Chipping away at obesity

DECEMBER 2013
Page 14

How Fat is Your State?
Page 17

Taxes and Government Fighting Against the Bulge
Page 23

Snacks: How Small Portions are Making a Big Bite in Obesity

THINKING

BIG
Chipping away
at obesity means
breaking down
industry’s plan
into small bites

December 2013

CONTENTS

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4
12
14
17

19

Viewpoint

23

How to Feed the New American

25

What’s Happening in Weight
Management?

Addressing Obesity Through
Food Culture

Snacks: It’s all About Balance

Reshaping Obesity with
Industry’s CEOs

How Industry Can Help the
Nation Thrive

Battle Bulge with Taxes,
Government

Food Product Design | BRJ BOARDROOM JOURNAL

Twitter hashtag: #THEBRJ

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theboardroomjournal.com

Viewpoint

Obesity: Enough Problems to Go Around

W

hile obesity has been called a disease and an
epidemic, it’s becoming more obvious that
it will take a multi-factorial effort to address
the challenge of the overweight around the
globe. And just as no one wakes up one morning 100
pounds overweight—it happens incrementally, day by day
and year by year—there is no magic solution that will
suddenly stem the tide.

Thinkers from
industry,
academia,
government,
consumer
interest groups
and more must
come to the
table, offering
their perspective,
asking what the
possibilities are
for collaboration,
and actively
reaching out to
develop strategic
roadmaps that
support business
growth but not
further waistline
growth.

It’s not just telling people they need to take more personal
responsibility, nor pointing fingers at the companies that are supplying
tasty foods that meet consumer demand. Instead, thinkers from industry,
academia, government, consumer interest groups and more must come
to the table, offering their perspective, asking what the possibilities are
for collaboration, and actively reaching out to develop strategic roadmaps
that support business growth but not waistline growth. Innovation
throughout the food supply chain will be needed to ultimately meet
consumers’ nutritional and sensory needs, while helping them get and
stay physically well now and in the future.
In this issue of The Boardroom Journal, we’re exploring the obesity
conundrum, from a broad overview into more specific examples of what
the future might bring. Whether you’re seeking consumer trend data,
insights on regulatory and legislative challenges, or getting the latest
on initiatives that bode well for change, you’ll find information that we
hope will provide fodder for your own C-suite discussions around the
conference table.
As always, we’re also hoping to hear from you. If you’ve got a story
to share on how your company is addressing the obesity situation, feel
free to reach out. In addition, our 2014 editorial plan will delve into topics
such as global nutrition/malnutrition, and ingredients and the activist
consumer (an issue garnering a ton of press as of late); we hope you’ll
share your perspective in our discussions.
Best regards,

Heather Granato
VP Content, Health & Nutrition Network
hgranato@vpico.com
@heathergranato


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Howindustry is thinking bigger than America’s waistlines
to Feed the New American:
Why the
BY ALISSA MARRAPODI

W

ith more than one-third of U.S. adults weighing in
as obese, children in tow (17 percent of kids, to be
exact), America’s cup is running over. At this point,
it doesn’t matter whether you’re a social activist,
a lobbyist, a consumer, a health care practitioner
or a food manufacturer, obesity is affecting you.
It’s no longer a muted condition that afflicts only a small amount of
the population; it is everywhere. Naturally, issues such as these cause
quite the debate as everyone scrambles to figure out who opened
Pandora’s box. But above all the noise and soapboxes there are
tangible moves being made to halt obesity’s rampant path.

The first McDonald's in 1954.
Source: AP/Wide World Photos


HISTORY 101
In 1952 only 10 percent of the U.S. population
was obese. During this time period obesity was
viewed as a “problem of personal responsibility,”
according to researcher Helen Lee, author of
the report The Making of the Obesity Epidemic:
How Food Activism Led Public Health Astray and
senior research associate at MDRC. What’s also
interesting to note is in 1952 there was one lone
McDonald’s. Over the next 30 years, the quick
service restaurant (QSR) would expand to close
to 8,000 restaurants while the obesity rate only
increased by 5 percent. After 1980, however,
obesity rates climbed dramatically, topping off in
2013 with 35.7 percent of the U.S. population
as obese, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC).
“There are a lot of factors that might explain
the marked increases in obesity rates post
1980,” Lee said. “Although no one seems
to completely agree on which factors were
most important, most researchers can agree
that there is no singular cause–greater food
availability and diversity (this includes both
more products and more outlets) at a relatively
inexpensive rate; greater food production
at low cost, in turn, was made possible by
technological efficiencies in food production
and transportation; labor market shifts moved

4

jobs away from manufacturing toward more
office-based, sedentary work; women entered
the labor force in greater numbers, changing the
dynamics and costs (both in terms of labor (time)
and money) of food purchasing and consumption
in the home; and TVs, computers and video
games all became more accessible (more
people can own at least one of these things) and
time spent engaged in such sedentary activities
has increased over time.”
As obesity rates rose over the next 30 years,
the fault lines began to shift away from personal
responsibility into the hands of the food industry,
and to environmental, societal and behavioral
factors. Obesity became classified as a disease
and widely called an epidemic.
Lee’s report details how anti-obesity
campaigns were modeled after antismoking campaigns, and this caused the
transformation of “obesity from a condition
resulting largely from issues at the individual
level, whether ignorance or personal-discipline
or socioemotional factors, to an epidemic
attributable to corporate malfeasance.”
Lee said the public health profession, in
trying to dub obesity as the “new tobacco,” was
searching for a Joe Camel equivalent. “Vendors
that specialize in high-fat, low-nutrient foods were
the easiest parallel,” she said. “Some popular
non-fiction pieces highlighting the way the
fast food industry works, like Fast Food Nation,
tried to drive this message home, and stories
about how food manufacturers test and market
foods to please the palate first and foremost
(alongside increasing calories, fat and sugar)
were attempting to show how, like cigarette
manufacturers, the producers knowingly tweaked
their products to be more addictive.
“This is not to say that food manufacturers
don’t test and manufacture foods to hit
biological bliss points,” Lee continued, “but the
parallel runs into some problems because we
all have to eat (we don’t have to smoke), and


the line between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods is very
subjective. There was never an easy way to
translate the parallel into a reasonable policy
action. And while anti-tobacco movement saw
success in terms of downward shifts in smoking
prevalence, the gains were really from people
who were more educated and wealthier.”

