September 14, 2024 — For reasons that escape us, it has become fashionable to preach that food is medicine. So food marketers are looking for snippets of research they can use to persuade people to buy their latest formulations of food-like and ultra-processed products, Standing in unflinching opposition are food policy advocates who (though they favor the food-is-medicine catchphrase) […]
September 10, 2024 — Consumer spending is by far the biggest driver of U.S. economic growth. So you can be sure that businesses are paying close attention to the disruption in longstanding consumer behavior patterns that GLP-1 medicines are bringing. People are buying new clothes, better food, spending less on weight watching, and more on health. Make no mistake. […]
September 8, 2024 — What’s the harm? For many “interventions” to reduce obesity prevalence, this rationale seems to be good enough to spur implementation. Menu labeling is a good example. Restaurants in the U.S. and in numerous other places must publish the number of calories in food portions they sell. This went into effect based upon suppositions. Policy makers […]
September 5, 2024 — What’s not to like about this? Swiss food scientists have devised a process for making chocolate that is more planet friendly and requires less added sugar. If you ever felt guilt about enjoying a little bit of chocolate, let it go. Less Waste The main thing here is crop waste. Typically, most of the cocoa […]
September 3, 2024 — For decades, the Environmental Protection Agency has promoted the use of sludge from sewage treatment plants as fertilizer. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The sludge – known as biosolids in the fertilizer industry – is rich in nutrients that crops need. Plus, using biosolids for this purpose kept them out of […]
August 15, 2024 — A sea change in what people want to buy. This is what food companies that depend on making money from chips and other snacks are seeing. Some brush it off as consumers becoming more “value-conscious” in the face of economic uncertainty. But others are getting to work on figuring out how to cope as they […]
August 2, 2024 — Why? This is the question that children learn to ask and repeat – sometimes maddeningly. But it is a key question for scientists who earnestly want to explain the oft-cited link between ultra-processed foods and poor health. Is it a futile quest? Or a noble scientific endeavor? News reports offer starkly contrasting views this week. […]
July 30, 2024 — The soft drinks industry levy came into effect in the UK in early 2018. The first study to investigate the effect of this “sugar tax” on individual-level consumption has just been published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The headline finding is that adults reduced their daily added sugar intake by about two […]
July 28, 2024 — It simply feels good to find people who think like we do. We can give voice to strong feelings, we can find validation, and we can join in an amen chorus of affirmation. But unfortunately, we can also get stuck in a dead end – committed to ideas that don’t find acceptance in the real […]
July 17, 2024 — The Nutrition Facts label, that black and white information box found on nearly every packaged food product in the U.S. since 1994, has recently become an icon for consumer transparency. From Apple’s “Privacy Nutrition Labels” that disclose how smartphone apps handle user data, to a “Garment Facts” label that standardizes ethical disclosures on clothing, policy […]
