Feeding Frenzy The Food Industry, Obesity and the Creation of a Health Crisis
Part of the Series: MEF Debt & Consumerism Collection
Over the past three decades, obesity rates in the U.S. have more than doubled for children and tripled for adolescents -- and a startling 70% of adults are now obese or overweight. The result has been a widening epidemic of obesity-related health problems, including coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and Type 2 diabetes. While discussions about this spiraling health crisis have tended to focus on the need for more exercise and individual responsibility, Feeding Frenzy trains its focus squarely on the responsibility of the processed food industry and the outmoded government policies it benefits from. It lays bare how taxpayer subsidies designed to feed hungry Americans during the Great Depression have enabled the food industry to flood the market with a rising tide of cheap, addictive, high calorie food products, and offers an engrossing look at the tactics of the multi billion-dollar marketing machine charged with making sure that every one of those surplus calories is consumed.
Features industry analysts, health experts, and advertising scholars, including Marion Nestle, Kelly Brownell, Sut Jhally, Brian Wansink, and Michele Simon.
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Comments (4)
I developed an adult onset allergy to corn, soy, and all nuts at the beginning of 2017. I've lost a ton of weight and never felt better! Truly, that could be because I was having allergic reactions all of the time for little to no reason... but it's also because I'm back to a weight I haven't ...Read more
I developed an adult onset allergy to corn, soy, and all nuts at the beginning of 2017. I've lost a ton of weight and never felt better! Truly, that could be because I was having allergic reactions all of the time for little to no reason... but it's also because I'm back to a weight I haven't been for seven years.
Read lesswhats the deal with these academic stooges attacking marketers. They are just delivering the people a product. I am glad it decided to blame society as a whole and suggest that we must move forward as a society to make any difference on this issue.
I really enjoyed watching this. I believe people are so disconnected from where food comes from that they easily justify what they eat. There are so many dimensions to the types of food available for people eat, that "fixing" this epidemic, becomes a daunting task.
Although this was made in 2013, it used old data that seemed to finish at 2004. So it is only good not great.