“A millionaire may
enjoy breakfasting
off orange juice and
Ryvita biscuits; an
unemployed man
does not … When
you are unemployed
you don’t want to
eat dull wholesome
food. You want to
eat something a little
tasty. There is always
some cheap pleasant
thing to tempt you.” –
George Orwell, The Road
to Wigan Pier


THE ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR
According to the CDC, behavior and the
environment are the second cause of obesity
and overweight, and they are “the greatest areas
for prevention and treatment actions.”
Public health experts, social justice activists,
scholars and more point to food environments
for the rising obesity rates. According to
the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010,
“Ultimately, individuals choose the type and
amount of food they eat and how physically
active they are. However, choices are often
limited by what is available in a person’s
environment, including stores, restaurants,
schools and worksites. Environment affects
both sides of the calorie balance equation—it
can promote over-consumption of calories
and discourage physical activity and calorie
expenditure. … Studies examining the
relationship between the food environment and
BMI have found that communities with a larger
number of fast food or quick-service restaurants
tend to have higher BMIs.”
As the charge against obesity was mimicking
the charge against cigarettes, the overweight
consumer took on a new look: the innocent child
or the low-income city-dweller. “Children are
seen as particularly vulnerable victims because
they don’t have the purchasing and decisionmaking autonomy of adults,” Lee explained.
“They eat, especially in the early years, what
their parents feed them; they live sedentary
lifestyles if their parents allow that. That
resonates strongly with the rationale for policy
and public-health intervention because their risk
is so dependent on the decisions of others (their
parents or caretakers).
“A low-income city dweller is stuck in a
community that lacks resources of all kinds,
but in the obesity world, what’s particularly
egregious is that the low-income city dweller
is only surrounded by convenience stores and

5

fast-food outlets, and cannot physically access a
healthier food store like a grocery store, because
grocery stores do not develop or shut down in
inner-city neighborhoods.” While Lee’s research
found children living in lower-income areas do
have more access to fast foods and convenience
stores, they equally have access (and at times
greater access) to healthy options via major
grocery store chains. “I also found that over the
course of elementary school (kindergarten to
grade 5), differences in residential neighborhood
food availability does not matter for predicting
which children will become heavier over time,”
she said. In fact, others argue the gap in
obesity rates between the classes predates the
pervasive industrial food industry.
While there are many conversations of all
types happening around obesity—from movies
and books by famous writers, chefs, journalists
and filmmakers pointing fingers at processed
and fast foods (whose many dishes amount to
the same if not more of fat, sugar and calories)
to social advocates pushing for better food
accessibility and better food environments
(which is a need not to be overlooked)—the
food industry does have a responsibility to
consumers: to give them the tools they need to
live a healthy lifestyle. Whether consumers use
those tools or like the way they taste (which I’ll
get to in a minute) is for a different article.
So while consumers struggle to find a balance
between eating healthy vs. eating indulgently,
and lounging vs. exerting, the industry is
attempting to find its own balance, which is
why many companies are turning to a tiered
approach that enables consumers to choose
among a portfolio of products that come in
different sizes, different calorie counts, etc., with
clearly labeled nutrient information.
“Consumers around the world are
fundamentally changing: they have different
lifestyles and needs and health issues; they have
different health infrastructures in the countries
they live in,” said Darren Marshall, vice president
of venturing and emerging brands, Coca-Cola.
“And at the end of the day, the number one
conversation that happens within our company
is how do we meet consumer needs better
tomorrow than we did today. And as health
concerns become more prevalent, it becomes


much more of a question around how can we
offer choice to meet all of the unique needs
that consumers have. Life is more complex
every day and therefore we need to make sure
we have the right of portfolio products to be
able to address those more complex needs.”
Coca-Cola partnered up with the “Drink
Up” campaign, powered by the Partnership
for a Healthier America; this to-the-point
campaign encourages consumers to “drink
more water,” essentially eliminating sugar
and calories entirely. “Through this effort,
Coke is not only promoting its water products,
but it has adopted four principles that focus
on offering low- or no-calorie options in every
market,” according to Brian W. Davis, senior
project manager for consumer packaged
goods and restaurants, The New England
Consulting Group.
1. Offer consumers transparent nutrition
info: calories on the front label so
caloric intake is identifiable for both
parents and consumers
2. Get people moving: providing sponsorship
and support for activity programs for
children that promote physical activity
3. Market responsibility: won’t advertise to
children under 12 anywhere in the world
4. Highlighting the nutritional benefits as well
as sugar and calories for its products

“Coca-Cola has reduced its package
sizing, introduced various can sizes
to promote portion control, and has
commercials and ads encouraging people
to become active,” Davis said.
New product development is also a
key part of the company’s strategy. In
Argentina, Coca-Cola launched its first
stevia-sweetened Coke product—Coca-Cola
Life—delivering a mid-calorie beverage
made with a hybrid of both sugar and
stevia. This launch followed the company’s
introduction of its zero-calorie, stevia-based
sweetener to Sprite in the U.K., boasting a
30-percent sugar reduction by subbing in
stevia for some of its current sugar content,
further diversifying the company’s portfolio.
Marshall said using stevia is just another
way the company is trying to give consumers
what they want in the right situation. “The
broader piece is there is a need for the
trifecta of a taste component, a calorie
component and a natural component, and
how do you manage the complexities of each
of those. What stevia allows people to do is
get a lower-calorie natural solution.”
In a similar effort, The New England
Consulting Group said PepsiCo also partnered
with the “Drink Up” campaign and has split
its offerings into three segments: good
for you, better for you (water, Gatorade)

and fun for you (Pepsi Cola). “So there are
healthier options in their portfolios, while
also displaying total calories on the front
packaging,” Davis added.
Coca-Cola has partnered up with several
innovative companies in order to develop
new propositions to the world, one of those
brands being Honest, which works in the tea,
kid-juice and sparkling beverage spaces.
“[Honest] is all about new health-oriented
lifestyles with products that are always less
than 100 calories per serving, are largely
organic and are significantly less sweet than
anything else in the marketplace,” Marshall
said. “It’s about working with new categories
like coconut water—our ZICO brand—and
finding new, natural ways to hydrate people
for the active lifestyles they lead. It is not a
substitute for other brands in our portfolio
but it’s certainly a new space that gets us
into great taste, lower calories and more
natural solutions.” Marshall said the beverage
company is moving into the dairy space with
the launch a new brand called Core Power,
a natural milk product with no additives,
powders or chemicals, and made from
“happy, healthy cows.”
“Those are the spaces we’re pushing into
to be able to look at new ways of thinking
about things,” he said. “Coke is much larger
than the cola beverages that have been

