About 65% of all Americans are overweight, and about 3 in 10 are clinically "obese" -- overweight to the point of being hopeless and having nowhere to turn for help.
According to the "potato chip marketing equation" 90% of the junk food is consumed by 10% of the people -- those weighing well over 200 pounds and making less than $30k per year. The ad weasels from Phillip Morris (the world's largest tobacco company) have ruthlessly applied this science to brands like Oreo Cookies and LifeSavers candies. When tobacco came under threat, Phillip Morris bought these and other brands and is now the second largest food company in the world. Phillip Morris found that nurturing sugar-dependence with marketing prowess is just as easy to profit from as nurturing nicotine-dependency from tobacco.
Just as obese people represent a "target" for food companies, physicians represent a "target" for drug companies. "Drug detailing" in physicians offices is declining, but is being replaced by direct marketing to patients in television, magazines, and newspapers. "Ask your Doctor if _____ is right for you" reduces your Doctor to the role of a drug dispenser. I've heard there are only 2 countries where drug advertising is allowed on TV -- and the USA is, of course, one of them.
According to economist Paul Zane Pilzer, the maker of the non-drowsy formula Claritin pressured the FDA into keeping Claritin a prescription item so it could keep the U.S. price 4 times higher than the exact same drug in other industrialized countries. Because the price of Claritin was so high, many couldn't afford it and took a sedating antihistamine instead. USA Today reported that 600 automobile fatalities per year resulted directly from the drug-maker's lobby to keep the price of Claritin high.
Money drives the machine. In 1954 J.I. Rodale started publishing a magazine called "Prevention." In it he touted exercise and a diet rich in fruits and vegetables as PROVEN healthy, life-extending habits we should all observe. He warned of the harmful effects of red meat and cow milk. At this time the U.S. Government was spending millions to get Americans to eat MORE red meat and dairy products every meal, 3 meals a day. Doctors were telling patients with heart disease to reduce or eliminate physical activity entirely. And ... heart disease was the LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH in America. The Federal Trade Commission ordered Rodale to "cease and desist" from publishing this stuff.
J.I. Rodale died in 1971 on national television (the Dick Cavett Show) before he got his day in court against the U.S. Government. Since then, the FTC has been neutralized against censure, and Rodale Press is the largest health-oriented publisher in the world (Men's Health; Runner's World). And today, we all know better about red meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables, and exercise ... don't we? Friends don't let friends buy Oreos (from Phillip Morris), and down 'em with cow's milk.
Don't wait for New Year's. Start your resolution to get with the program now!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
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