I have been ringing this bell for years now – saying that people with sense and reason and credentials should be publishing science, studies, and articles. On the side of the humans. In promotion of asserting the benefits of public health and protecting the public good. The landscape has unfortunately been overrun with people who’ve had to retract their papers, pushing quack covid cures, and anti-vax nonsense. So by all means, let the good publishing flow. We need more.
However, I’ve seen some people think that this is a solution in and of itself. That is false. And promoting hopium like that is dangerous. I know that the dearest thing people wish-cast is for some champion to come along and make people do the right thing, the fantasy that if only everyone could just “wake up” and be convinced by facts to do the right thing…. This is not how power works, it’s not how society works, it’s not how public safety is achieved. There have been no excuses all along. Yes, more data and more science and more professional voices speaking out and explaining the reality can help and should be happening. I’m all for flooding the zone with better stuff. But I keep seeing people claiming that evidence being published itself will lead to improvement by putting pressure on health administrators.
It’s like everyone’s waiting for something to happen after this study. Hope is always just around the corner. But this is hopium. The evidence has been clear for years. The healthcare administrators simply don’t care. (Or they care more about the bean counters.) There’s no revelation that’s magically going to make some tipping point where businesses suddenly do the right thing. The pressure needs to come from the public demanding regulations from the government which can punish them with financial hits that are higher than the desired cost of doing business, or have executives get jail time for failing to protect people in ways that have been well-established for years now.
This was published this week:
The New York Times – Why, Exactly, Are Ultraprocessed Foods So Hard to Resist? This Study Is Trying to Find Out. Understanding why they’re so easy to overeat might be key to making them less harmful, some researchers say. By Alice Callahan Published July 30, 2024 Updated July 31, 2024 But if the trial suggests that some of these foods cause weight gain because they are packed with calories or engineered to be extremely tasty, those findings can help distinguish which of the foods may be OK to eat, and which are most important to avoid, Dr. Hall said. Food manufacturers could potentially use that information to make processed foods that are less likely to cause weight gain, he said, such as by reducing their sodium or sugar, or by adding fiber, which adds bulk without adding calories. Carlos Monteiro, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, who defined the term ultraprocessed foods with his colleagues in 2009, is skeptical that the companies would willingly implement these changes, though. Making a product less irresistible, for example, could cut into their profits, he said.
This was published over a decade ago:
The New York Times – The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food – By Michael Moss – Feb. 20, 2013 What I found, over four years of research and reporting, was a conscious effort — taking place in labs and marketing meetings and grocery-store aisles — to get people hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive. I talked to more than 300 people in or formerly employed by the processed-food industry, from scientists to marketers to C.E.O.’s. Some were willing whistle-blowers, while others spoke reluctantly when presented with some of the thousands of pages of secret memos that I obtained from inside the food industry’s operations. What follows is a series of small case studies of a handful of characters whose work then, and perspective now, sheds light on how the foods are created and sold to people who, while not powerless, are extremely vulnerable to the intensity of these companies’ industrial formulations and selling campaigns.
Studies alone do not change anything by merely existing. Expert explanations do not change the way businesses operate. Information alone is not a panacea.
We the people need to take this information and do the pressure part.
The good news is that if the Peanut Butter Grandma with her newsletter and a group of informed activists changed the course of the food industry way back when. So we can surely make changes now. Change happens all the time. Don’t wait for everybody, and definitely don’t wait hoping some published study will change everything on its own. Speak up to those who have the power to change things. Don’t get caught up wasting too much time in busy work activism or social media hype trains that only benefit the platforms and maybe the reputations of some hyped people, or exist to sell products or pump up stocks.
Write your reps, do it now.