What’s Sodium Got to Do With It?
“Sodium reduction has been the most pervasive move in both food and food service
companies such as Kraft, Heinz, Campbell and Subway,” said Brian W. Davis, senior project
manager for consumer packaged goods and restaurants, The New England Consulting Group.
But what does this sodium have to do with obesity? It has no calories and it has no direct
effect on weight, and it’s mainly associated with heart health. However, since excess sodium
leads to increase water retention, the industry is using it as a weight-reducing marker.
• Subway: 15-percent sodium reduction in all its lunch and dinner subs
• McDonald's: reduced its average sodium content by more than 10 percent
• Mondeléz International: reduced sodium in Teddy Grahams by 25 percent,
reduced sodium by 10 percent across its North American portfolio
• Taco Bell: Cut 20 percent of the sodium from its menu across the board
• Pizza Hut U.S.: Removed more than half a million pounds of salt from its menu
with plans for more

6


around for more than 127 years. We’re pushing
boundaries not just in sweeteners but in new
products and territories and organic farming
that you might now consider.”
However, breaking into the “healthier” market
is a complex and often trepidatious step that
comes with reservations for many companies.
“You don’t want to cannibalize your existing
business,” Davis said. “So if you’re in the market
of high-caloric products and you’re looking
to introduce healthier options you don’t want
to hurt your existing business by saying your
current options aren’t good. The other issue is
overcoming some of the current stigmas that
come along with that change, so if I move to a
healthier option will people assume it doesn’t
taste good. If I launch a grilled turkey burger
will people expect it to taste as good as my
traditional burgers?”
Fast food companies have been walking the
line in this area. McDonald’s recently added
side salads, fruit and vegetables to its value
menus, and its Happy Meal drink options now
include water and juice, too. It also launched
its Egg White Delight McMuffin with 50 fewer
calories than the traditional Egg McMuffin.
Burger King introduced SATISFRIES™ with
40-percent less fat and 30-percent less
calories than the normal French fries with
a total of 190 calories and 8 g of fat for a
value size serving. Carl’s Jr. introduced its
charbroiled Atlantic cod fish sandwich served
on a honey wheat bun alongside its charbroiled
chicken options, and KFC now offers grilled
chicken in addition to its crispy classics.

number people are looking for,” Davis pointed
out. “It’s promoting products in moderation—
here’s a 100-calorie pack of cookies—same
quality product with a smaller package.”
But as stated earlier, the industry can produce
the most healthful and balanced meals, but if
they don’t taste good (and if they don’t look
and feel and smell familiar), they won’t make
a darn bit of difference. The Healthy Food
Project, among other organizations, believes
there are unutilized technologies that will
improve the healthful aspects of processed
foods. It’s dedicated to: “making the processed
foods we eat and depend upon healthier, while
maintaining the familiar characteristics in the
foods we enjoy.” Why? Because consumers like
the food they are eating now. And, as David H.
Freeman said in his article for The Atlantic—The
Cure for Obesity: How Science is Engineering
Healthy Junk Food—“It’s not exactly a scientific
study, but we really shouldn’t need one to
recognize that people aren’t going to change
their ingrained, neurobiologically supercharged
junk-eating habits just because someone
dangles vegetables in front of them, farm-fresh
or otherwise.”
THE TASTE TEST
“No question about it, without great taste,
nothing else really matters,” says Alyssa
Turner, associate product specialist, Ingredion.
And she’s right. By now everyone is familiar
with the “bliss point,” a concept put forth by
Howard Moskowitz, Ph.D., that refers to the
point at which the palate meets its match and

Even when accounting for the role income plays in obesity,
“the poor choose their foods not mainly for their cheap
prices and nutritional values, but for how good they taste.” Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, Poor Economics
Davis added creating a varied portfolio of
options isn’t just about introducing healthier
version or new good-for-you products,
sometimes it’s about determining what
consumers really will buy. “[It’s about] finding
that magic number that gets you to the caloric


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becomes insatiable. For years, the industry
has been banking on taste, not nutrition, so
the paradigm shift that is happening will take
time to settle in.
“Taste is the number one factor when you
ask people why they eat what they eat, why they


Car companies say
that the key to greater
safety on the road
is changes in driver
behavior. Similarly,
food companies say
that it is parents’
responsibility to control
what children eat. All
companies feel they
should not be blamed
if some people abuse
their products. These
are tough arguments
to counter. After all,
each one is truthful—if
incomplete. – Dorfman
and Wallack


buy what they buy,” Lee said. “So one strategy
for the food industry is to make healthy choices
taste really good, and for individuals to learn to
enjoy and value the taste of the healthier option
(train their palate).”
As Davis pointed out, on-the-go food chains
are trying to offer healthier foods, but taste is the
trick. “QSR guys migrate consumers toward tasty
but healthy—swap out fries for a salad once
in a while; most QSRs have introduced salad
alternatives,” he said. “Ten or 15 years ago you
wouldn’t have found a salad on a QSR menu.”
Consumers tend to associate healthy and
good-for-you with foul tastes rather than a lower
calorie count, so more recently there’s been
an advertising shift to great-tasting instead of
healthy. When a QSR adds a healthier option to
its menu, it isn’t talking about reduced calories
or baked vs. fried or lean vs. fatty; instead it
focuses on deliciousness.
“We know our consumers won’t compromise
on taste, and we won’t either,” said Sarah
Delea, director of health & wellness, Mondeléz
International. “That’s why we look to improve
the nutrition without taking away what our
consumers love about our products: the taste.
We look to reduce sodium and saturated fat,
while increasing whole-grains.”
Ingredient suppliers are aware of the taste
factor and its make-or-break effect. “Great
minds converge in our Tarrytown ‘kitchen’
where we collaborate with customers to create
new products or improve existing ones,” said
John Gehbauer, business manager, food,
BASF Nutrition & Health, North America.
“Sometimes we present new ideas and
solutions based on market opportunities and
often we create product samples specifically
tailored for a customer’s target audience. As
our conversations may vary from one customer
to another, one topic is always constant:
taste trumps all. Regardless of the need or
opportunity, if the product doesn’t meet a
consumer’s sensory test, namely taste and
texture, it won’t succeed.”
Flavor perception is a game changer when
it comes to taste—when you reduce/remove
sugar and fat from a product, it allows the palate
to taste bitterness or other unpleasant flavors.
Trumping these unpleasant flavors is a balancing

