Rudd Sound Bites

Happy Holidays from the Rudd Center

  

Would You Like Some TV with Those Fries?

by Sarah Speers 

Consumers may soon have another reason to go to fast food restaurants- to watch TV! According to Nation’s Restaurant News, McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell, Carl’s Jr., and Hardees are among the fast food restaurants experimenting with placing televisions in their dining rooms in attempt to get customers to feel at home, stay longer and purchase additional beverages and desserts to “fill out their meals.”

Doesn’t lounging around at a fast food restaurant “enjoying your meal” defeat the purpose of fast food? I thought the appeal of these chains was that you could zip up to the drive-thru-window in your car, get your food and go in as little time possible. Regardless, what concerns me is that these televisions are in-store marketing efforts intended to encourage greater consumption of poor-nutrient foods. The last thing that visitors to fast food restaurants need, after already consuming a high-calorie meal loaded with fat and sodium, is to be persuaded by the store’s television content to consume additional calories in the form of sugar-laden apple pies, ice cream sundaes, and soft drink refills. 

Nauseating New Anti-Soda Ad

by Meredith St John 

Last Tuesday I tweeted about the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s new anti-soda ad, and, along with the URL, I included a stern warning: “Do NOT watch this while eating!” Later that day, the ad was pulled from YouTube for “revisions” at the Mayor’s request. But if you watch the video, released again yesterday as part of the “Pouring on the Pounds” public health campaign, it seems hard to believe this ad was redacted in any way, shape, or form. Take a peak – if you can stomach it – and you’ll know exactly what I mean. 

Kelly D. Brownell Headlines Economist Debate

by Meredith St John

“This house believes that governments should play a stronger role in guiding food and nutrition choices.” 

Rudd Center Director Kelly D. Brownell is defending this motion as part of a ten-day debate on food policy hosted by The Economist. Director General of the Food and Drink Federation, Melanie Leech, represents the side against the motion.      

Economist Debates are based on the Oxford style of debating, where a position on an issue is defended by the proposer and attacked by the opposition. Opening remarks for the Food Policy debate were given this Tuesday December 8th. The rebuttal period continues this week and will feature expert commentary from Margo Wootan, Director of Nutrition Policy, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Susan K. Neely, President and Chief Executive Officer, American Beverage Association, and others. 

The public is invited to join the debate. You may share your views by posting a comment online and you may also vote online. Closing statements will be given Wednesday December 16th and the final decision will be announced Friday December 18th. Preliminary voting results indicate that 54% of voters agree with the motion and 46% disagree.

Follow the debate online and if you wish to vote, you can do so here. 

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NFL Play 60 Helps in the Fight Against Childhood Obesity

by Alissa Roman

As NFL season passes its halfway point in the regular season and people are rooting for their favorite teams in hopes that they will make it to the playoffs (Go VIKINGS!), it is a good time to point out the effort the NFL is making to help reduce obesity in children through a national fitness and health campaign called NFL Play 60. 

The NFL has teamed up with the United Way to promote their NFL Play 60 campaign. Their mission states: “As a brand and leader that believes in the power of sport, the promise of young fans and those players embody health and fitness; the NFL and its Clubs are committed to reversing the effects of the childhood obesity epidemic. NFL Play 60 is a national youth health and fitness campaign focused on increasing the wellness of young fans by encouraging them to be active for at least 60 minutes a day.”

One of the features of this program that I really like is the concerted effort to keep gym in schools.  Many schools across the nation have dropped these classes to save money or to focus on improving student standardized test scores, for example. Gym class is extremely important for children. Not only does it help children stay fit, but studies also show that children who participate in physical activity during the day perform better in school. The NFL is working with local school districts across the country to enable them to provide high quality, daily gym classes. They are also helping schools upgrade their fitness facilities, hire gym teachers, and they are providing gym equipment.

Hunger, Obesity, and ‘Summit Fatigue’

by Meredith St John 

The number of people afflicted by hunger worldwide is expected to surpass one billion for the first time this year – topic of conversation at the World Summit on Food Security held in Rome this week. In an effort to emphasize hunger statistics, the media often contrast these numbers with obesity rates. This usually goes something like, “How can one billion people be hungry and one billion people be overweight, and 300 million be obese, at the same time?” 

