You are paying to keep everyone fat and unhealthy

[SwampNut]

https://nutritionfacts.org/blog/do-taxpayer-subsidies-play-a-role-in-the-obesity-epidemic/?utm_source=NutritionFacts.org&utm_campaign=3aab73d9eb-RSS_BLOG_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_40f9e497d1-3aab73d9eb-28710906&mc_cid=3aab73d9eb

 

Why are U.S. taxpayers giving billions of dollars to support the likes of the sugar and meat industries?

 

More than half of all calories consumed by most adults in the United States were found to originate from these subsidized foods, and they appear to be worse off for it. Those eating the most had significantly higher levels of chronic disease risk factors, including elevated cholesterol, inflammation, and body weight. 

[SwampNut]

https://nutritionfacts.org/blog/marketing-takes-off-and-obesity-soars/?utm_source=NutritionFacts.org&utm_campaign=89c3cc03b1-RSS_BLOG_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_40f9e497d1-89c3cc03b1-28710906&mc_cid=89c3cc03b1

 

The unprecedented rise in the power, scope, and sophistication of food marketing starting around 1980 aligns well with the blastoff slope of the obesity epidemic. 

 

In the 1970s, the U.S. government went from just subsidizing some of the worst foods to paying companies to make more of them: “Congress passed laws reversing long-standing farm policies aimed at protecting prices by limiting production” and started giving payouts in proportion to output. Extra calories started pouring into the food supply.

 

Then Jack Welch gave a speech. In 1981, the CEO of General Electric effectively launched the “shareholder value movement,” reorienting the primary goal of corporations towards maximizing short-term returns for investors. This placed extraordinary pressure from Wall Street on food companies to post increasing profit growth every quarter to boost their share price. There was already a glut of calories on the market and now they had to sell even more.

[jon haney]

On 7/13/2024 at 12:44 PM, SwampNut said:

 

Why are U.S. taxpayers giving billions of dollars to support the likes of the sugar and meat industries?

 

You ask the question like we have a choice in where our tax dollars go.

[SwampNut]

I didn't ask the question, it's from the article, however you do have the choice on how you further subsidize them by buying the shit.  Say no.  Buy other (real) food.

[SwampNut]

Yet another great reason to block all ads and use only commercial-free TV.

 

https://nutritionfacts.org/blog/are-food-ads-making-us-obese/?utm_source=NutritionFacts.org&utm_campaign=1f63548980-RSS_BLOG_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_40f9e497d1-1f63548980-28710906&mc_cid=1f63548980

 

This can play out in the real world by potentiating the effect of advertising. Have people watch a TV show with commercials for unhealthy snacks, and, no surprise, they eat more unhealthy snacks compared to those exposed to non-food ads. Or maybe that is a surprise. We all like to think we’re in control and not so easily manipulated. The kicker, though, is that we may be even more susceptible the less we pay attention. Randomize people to the same two-digit or seven-digit memorization task during the TV show, and the snack-attack effect was magnified among those who were more preoccupied. How many of us have the TV on in the background or multi-task during commercial breaks? Research suggests that may make us even more impressionable to the subversion of our better judgment. 

 

[Zero Knievel]

You're just now catching stuff we knew 20 years ago?

[SwampNut]

No.

 

Which ad blockers and non-ad streaming services did you use 20 years ago?

 

[OMG]

You believe what you believe because of TV. It starts when you are young and is nearly impossible to alter.

 

"Blow up your TV

throw away your paper

move to the country

build you a home

plant a little garden

eat a lot of peaches

try to find Jesus on your own"

John Prine

 

Edited July 18 by OMG

[SwampNut]

5 hours ago, OMG said:

and is nearly impossible to alter.

 

I completely disagree.

 

[OMG]

There are cases where liberals become conservatives after they have been mugged.

[SwampNut]

And the religious conservatives who get abortions after they get knocked up.

 

[SwampNut]

What you think you know about food, particularly factory farmed meat, has never been your own thoughts and is mostly incorrect.  They've been fed (heh) to you by billions of dollars in marketing and owning the politicians.  In what free country should it be illegal to take a photo of a slaughterhouse and share it publicly?  How is that even acceptable?

 

As you can see below and at 1:45 in my video The Role of Corporate Influence in the Obesity Epidemic, in a single year, the food industry spent more than $50 million to hire hundreds of lobbyists to influence legislation. Most of these lobbyists were “revolvers,” former federal employees in the revolving door between industry and its regulators, who could push corporate interests from the inside, only to be rewarded with cushy lobbying jobs after their “public service.” In the following year, the industry acquired a new weapon—a stick to go along with all those carrots. On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court’s five-to-four Citizen’s United ruling permitted corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on campaign ads to trash anyone who dared stand against them. No wonder our elected officials have so thoroughly shrunk from the fight, leaving us largely with a government of Big Food, by Big Food, and for Big Food. 

 

https://nutritionfacts.org/blog/corporate-influence-and-our-epidemic-of-obesity/?utm_source=NutritionFacts.org&utm_campaign=cd230b04da-RSS_BLOG_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_40f9e497d1-cd230b04da-28710906&mc_cid=cd230b04da

[SwampNut]