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act among senses. As flavors can be perceived
olfactively, so creating a sensation of a particular
taste through scent is one way to create
balance; another way is via texture—giving
diet sodas or low-fat foods the same texture as
their full-flavored counterparts gives consumers
the perception of taste, although what they are
“tasting” is texture and functions as the timing
belt, knowing when to release flavor.
“The solutions we are able to provide to meet
any number of specific nutrition goals (reduced
sugar, fat/oil, calorie and/or glycemic response)
are built first upon a holistic understanding
of the desired goal for any particular project,”
Turner said. “Solid technical understanding of
sweeteners and texturizers, a wide toolbox of
ingredients, as well as solid expertise in their
interaction with other components and process
conditions provide the background needed
to support a good solution. A highly skilled
culinology team along with an extensive sensory
program ensures that all aspects of great-taste
will be on target.”
And if anyone knows how much taste matters,
it’s children.
No “Kid”ing
According to the Dietary Guidelines for
Americans 2010, approximately one-third of
adolescents are overweight or obese, which
increases their risk of becoming overweight
or obese adults, which has also upped this
age group’s prevalence of type 2 diabetes,
atherosclerosis, dyslipidemia and hypertension.
The NHANES 2005-2006 said the top sources of
calories consumed by children and adolescents
(ages 2 to 18) are: grain-based desserts, pizza,
soda/energy drinks/sports drinks, and yeast
breads—all of which, except pizza, are nutrientpoor food choices highlighting a largely overfed,
yet inadequately nourished population.
Childhood obesity is a shared responsibility
between parents and the industry. “Certainly,
students should be taught to make healthful
choices and take individual responsibility to do
so,” explained Lori Dorfman and Larry Wallack
in a 2004 paper, Moving Nutrition Upstream: The
Case for Reframing Obesity. “Students do not
determine what is made available to them in the
vending machines in their school just as students


The New School Lunch?

are not responsible for the food available in the
cafeteria or snack bar. It is the adults who are
responsible for ensuring that schools are doing
right by the children in their care.”
What’s interesting to note is the growing
evidence that “things like self-control,
character and emotional self-regulation can
be taught.” Lee highlighted one idea in her
report—marshmallow experiments—that tested
children’s ability to self-regulate and delay
gratification. “Researcher brings kid into a room,
puts a marshmallow in front of him and tells him
that he can have the marshmallow, but if the
kid waits 15 minutes, then the researchers will
return with another,” Lee explains. “It turns out
children who were able to wait and delay their
gratification of the marshmallows did better on
some later life outcomes (problem behavior, drug
addictions, obesity, schooling, etc.).”
There is a lot of industry movement around
childhood obesity. The school cafeteria is a
battleground for empty calories, too much sugar
and more. According to Trust for America’s Health,
50 percent of a child’s daily calories are consumed
at school. In 2011, 12.5 million children ate
breakfast at school and 31 million ate lunch at
school. The chicken processor and marketer, Tyson
Foods, teamed up with the Alliance for a Healthier

TECHNOLOGY TASTES GOOD
New technologies and ingredients are
enabling the industry to create better-for-you

Source: Getty Images


Generation to help fight childhood obesity by
introducing more whole-grains and grilled options
to its chicken for school lunches, in addition to salt
reductions, Davis noted.
The food service company Aramark partnered
with more than 500 schools to introduce more
whole-grain options to school lunches with a focus
on removing refined grains and promoting the
benefits of whole-grains with posters and signs
about eating healthy. The company is now serving
up whole-grain pancakes and chicken nuggets,
and promoting food with less fat, salt and sugar.
“We don’t have any concrete figures or data
but from what we’ve seen working with projects
like this, and what we have seen in the market
is additions like this have received positive
feedback,” Davis said. “Schools are starting to
promote vegetable, fruits and fresh options,
offering salad bars, foods with less fat, salt and
sugar, etc.”
Cargill is also focusing its efforts on childhood
obesity via its Childhood Nutrition initiative to
proactively share its resources and know-how
with its customers who manufacture food and
beverages, particularly those heavily consumed
by kids. “We created our Childhood Nutrition
initiative because at Cargill, we believe there
are many stakeholders that must be involved
in improving kids’ nutrition—government,
public health organizations, families and the
food industry,” said Laura Daly, childhood
nutrition marketing manager, Cargill. “Cargill is
focusing resources to help customers develop
formulations with less trans and saturated fat,
sugar and sodium, and more whole-grains and
functional ingredients like fiber and protein.”
The company’s applications and sensory
scientists have developed many snack
prototypes—such as peanut butter chocolate
protein bars and sausage pizza poppers made
with whole-grains—using its ingredients to
demonstrate how they can be used in greattasting foods and beverages that kids not only
like, but that meet parents’ expectations and
the various nutritional guidelines that have been
established for kids.

9


Supply Side
On the back end, suppliers and
manufacturers are constructing
swap-out ingredients and solutions
for fats, sugars and more, and
clean-label options. As a result, food
and beverage brands can create
more nutritious profiles that are both
functional and sensory-pleasing.
In the bakery aisle, fruit-based
pastes are reducing sugar,
fat and calories, and boosting
the natural composition
and functional properties of
industrial baked goods, all while
maintaining taste profiles.
For consumers who want their
low-sugar juice with a fullflavor taste, many companies
are working in the juice space,
developing systems to remove
sugar from juice without
sacrificing mouthfeel or taste.
For those quickly digested
processed foods, fiber-rich
starches derived from natural
sources such as tapioca
are helping the body digest
processed foods slower to
induce satiety.
Meat substitutes have found
their way into the marketplace
but now R&D is enabling a way
for companies to reduce fat in
processed meat patties while
still enticing those burger lovers.


foods across all food and beverage
aisles—from reducing oil content,
which in turn reduces calories, in
French fries through infrared heat
(Agricultural Research; July 2013)
to replacing some or all of a trouble
ingredient and replacing it a healthier
one. And, as Lila Mostefa, senior
manager, food & beverage, product
development and applications, Stratum
Nutrition, pointed out: “While obesity
is likely the underlying epidemic that
customers are trying to address, it is
not the topic of conversation. Rather,
each food company has a different way
that they prefer to address the issue.
Whether to lower calories, fat content
or sugar; or develop smaller portion
sizes; or more whole-foods and less
preservatives/additives—each in their
own right we agree contribute. We
look at top regional baked goods and
work with recipe variations in our food
lab to not only address the resulting
nutrition facts, but to also evaluate
taste, texture, freshness and other
organoleptic characteristics.”
Again, this is a multi-tiered approach
with several moving parts factoring into
a company’s decision to reformulate
or create a healthier-focused product.
Coca-Cola’s motivation to use stevia
was driven by many factors. “There
are different motivations in different
businesses with different consumer
groups in different areas,” Marshall
explained. “It really depends on the
specific situations that you might
encounter. That said, there are
consumer wants in a variety of different
spaces. The idea around managing
calorie intake and managing a natural
solution—some people are more
concerned about other alternatives while
others are more concerned about not
having genetically modified parts within
their diet, and some people just want
taste no matter what. So it’s really about
using the solutions that are visible for