One salient example is Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein’s article that appeared on the Huffington Post. Employing a visual aid called the “Fat Map,” she highlighted the average caloric distribution across the globe and the “terrible inequities.” Hussein, a UN Messenger of Peace, discussed the concept of “food morality” and pointed out just how much food we waste every year – “another reflection of our embrace of excess.”

To paint obesity as some kind of moral failure is a deeply flawed assessment of the global food security landscape.

Clarifying the Chocolate Milk Controversy

by Marlene Schwartz

For the record - I never set out to attack chocolate milk. I am a mother, a health professional, and a fan of dairy products. I serve milk, yogurt, cheese, and even the occasional ice cream cone to my own three children. My efforts to improve the nutrition environment in schools have focused primarily on foods that offer little nutritional value and add extra calories and sugar to children’s diets.

The “chocolate milk controversy” story this week is not about nutrition; it’s about marketing. The Dairy Industry’s national marketing group, the Milk Processor Education Program, is launching a new $1 million initiative to promote chocolate milk, especially in schools. I didn’t understand why they were promoting chocolate milk instead of regular milk in schools. 

I found the answer in a presentation on their website. They explain that “more than half of all flavored milk is sold in schools,” and “the importance of flavored milk goes beyond the school market because it is a key growth area for milk processors.”

They are trying to sell their product. There is nothing wrong with that as long as their marketing efforts are not misleading. Chocolate milk is not the nutritional equivalent of regular milk. It is significantly higher in calories, sugar (often high fructose corn syrup), sodium, and usually contains artificial colors and flavors. 

In the promotional video on YouTube, expert dieticians acknowledged that chocolate milk has about 60 more calories per serving than regular milk, but then quickly added that “in the grand scheme of things, that’s nothing compared to the amount of nutrients they are going to be getting.” 

That sounded really familiar. 

Ahoy Cap’n! Abandon Ship!

by Megan Weinberg

This morning, I went to the Cap’n Crunch cereal Web site because I had a question about one of their products. I was greeted with the following message:

The first part of the message did not alarm me, as there have been many instances where a site has gone under construction to revamp games/add new content, etc. However, the second part of the message made me pause and think. In our recent cereal report, we showed that Cap’n Crunch was not advertised at all in 2008 or early 2009. However, in April of 2009 they launched a new Web site targeted to children called “Crunch Island.” Within this island was “Seaworld Bay,” a tie-in with the popular amusement park. The Cap’n Crunch Web site is promoted on cereal boxes and includes features that must be unlocked by codes that can only be found on the boxes. We mention this in the discussion section of our report at www.cerealfacts.org. 

Now that you have the history, you can see how the message on the Cap’n Crunch Web site is pretty interesting. Another curious observation is that we checked to see if this message appeared before or after the release of our report, and we found that it was posted sometime after.  Coincidence?  Why would a company suspend a whole advertising campaign? While we can’t be certain what exactly is going on, we hope that this is an indication that Quaker’s Cap’n Crunch decided to do the right thing by suspending its aggressive internet marketing campaign to children. If they in fact did do this, we applaud their example and hope that others follow in their footsteps. 

Rudd Center Week in Review

Hot on the heels of our Cereal FACTS launch, Kellogg Company announced they will discontinue immunity statements on their Rice- and Cocoa- Krispies cereal boxes. While the momentum for this move was building over the last few weeks, H1N1 hysteria really sealed the deal for - in Kelly D. Brownell parlance - the hall of fame health claim.  

Our intrepid leader flew to Tinseltown this week for another Rudd Center cause célèbre. He provided testimony on the relationship between sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and health for the California Senate Joint Hearing on Obesity and Diabetes. Sugar-sweetened beverage taxes are not (yet) part of health care legislation, but menu-labeling provisions did indeed make their way into Pelosi's health care bill. The bill was passed by House Democrats with a final vote of 220-215 late Saturday night. 

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