Friday Favorite: A Political Lesson on the Power of the Food Industry
Hear the unbelievable story about what lobbying millions can do to shut down efforts to protect children.
I’m all in favor of Taking Personal Responsibility for Your Health ( ), but the strong-arm Big Tobacco-style tactics of the multitrillion-dollar food industry are contributing to the deaths of an estimated 14 million people every year.
I’ve talked about this before in videos such as:
• Food Industry-Funded Research Bias ( )
• Big Food Using the Tobacco Industry Playbook ( )
• Controversy Over the Trans Fat Ban ( )
• How the Dairy Industry Designs Misleading Studies ( )
• The Food Industry Wants the Public Confused About Nutrition ( )
And specifically about sugar in Sugar Industry Attempts to Manipulate the Science ( ).
This is part of an ongoing series I’m creating about breakfast cereals and is a follow-up to The Worst Food for Tooth Decay ( ) and How to Stop Tooth Decay ( ).
Are there any healthy cereals? A few make the cut. See The Five-to-One Fiber Rule ( ).
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Thanks for watching. I hope you’ll join in the evidence-based nutrition revolution!
-Michael Greger, MD FACLM
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Parents are the buyers.
Sure, parents may be the buyers, but framing it as “personal responsibility” is just a way for the system to deflect blame. It ignores the fact that many parents are trapped in a system where they’re overworked, underpaid, and barely making ends meet. They’re forced to choose low-quality products because that’s all they can afford, while corporations profit from their struggles. It’s not about individual choices; it’s about a rigged system that exploits the vulnerable.
They are the ones on whom the wealthy build their fortunes, exploiting them as underpaid labor or consumers of the lowest-quality products that corporations churn out for profit.
@@b.b. I has to be about individual choices, or we have lost the battle. Garbage food is not the only choice. That’s why I hope RFK will shine the light on the food industry.
@@b.b. I get your point and I’m not trying to cause a fuss but oatmeal, rice and beans are inexpensive. Processed junk is far more expensive than good quality whole food. Parents aren’t victims; they’re making choices based on criteria other than what’s the best food to feed their kids. If feeding your family healthy meals is a priority, you find a way to make it happen.
@dianeladico1769, have you ever considered what influences parents’ choices? Are their decisions based on knowledge about which foods are truly healthy or unhealthy, or are they primarily driven by factors like availability, convenience, and familiarity—criteria that are heavily shaped by the system?
This same system dictates not just (presidential) voting preferences but also which wars, invasions, or coups to support, allowing conglomerates like BlackRock to further exploit and strip assets from a country.
The bottom line is that average people are unable to make informed, healthy choices because their options are constrained and manipulated by monopolies.
I’d love a book on How Not to do Food Policy as well as one on How Not to Give Birth (and be Pregnant).
I don’t think free speech (especially in terms of paid-for advertising) should outweigh the governmental interest in children/public health.
It’s not even free speech since you have to pay hefty sum of money to advertise. It’s selective free speech at best.
I’ll do you one better: I don’t think lobbying, advertising or marketing of any kind should be considered free speech – it all should be heavily regulated, if not outright banned.
Processed food manufacturers need to hear from consumers that less ADDED chemicals, sugar, oil and salt is wanted in their food products.
Why is there so much ADDED sugar in everything, even bread. That’s just crazy
Email, text, tweet or phone your favorite producer of poison and let them know consumers want less salt, oils and sugars in their products.
Let their customer service department know that all the extra added salt, oil and sugar is not necessary or desired and is causing health issues.
Reduce or eliminate highly processed food from your diet if you can.
I love this channel!
Added sugar shoud be regulated as other addictive substances
OMG, US politics are sick. Better here in Europe fortunately
Claiming that things are somehow better in Europe, or that the EU is somehow cleaner and purer, free from (capitalist) greed and legalized bribery, is misguided.
EU leaders, just like their counterparts elsewhere, don’t truly care about the average person, even while pretending they do.
In the U.S., at least the political establishment is more open about who they serve and who funds their political careers.
After all, imperialist Western Europe exported its corruption and decay to the Americas in the first place.
bro, capitalism is global
Companies know sugar is most addictive legal drug they can still market to children. That’s why they do it.
It’s fat.
All animals innately choose more calorie dense foods.
For example, human children choose peas over bananas.
Human children are eating fat (All animal products & ultra processed plant oils: palm oil).
No body sits down to a bowl of sugar— Brands Davis
@@monicasong427 The last 20 years have proven that wrong. Thanks to the anti fat movement adopted by capitalist food production. Fat consumption went down as obesity kept going up.
The wealth hoarders insatiable greed is responsible for most of societies problems.
As fraught as our system is, gratefully, one could begin to opt out today & make healthier choices for one’s family. I know, because I grew up in a tsunami of sugary cereals & had to extricate myself from the Food Matrix. Now I just go through the cereal aisle to enjoy the pop art & remember my sugar laden childhood.
What happens when you eat 100% dark chocolate, premium olive oil, and pomegranate juice mixed together?
you gag and vomit it out due to the combos horrible taste.
He’s absolutely correct on all points. However, my parents had a superpower to protect me. It was the word ‘no’.
Lucky you, unfortunately most parents can’t say no to their children anymore as the don’t want their children to be sad or hate their parents, they do not understand that their children would love them more if they were able to say „No“.
@@contact2001 I hit the parental lottery, that’s for sure. I grew up with ‘you’re doing (insert healthy/responsible/becoming a productive adult activity) because I love you and this is what’s best for you’. I also got a fair dose of ‘you can hate me for the rest of your long, happy life and I’m good with that’. And you’re absolutely right-I loved them even more for it.
My parents were never afraid to be parents.
When my children were very young I told them that I didn’t have the right pennies for the sugary cereals so we didn’t buy them.
Yikes. Thank you so much <3
the USA is what it is by design: “there shall be no nobility”, it’s not an accident
There’s been talk of Keir Starmer’s Labour Government banning junk food TV adverts before the 9 PM watershed.
It’s something that I’ve got mixed feelings on. As on the one hand I believe in liberty and freedom. And on the other, junk food is junk food.
I want to know if the breakfast dessert makers allow their own children to eat this poison?
The new UK government is committed to reducing junk food advertising to children on television from October next year. More plans and proposals are expected in the future.
Dare I even mention wheatabix or shredded wheat. Two fairly healthy cereals in the UK. Thanks keep on campaigning on this
I stand with big broccoli!
Need to set up a new world for healthy people !
So, i like ketchup, im pissed just about all of them have sugar or fructose or stevia or sucralose…I dont know why?.
I found 1 brand that doesn’t, Primal Kitchen, actually Unsweetened…its like $8 for a small bottle…i cant taste the difference without it, i dont know why someone doesn’t come with Unsweetened or Unsalted items and just let ME add it in if i want to!