10

the right proposition at the right time.”
The challenge with using stevia,
Marshall said, is “it’s an early
technology that hasn’t evolved yet to
the point where it tastes like sugar in all
types of beverage environments. It may
work well in citrus and may work less
well in cola. Everything is moving as you
would expect humanity and science and
technology to move, but it never seems
to move fast enough.”
Mostefa said Stratum knows how
much consumers don’t want to
dramatically changes their diets, “but
want rather that quick-and-easy solution
to eat better without having to spend too
much time on understanding labeling,”
she said.
THE PROGRESSIVE FACTOR
There are many moving parts
inside the fight against obesity—
ensuring greater food accessibility
to all consumers and creating better
food environments, revamping school
lunches and snack offerings, educating
consumers and promoting movement
and healthy food choices, engineering
better-for-you foods and beverages—
and the industry is beefing up its
efforts to not only offer consumers
more mindful options, but to give them
options.
“Worldwide we have more than 5,000
products under our portfolio—it’s not a
singular approach,” Marshall said. “The
single biggest conversation is how to
serve consumers’ needs better every day.
Our goal isn’t just to sell you one cola
beverage; it’s to be able to give you the
right beverages throughout your day no
matter what your needs might be—to
be a relevant part of every consumer
throughout their entire day.” ■

Alissa Marrapodi is the managing editor of
The Boardroom Journal.


Documentary

Innovation & Investment
in China
Companies around the globe are making increasing investments in infrastructure,
quality control, regulatory compliance, technology and more, which is driving
product development and raising the quality bar. Watch this 20-minute installment of the
SupplySide Global Experience Documentary film series, Innovation & Investment in China,
to explore several suppliers in China, their ingredient production technologies, quality control
measures, supply chain controls, intellectual property portfolios and laboratory testing capabilities
to see how best-in-class companies are setting the bar for ingredient sourcing from China.

Underwritten by

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11


What’s Happening in

Weight Management?
BY SIMONE BAROKE

G

lobal business intelligence provider highlights some of
the most salient global trends in weight management,
featuring the continued popularity of better-better-foryou products, including stevia beverages, fiber and the
hottest trend of them all: high protein.

When consumers
embark on a diet,
they have to cut down
on something, and
this usually means
curbing their intake of
calorie-dense foods,
i.e., those high in fat
and sugar.


Better-for-You Products Still Important
The concern over the obesity epidemic is
not new and with it comes a number of health
concerns for consumers such as type 2 diabetes,
digestive disorders, arthritis, cardiovascular
disease (CVD) and even cancer. According to
Euromonitor International’s latest health and
wellness data, sales of weight managementpositioned food and drink products is estimated
to reach US$151 billion in 2013. The United
States, the United Kingdom and Germany
ranked as the top three markets for these
products in 2013.
In the United States, for one, obesity has
emerged as the single greatest public health
concern over the past decade. Between
2002 and 2012, the percentage of adults
classified as obese (BMI 30kg/sq m or more)
rose from 26 percent to nearly 40 percent;
in 1980, it was just 14 percent. The causes
of obesity are multifactorial, and poor diets
and increasingly sedentary lifestyles have
contributed significantly to expanding
waistlines; however, governments and food and
drink players across the world are becoming
more active in marketing “better-for-you” (BFY)
food and drink products in a bid to promote
consumer awareness and put the brakes on the
condition’s growing prevalence.
When consumers embark on a diet, they
have to cut down on something, and this usually
means curbing their intake of calorie-dense
foods, i.e., those high in fat and sugar. Our
statistics show BFY reduced-fat and -sugar
food and beverage value sales combined
amounted to US$150 billion globally in 2013,
up from US$142 billion in 2008. Reduced-fat
packaged food accounted for nearly 60 percent

12

of the total, but all categories demonstrated
steady and moderate value growth (except
for reduced-fat beverages, which is a small
category of very limited scope) over the 2008 to
2013 review period.
Even in the United States, a mature (and
hence less dynamic) market for BFY products,
encouraging growth spurts continue to be seen.
For instance, reduced-sugar liquid concentrates
stood out with an impressive 53 percent value
gain over 2010 to 2013, since the launch of
Kraft Foods Group’s Mio.
Stevia Drives BFY
Sugary drinks, in particular, are routinely
being blamed as a major contributor to the
global obesity epidemic. From a commonsense
point of view, the logic behind the accusation
is compelling: one liter of a standard cola
carbonate contains 420 kcal, all from sugar.
The consumption of eight liters of cola (or any
other standard carbonate beverage) per week,
which is not an unrealistic quantity by any
means, amounts to the caloric equivalent of
one pound of body fat. So, it is quite easy to
see how substituting standard carbonates with
low-calorie alternatives might make quite a
significant difference to a person’s body weight
in the medium-to-long term.
However, it is the growing fashion for lessconventional slimming solutions that has seen
companies continue to innovate in reducedsugar food and beverages sweetened with
natural high-intensity sweeteners: stevia and
the more niche monk fruit.
The juice sector is where stevia first came
into its own. The naturally healthy aspect of
juice is a major point of attraction, particularly
for 100 percent juice, but its high sugar has
made health-conscious consumers wary of
the category. Products with less than 100
percent juice tend to either have added sugar or
artificial sweeteners, which is in direct conflict
with the natural image, giving health-conscious
consumers yet another reason to avoid juice.


Stevia, however, allows manufacturers
to reduce the sugar (and thereby calorie)
content without sacrificing either sweetness
or naturalness, and even allows organic lowsugar varieties to emerge.
PepsiCo is one of the global soft drink
companies that has struck gold with stevia.
Its Tropicana Trop50 brand, a blend of juice
and water and sweetened with stevia, has
been extremely successful in the United
States since its launch in 2009. In less than
three years, Trop50 value sales reached
US$149 million, claiming 10 percent share
of off-trade volumes in the nectars (25 to 99
percent juice) category in 2012.
The company considers Trop50 to be one
of the most successful new product launches
over five years, and it is easy to see how a
reduced-calorie, all-natural fruit juice fills
a previously gaping niche. For consumers
wanting keep their calorie intake in check
while still enjoying a nice glass of “natural”
juice with their breakfast, products like Trop50
offer the perfect solution. In this regard, monk
fruit extract, by virtue of being derived from
a fruit, offers even greater potential. Once
this highly promising sweetener manages to
overcome the few existing teething problems,
low-calorie soft drinks, and in particular the
juice category, are set to enjoy another serious
boost in popularity.
High Fiber Lends New Angle to
Weight Management
Fiber is also another ingredient gaining
ground in the weight-management space.
Glucomannan was the only ingredient
pertaining to weight management that gained
a European Union (EU) Article 13.1 General
Health Claim. The fiber is used in the Slim
Noodles product in the U.K., which claim to only
contain 7 kcal/100g and help you lose weight.
The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) could
be the next player to utilize the benefits of
fiber. In March 2013, the company’s patent
application with the U.S. Patent & Trademark
Office for a low-calorie, sugar-free beverage
concentrate with fiber was published. TCCC
has since stated this innovation had been
purposely created to turn Fanta Slurpee
Lite Mango into reality. This product, on the
U.S. market since May 2012, is made for
use in beverage dispensers and served at
“slush-like” consistency. The fiber ingredient


