the nutrition labeling is going to confuse us more, not help us, and that's because the FTC and the government has not provided clear, concise, and mandatory guidelines for food labeling, which is what we need.
