Researchers compare Big Food to Big Tobacco

Yale Environment 360, a publication of the university's School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, has published an interview with one of Yale's resident psychologists who recently co-authored a study on the links between some of the food industry's deceptive marketing tactics and those of the tobacco industry's.

"The playbook is the same, but this time the the lies and
misinformation could be disastrous for everyone -- children especially," says the introduction to the interview.

In the interview, Kelly Brownell, who is the director of Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, says Big Food is following nearly the same script as Big Tobacco has done in the past, for example, by denying the health risks of unhealthy food (and hiring their own scientists to debunk studies that draw such conclusions), by marketing unhealthy products to children and by saying obesity is solely the fault of the individual.

Brownell identifies the chilling qualities of such an approach. "Now, I think if I were them, I would say that's not how we're going to behave. When we hear studies that are contrary to our interests, we're going to say, 'Well, we'll take this seriously and we'll do what we can to change our products and change our marketing, and we'll work with the scientists.' But that's not what they're doing, for the most part."

It's a worthwhile read.

(Side note: The article mentions the new caffeinated candy bar Butterfinger Buzz. Has anyone heard of or yet tried this monstrosity?)