itself, which is dextrin, is currently not being
promoted by the company in any way as
contributing specific health benefits. This
does not mean, however, that TCCC will
not go down this route at some point in the
future as part of its on-going new product
development (NPD) efforts to create health
and wellness-positioned beverages.
Protein Leads in Packaged Food
Another major trend visible across virtually
all packaged food categories is the addition
of protein. Greek yogurt is a roaring success
in the United States. Greek yogurt is strained,
which not only gives the end product a very
creamy texture, but it also makes it much
higher in protein than standard yogurt—a
property that tends to feature prominently on
the packaging. Euromonitor International’s
latest data shows Greek yogurt brand
Chobani (by Agro Farma Inc.) managed
to grow its value share from just under 1
percent in 2008 to 24 percent in 2013,
turning it into the United States’ leading
yogurt brand.
Kellogg extended its brand portfolio to
include a Special K Protein Plus cereal and
its Special K flatbread breakfast sandwich
high in protein and only 240 calories to sit
alongside its protein bars and milkshakes,
targeting those looking to lose weight by
maintaining a feeling of fullness. In October
2013, Kraft launched Philadelphia 2X
Protein cream cheese spread in the United
States, containing 4g of protein per serving
compared to 2g in the standard version.
In the U.K., Global Food UK’s launched Dr.
Zak’s high-protein pasta in September 2013.
Instead of durum wheat flour, the product
contains pea protein isolates, resulting in a
formidable 50g of protein per 100g; standard
pasta usually only supplies one-tenth of this.
The company also intends to introduce highprotein tortilla flatbreads toward the end of
the year, and bagels and pizza bases in the
foreseeable future.
In Germany, besides dairy, bread is leading
the way. Protein-enriched “evening” bread,
which sells for a premium, has found great
acceptance not only among the weightconscious, but also among Germany’s
burgeoning diabetic consumer base.
Virtually every German bakery offers at least
one type of eiweissbrot (“protein bread”).

13

High-protein bread is not just available in
unpackaged/artisanal form, but is also sold
as a packaged/industrial product. Müller Brot
GmbH & Co KG, Germany’s third-ranking
packaged/industrial bread producer, offers
Gute Nacht Pro Body (gute nacht means
“good night”), containing 21 percent protein
and 6 percent carbohydrates, while the
country’s second biggest bread maker, HarryBrot GmbH, markets Fit am Abend (“fit in the
evening”) under its Brotland brand.
Continued Market Drivers
Viewed from a global perspective,
worldwide retail value sales of weight
management-positioned products are set
to grow by a little more than 10 percent
from 2013 to 2018. This may seem like a
modest increase, but one has to remember
the category is fairly mature. Dynamic
growth rates will be seen within specific
geographies—for example in the Middle East
and Africa region, where sales predicted to
rise by 43 percent over the next five years,
followed by Latin America’s 32-percent
projected growth. Sophisticated steviasweetened beverages, for instance, are
already starting to gain a firm foothold in
some Latin American countries.
The high-protein trend will play a major
role in the medium-to-long-term future,
especially in highly developed packaged food
markets, but not exclusively so. High-protein
harmonizes perfectly with the universal
consumer desire for more “natural” foods,
affording it unrivalled consumer appeal. ■

Simone Baroke is a contributing analyst at
Euromonitor International.


How the Food, Beverage and
Restaurant Industries

Can Help the Nation Thrive

BY JEFFREY LEVI, PH.D.

A

fter three decades of increases, adult
obesity rates remained level in every
state except for Arkansas in the past
year, according to F as in Fat: How
Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2013.
The report, released by the Trust for America’s
Health and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
(RWJF), also found 13 states now have adult
obesity rates above 30 percent, 41 states have
rates of at least 25 percent and every state
is above 20 percent. In 1980, no state was
above 15 percent; in 1991, no state was above
20 percent; in 2000, no state was above 25
percent; and, in 2007, only Mississippi was
above 30 percent. However, since 2005, there
has been some evidence the rate of increase
has been slowing. In 2005, every state but one
experienced an increase in obesity rates; in
2008, rates increased in 37 states; in 2010,
rates increased in 28 states; and in 2011, rates
increased in 16 states.

The rates of adults with a body mass index
(BMI) of 40 or higher have grown in the past
30 years from 1.4 percent to 6.3 percent—a
350-percent increase. Among children and
teens (2- to 19-year-olds), more than 5.1
percent of males and 4.7 percent of females are
now severely obese.
In addition to the latest data showing a stable
rate for adult obesity, a report released by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) showed 18 states and one U.S. territory
experienced a decline in obesity rates among
children ages 2 to 4 who are enrolled in federal
health and nutrition programs, such as the
Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants,
and Children (WIC).
While stable rates of adult obesity may
signal prevention efforts are starting to yield
some results, the rates remain extremely high.
Even if the nation holds steady at the current
rates, Baby Boomers—who are aging into

The rates of adults with a body mass index (BMI)
of 40 or higher have grown in the past 30 years from
1.4 percent to 6.3 percent — a 350-percent increase.
In addition, the report found obesity rates
vary by age and rates of “extreme” obesity
have grown dramatically. Obesity rates for Baby
Boomers have reached 40 percent in two states
(Alabama and Louisiana), and are 30 percent
or higher in 41 states. By comparison, obesity
rates for seniors exceed 30 percent in only one
state (Louisiana) and rates for young adults are
below 28 percent in every state.

14

obesity-related illnesses—and the rapidly
rising numbers of extremely obese Americans
are already translating into a cost crisis for the
health care system and Medicare.
F as in Fat also examined high-impact
policies to prevent and reduce obesity, and three
of the key recommendations from the report
focus on how the food, beverage and restaurant
industries should address the obesity epidemic.

