Posts Tagged ‘food systems’

Health Washing in a Broken Food System

August 29, 2021 — Momentum seems to be growing for more explicit labeling of healthy and unhealthy foods. The Nutri-Score system has gained acceptance in Europe, albeit with some opposition along the way. It is a five color nutrition label that gives a product a score ranging from A to E. Originating in France, the European Commission and the […]

Shifting from More to Better in Food Systems

August 10, 2021 — We have food systems that have done a fine job of meeting goals to provide abundant quantities of nourishment. But there is broad agreement that this abundant food supply has fueled global growth in obesity. So the question becomes what to do about it. Can we fix food systems by shifting from a mission to […]

Sorting Out the Cost of a Broken Food System

July 24, 2021 — America has some of the cheapest food in the world. Out of pocket, we spend less for food than people in any other country in the world. Food beckons us to eat everywhere we turn. But the actual cost of cheap food can be quite high. A new report from the Rockefeller Foundation tells us […]

Tax the Poor to Overcome Obesity

July 23, 2021 — The UK has a proposal for a new national food strategy, but it seems to be sailing in some very choppy waters. The most noted feature of this plan is its proposal to tax the sugar and salt that goes into processed, restaurant, and catered food to help overcome obesity. In addition, there’s a proposal […]

Focusing on a Single Cog in the Vast Obesity Machine

June 17, 2021 — It is a vast machine that produces the excess of obesity afflicting public health. Yet over and over again, we see a very narrow vision for reversing it. It’s the high fat foods! No, it’s the sugar! Tax soda! Sugar, salt, and fat in ultra-processed foods make the problem! But following these rallying cries yields […]

Burgers Make a Lousy Icon for Food Systems

May 13, 2021 — Food systems are a key ingredient in the problem we face with obesity. But working toward healthier food systems is a challenge that goes well beyond the cartoonish ideas that surface in some public health campaigns. For example, marketing practices can be a vexing problem. Food security is a dimension of the problem that came […]