The 16 food companies that encompass the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF) are pledging to cut 1.5 trillion calories from the U.S. food supply by 2015, and 1 trillion by 2012. Per their press release, the HWCF “manufacturing companies will pursue their calorie reduction goal by developing and introducing lower-calorie options, changing recipes where possible to lower the calorie content of current products, or reducing portion sizes of existing single-serve products.” And, “is working to promote ways to help Americans achieve healthy weight by balancing the energy (calories) they consume with the energy they expend through physical activity.”
I just have a couple of points to make:
1. The names of the companies that make up the HWCF are listed below. From the looks of these, I am pretty sure their only goal is more revenue, not reducing the incidence of obesity in the U.S.
- Bumble Bee Foods, LLC
- Campbell Soup Company
- ConAgra Foods
- General Mills, Inc.
- Kellogg Company
- Kraft Foods, inc.
- Mars, Incorporated
- McCormick & Company, Inc
- Nestlé USA
- PepsiCo, Inc.
- Post Foods/Ralston Foods, LLC
- Sara Lee Corporation
- The Coca-Cola Company
- The Hershey Company
- The J.M. Smucker Company
- Unilever
2. “Cutting” calories to these companies means creating more crappy, low-calorie foods full of chemicals, additives, and fillers. Their goal is not to promote more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Do not be fooled by their shiny packages and fancy labels. Their goal is for you to purchase more, more, more.
3. In 2008, according to the USDA, 38 million Americans, 13.9 million being children, live in households that suffer from hunger or live on the edge of hunger. Yes, that is correct, 38 million fat Americans do not have enough food to prevent hunger for them and their children. Do we see something wrong with this? These companies have enough food and resources to wipe out hunger in the U.S. But, why isn’t this happening?
I have one question for the HWCF:
If you are truly concerned about the health of U.S. citizens, have you ever thought to use those huge profits you make off of us fat Americans to create subsidies for healthy foods like produce so that more Americans can have access to these foods and less of our population has to suffer from hunger?
You may think you have fooled the majority, but you have not fooled me.
This is a farce. If someone wants to binge, they will just buy two of the smaller packages. Consumers already have lots of small-size, low-calorie options.
What we need is more information on the nutrition facts labels and on restaurant menus, and less junk food in school lunch programs.
However, I wish we could get the Big Pharma drug companies to promise to reduce our over-use of drugs. Most medications are ineffective, harmful, very expensive, the subjects of misleading advertising, and promoted through massive political lobbying.
And isn’t it interesting that drug companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars promoting a blockbuster drug, and then, just as the patent is expiring, they announce that it isn’t any good and that it should be replaced by their newer (and newly patented) drug?
jimpurdy1943@yahoo.com
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