Percent of obese adults (Body Mass Index of 30+)
0-9.9%

10.0-14.9%

15.0-19.9%

20.0-24.9%

25.0-29.9%

30.0-34.9%

WA
MT

ND

OR

MN
ID

WI

SD

WY

UT

CA

AZ

CO

PA

IA

NE

NV

IL
KS
OK

NM

NY

MI
OH

IN

MO

WV
KY

VA
NC

TN
AR

SC
MS

AL

GA

LA

TX
AK

FL
HI

13

Number of
states with
adult obesity
rates above
30 percent

41

Number of
states with
adult obesity
rates of at least
25 percent

20.5% 34.7%

Colorado
Lowest rate of
adult obesity

Louisiana
Highest rate of
adult obesity

Source: Trust for America’s Health

1

Food and beverage companies
should market only their healthiest
products to children.
The food and beverage industry spends
nearly $2 billion annually marketing
mostly unhealthy products to children and
adolescents in America. Despite some
progress to improve the nutritional quality of
foods marketed to children, America’s youths
continue to grow up in environments that
promote unhealthy foods and beverages. The
Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended
the food, beverage and restaurant industries
improve the health of their products, shift
their advertising and marketing emphasis
to healthier child- and youth-oriented foods
and beverages, and has reaffirmed the
need for stronger standards to improve
food-marketing practices. Media and
entertainment companies should jointly adopt
meaningful, uniform nutrition standards for
marketing food and beverages to children.
In 2006, food and beverage companies
created the Children’s Food and Beverage
Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), a self-regulatory
program administered by the Council of Better
Business Bureaus (BBB) to limit unhealthy
marketing aimed at children younger than 12.
While the CFBAI has led to some reductions in
unhealthy food marketing aimed at children,


several studies show the vast majority of
marketed products remain unhealthy.
The CFBAI should strengthen and expand
its self-regulatory program to cover all forms
of marketing to all children, including product
packaging, in-store promotions and all
marketing in schools. In addition, government
agencies, researchers and independent
groups should continue to monitor and
evaluate food-marketing expenditures and

Number of ads
on childern’s
websites
for food and
beverage
in 2009

2
Billion

Black children’s exposure to
advertising for regular soda
compared to their White peers

93

%

15

MORE

practices, as well as children’s exposure
to marketing and advertising for unhealthy
foods and beverages and the effectiveness of
industry’s voluntary actions.
Concern about the ineffectiveness of
industry self-regulation led Congress in 2009
to direct the formation of an Interagency
Working Group on Food Marketed to Children
(IWG). The group released a set of voluntary
principles in 2011 and following the conclusion
of a public comment period, Congress
requested IWG to conduct a cost-benefit
analysis of proposed voluntary guidelines in
2012. To date, that analysis has not been
completed. To improve the nutritional profile of
foods marketed directly to children, the IWG
must finalize its guidelines.

2

Restaurants should post calorie
information on menus.
Americans consume approximately onethird of their total calories and spend half of
their food budget eating away from home.
Many leading health organizations, including
the American Medical Association (AMA)
and the American Heart Association (AHA),
support menu labeling as an important tool to
allow consumers to make informed choices.
The AMA recommends providing consumers


Americans don’t have
access to a supermarket
within a mile of their home

MILES

23.5 MILLION 30

is the distance
70 percent
of Mississippi
food stamp-eligible
families live
from the closest
large grocery store

32
percent
increase

in fruit
and vegtable
consumption
for Blacks with
each new
supermarket
in their
neighborhood

Source: PolicyLink, The Grocery Gap

with easy-to-understand nutrition information
that includes total calories, fat, saturated fat,
trans fat and sodium content.
Over the past few years, some states
and local communities have started to
require larger chain food establishments
to begin menu labeling. In addition, the
Affordable Care Act (ACA) included a national
requirement for all food establishments with
20 or more locations to clearly post the
calorie information for each standard item
on their menus. Companies with 20 or more
food or beverage vending machines would
have similar requirements.
In April 2011, FDA issued proposed rules
and held a public comment period on new
requirements for chain restaurants, similar
retail food establishments and vending
machines to include calorie counts on menu
boards and to have additional nutrition
information available upon request. The
federal rules would preempt any existing
state or local menu labeling regulations.
More than 80 national, state and local
health organizations and experts called on
FDA to strengthen the final rule and adhere to
the language in the ACA by including outlets
that sell food beyond chain restaurants, and
to require labeling of alcoholic beverages
listed on menus. As of July 20, 2013, the rule
has not been finalized.


In its final regulations, which should be
issued as soon as possible, FDA should meet
the original intent of the ACA and not exempt
calorie labeling for alcoholic beverages, and
should not exclude movie theaters, airplanes,
bowling alleys and other businesses whose
primary business is not to serve food, as
they are places where millions of Americans
regularly consume food and beverages.

3

Everyone should be able to
purchase healthy, affordable foods
close to home.
Research has shown many Americans
want to eat healthier. According to the Natural
Marketing Institute (NMI), at least one-third
of consumers are committed to healthier
eating, and a Harris poll found 58 percent
of restaurant patrons consider healthy
menu items when choosing a restaurant. In
addition, a 2013 Hudson Institute study found
chains that increased lower-calorie servings
outperformed those that served fewer lowercalorie items.
In reality, companies can benefit
tremendously by offering healthier options. In
so doing, their actions have the added benefit
of addressing one of the nation’s most urgent
public health crises.

16

Failure is not an Option
If we fail to reverse obesity, the current
generation of young people may be the first
in American history to live sicker and die
younger than their parents’ generation. That
is completely unacceptable—especially when
we’ve begun to see progress and understand
what policies and approaches can halt the
epidemic and help those who want to stay
healthy do so.
In addition, the success among children
has taught our nation how to prevent
obesity: changing public policies, community
environments and industry practices in ways
that support and promote healthy eating and
physical activity.
Quite simply, all food in schools must
be healthy, restaurants should post calorie
information on menus, food and beverage
companies should market only their healthiest
products to children, and everyone should
be able to purchase healthy, affordable foods
close to home. ■

Jeffrey Levi, Ph.D., is the executive director of Trust for
America’s Health. Visit fasinfat.org for interactives,
graphs, charts and obesity rates for the states and
nation going back decades.


Battling Bulge with Taxes,
Government Restrictions

BY JOSH LONG

M

ayor Michael Bloomberg’s failed soda ban in New York
City illustrates divisiveness over the role of government
in combating the nation’s blubber. New York courts have
found the prohibition on large sugary drinks is unlawful
because the health board exceeded its authority. The controversial
measure has stirred bipolar reactions in Mississippi and Mexico.

Will taxes and
limitations on fatty
foods and sugary
drinks actually help
control weight?
Some academics
seem to think so.
Jacking up food
prices would, in fact,
help reduce body fat
in youths.


