Category: Media Coverage
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Gary Taubes & Cristin Kearns Couzens, “Sweet Little Lies,” Mother Jones, November/December 2012
Based on hundreds of internal industry documents, this article outlines the alleged decades-long effort by sugar-producing interests to influence the scientific debate about the purported health effects of sugar. According to the authors, the memos, letters and company board reports “show how Big Sugar used Big Tobacco-style tactics to ensure that government agencies would dismiss…
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New York Times Blog Offers “Food Addiction” Quiz
“Are you a food addict?,” asks a September 20, 2012, New York Times “Well” blog post featuring a “food addiction” quiz . Citing several food studies allegedly suggesting “that food and drug addiction have much in common, particularly in the way that both disrupt the parts of the brain involved in pleasure and self-control,” columnist…
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National Law Journal Focuses on Obesity and ADA Claims
Employment law practitioners are, according to a recent article, predicting an increase in the number of obesity-related claims filed against employers under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The 2008 amendments have made it easier for employees to prevail in these cases, and a trio of claims filed and resolved in recent months demonstrates that…
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Anton Troianovski, “Child’s Play: Food Makers Hook Kids on Mobile Games,” The Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2012
“U.S. food companies are reaching children by embedding their products in simple and enticing games for touch-screen phones and tablets,” writes The Wall Street Journal’s Anton Troianovski in this September 18, 2012, article examining how food and beverage manufacturers allegedly use mobile games and phone apps to sidestep “government and public pressure to limit advertising…
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James Surowiecki, “Downsizing Supersize,” The New Yorker, August 13, 2012
“In an era of political polarization, Michael Bloomberg has the rare ability to come up with policies that enrage everyone,” opines New Yorker staff writer James Surowiecki in this August 13, 2012, article analyzing the mayor’s plan to prohibit all New York City food vendors from selling sodas in sizes larger than 16 ounces. Surowiecki…
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Stephanie Strom, “Has ‘Organic’ Been Oversized?,” The New York Times, July 7, 2012
“The fact is, organic food has become a wildly lucrative business for Big Food and a premium-price-means-premium-profit section of the grocery store,” writes Times correspondent Stephanie Strom in this July 7, 2012, article about perceived conflicts of interest on the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). According to Strom, who tracks the consolidation of organic brands…
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Brownell Weighs In on NYC Proposal to Limit Beverage Sizes
The director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity recently authored an article in The Atlantic arguing in favor of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s (DOHMH) proposal to limit the size of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) sold in restaurants and other food service establishments. According to Kelly Brownell, industry…
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Jennifer L. Pomeranz, “The Bittersweet Truth About Sugar Labeling Regulations: They Are Achievable and Overdue,” American Journal of Public Health, May 17, 2012
“There are no longer any viable reasons to maintain outdated nutrition labeling standards for sugar,” opines Jennifer Pomeranz, director of legal initiatives at Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, in this article urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to revise sugar labeling regulations to better inform and protect consumers. Citing recent…