Food is much more than just the objects we consume daily to survive. It’s a way of enriching our lives with the nutrients we derive from the foods we eat. For big companies who hold enough power over the media, it’s an opportunity to get fast cash by using the reliability and accessibility of information to enforce norms—with the intent to drive up profits. Businesses had a stake in the products on the shelves, they just had to use misinformation to their advantage. After all, that’s the reason why a norm was created to stigmatize dietary fats—the media made it even scarier by linking three words: Coronary Heart Disease.
In Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food, he explains that the low-fat campaign was derived from that correlation. Grocery stores were stockpiled with foods labeled “low in fat” with the “intent” of making the shift to healthier lives as accessible as finding it on the shelf or through dietary shortcuts. The media was making the fat scare a real problem whose only solution was to buy into the products meant to “solve” that. Fast forward thirty years later, it was all a scam fueled by no hard-scientific evidence on the correlation. Even still, our shelves are still stocked with those items in 2018 with coronary heart disease on the rise—not because of dietary fats though, more like the fats that the media was telling us to eat more of: Trans Fats.
The truth: certain fats were healthy, but businesses wouldn’t have told you that. But someone must be held accountable—certainly the businesses. But instead, the accountability goes to consumers. “Take care of YOUR body,” “do your research!” We are made to hold ourselves responsible at the end of the day and we can’t shut out the media.
Was the fat scare meant for businesses to be held accountable? Maybe they knew it wouldn’t. But then again, that’s a problem that requires attention and we can’t let businesses continue to misinform. Food is more than just for consumption, it’s become a power tool.
Sources:
Picture 1:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/363243526178885654
Picture 2:
http://consciouseatingexplored.blogspot.com/2011/04/fats-questioning-standard-american-low.html
Hi Cindy!
I really liked how you addressed this question, as many individuals struggle with this issue, including myself. It is easy for someone who has the financial ability and high food accessibility to choose what types of food they are purchasing, however not everyone has the freedom to make that choice. For people whose choices are limited, it feels as though more blame is placed on the industry, but does that mean that individuals who can make choices are obligated to make ones that Michael Pollan claims are better?