Corporations and calories

There’s a spirited debate about the “soda tax” going on in the comments section of yesterday’s post.  Check it out and add your thoughts.

Here’s the other side of the coin.

Another argument for reducing obesity goes like this.  The main cause of obesity is eating too many calories.  To curb obesity, we need to reduce the overall number of calories available.

As the corporate food industry watches lawmakers and the public approach a tipping point about unhealthy eating – and they monitor the threat of taxation of unhealthy foods – food companies are rallying behind the caloric reduction method.

One coalition of food companies has vowed to sell 1.5 trillion fewer calories over the next five years.

Will it work?  There’s are lots of skeptics, including former industy insider, Hank Cardello:

So is a 1.5 trillion calorie reduction over five years enough to make a difference? Clearly, focusing on lowering calories to deal with the obesity problem is the right call, and the Foundation should be applauded for taking a stand, but this is a drop in the bucket and represents only a 0.5 percent reduction in the 300 trillion calories available for Americans to consume each year. That translates to less than 1.5 pounds of added weight per person. Hardly enough to resolve an obesity crisis.

Cardello says the reduction needs to be 69 trillion calories to work.  Still, he favors a self-regulation model for the food industry.  So does the industry itself, obviously.

So, just as oil companies spend as much time highlighting their “green” initiatives as they do their actual (black) product, food corporations will be pointing out the “lite” and “healthy” options in their lineup.  But don’t expect the supersized triple-bacon with cheeseburger to go away anytime soon.