Mississippi, the second most obese state in
the United States, was so incensed it passed
legislation prohibiting local governments from
regulating the sales and marketing of food
and non-alcoholic drinks. Dubbed the “AntiBloomberg Bill”, SB 2687 even preempts
local regulation of food-nutrition information.
“It’s simply not the role of government to
micro-regulate citizens’ dietary decisions,”
Mississippi’s Republican governor Phil Bryant
declared in a statement accompanying his
signing of the bill in March 2013.
Obesity-plagued Mexico feels differently;
America’s southern neighbor has passed taxes on
snack foods and soft drinks. The idea is to reduce
consumption of sugar and other junk foods that
are expanding waistlines and increasing the risk
of diabetes and heart disease.
According to 2009-2010 data from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
more than one-third of U.S. adults are obese. CDC
considers an adult obese if he or she has a body
mass index (BMI) of at least 30 while a person
with a BMI of between 25 and 29.9 is classiﬁed
as overweight. Mississippi and Louisiana lead the
nation in adult obesity, while Colorado holds the

10

distinction of being the least-fat state, according
to a project of the Trust for America’s Health and
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
“A soda tax is something that American city
councils, state legislatures and Congress should
be looking at in the months and years ahead,”
argued Michael Jacobson, executive director of
the Center for Science in the Public Interest, in a
statement Oct. 31.
Will taxes and limitations on fatty foods and
sugary drinks actually help control weight?
Some academics seem to think so. Jacking up
food prices would, in fact, help reduce body fat
in youths, according to a working paper from
the National Bureau of Economic Research. The
paper found a 10-percent hike in the price of
a calorie for home consumption would reduce
male percentage body fat by roughly 9 percent.
“Our results do not directly speak to the
potential impacts of a soda tax,” authors Michael
Grossman, Erdal Tekin and Roy Wada wrote, “but
they do suggest that a tax on meals purchased
in fast-food restaurants or a subsidy to the
consumption of fruits and vegetables would lead
to better obesity outcomes among adolescents.”
The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA)
is unequivocal that taxes and food restrictions
are ineffective in capsizing corpulence. “At the
end of the day, arbitrary bans, restrictions or
taxes are not a viable solution to solve obesity,”
said Sean McBride, GMA’s executive vice
president of communications and membership
services. “It’s scientiﬁcally proven if we are going
to solve obesity [individuals must] eat a healthy
diet and be more physically active.”

%

17

A 10-percent hike in the
price of a calorie for home
consumption would reduce
male percentage body fat
by roughly 9 percent.

According to McBride, food and beverage
companies have implemented a number of
measures to improve consumers’ health and
reduce fat. Some of those measures include:
• introduction since 2002 of more than
20,000 new products with fewer calories,
reduced fat, sugar and sodium as well as
more whole-grains;
• the launch of Facts up Front, a voluntary
front-of-pack nutrition labeling system
intended to help parents make more
informed decisions;
• through an initiative, the voluntary
adoption of advertising criteria to promote
healthier diet choices on children’s
programming;
• the removal of full-calorie soft drinks from
schools and a 90-percent reduction in
total calories from beverages at schools;
and
• $130 million in annual grants to support
nutrition and health-related programs.
McBride said the industry should
continue to invest in such programs to help
consumers be more physically active and
achieve healthier diets. Others contend food
companies have little incentive to promote
healthy products. Michele Simon, a policy
consultant to the Center for Food Safety
and public health lawyer, describes a “food
industry that makes money by selling highly
processed, cheap food.”

“The food industry’s economic motivators
come from taking natural ingredients and
processing them and putting them in a box
and putting a big advertising campaign
around them,” said Simon, who authored
the book, Appetite for Profit: How the food
industry undermines our health and how to
fight back. “They make more money selling
Frosted Mini-Wheats instead of just oatmeal
by the pound,” she said. But even she
expressed reservations that taxes will yield
fruit in the battle against blubber.
“I’m not sure we know yet how effective
a food tax might be,” Simon said. “Looking
at marketing more broadly is just as
important—maybe more important—than
that particular strategy. Marketing to children
has been an acknowledged problem for
decades now.”
Unquestionably, government has an
incentive, and a role to play, in promoting
healthier diets. According to the CDC, obesity
results in annual medical costs of $148
billion. The health agency cites such obesityrelated conditions as cancer, heart attack,
type 2 diabetes and stroke.
FDA is taking an active role in fighting fat.
In a landmark announcement, the agency
preliminarily determined in November
2013 that partially hydrogenated oils—the
primary dietary source of artificial trans
fat in processed foods—are not generally
recognized as safe (GRAS).

Reducing “trans fat in the American diet
could prevent an additional 20,000 heart
attacks and 7,000 deaths from heart disease
each year—a critical step in the protection
of Americans’ health,” FDA Commissioner
Margaret Hamburg declared.
Jacobson of CSPI referred to the removal of
artificial trans fat as “one of the most important
life-saving measures FDA could take.”
“Thousands of heart attack deaths will be
prevented in the years ahead,” he proclaimed.
With FDA opening up a 60-day comment
period, at least some food manufacturers
are likely to oppose the measure. And a
nationwide survey conducted by the Pew
Research Center found Americans are divided
over whether to ban trans fat in restaurants.
Forty-four percent of the 996 adults surveyed
were in favor of the prohibition while 52
percent opposed FDA’s proposal.
The GMA hasn’t provided an official
position on the issue other than noting the
industry has lowered trans fat in food by more
than 73 percent since 2005. “Consumers can
be confident their food is safe,” GMA declared
in a statement, “and we look forward to
working with FDA to better understand their
concerns and how our industry can better
serve consumers.” ■

Josh Long is the legal/regulatory editor for Food
Product Design.

Bloomberg Ban
New York City’s attempt to ban large sugary drinks is maddening to a beverage
industry that has successfully challenged the prohibition in the local courts. Still,
consumers have acknowledged drinking less soda could be beneficial. According to a
TeleVox Healthy World Survey, nearly half (46 percent) of respondents believe drinking
fewer sodas could help them shed pounds. And roughly one-third of Americans report
they would support a soda ban in their local area, the survey found.

18


Addressing

OBESITY

Through Food Culture
BY LAURIE DEMERITT

“Americans eat too much and too often, and they aren’t active enough.”

T

hat’s the refrain U.S. consumers recite about their collective weight. It
demonstrates a remarkable depth of self-knowledge for a population
that nevertheless struggles to reverse the trend. In late 2013, the
National Center for Health Statistics said the U.S. obesity rate had
leveled off at 35 percent of adults, but remained an epidemic.

Despite having a frank understanding
of the basics—too much food, too little
movement—almost half of consumers are
conflicted about how to effectively manage
factors that lead to obesity. When talking
about what makes them overweight, The
Hartman Group’s decades-long research
in health, wellness and eating behaviors
consistently finds that consumers blame their
own choices more than food companies or
particular ingredients. They also are aware
of the strong influence of food culture. For
example, they know their eating habits are
shaped by busy lifestyles in which they
frequently eat alone, and they know emotions
play a role in how much they eat. Everyone
from food manufacturers to retail and
government has an opportunity to help people
navigate that complex world.
A complicating factor is U.S. consumers
as a group have tilted so far toward being

overweight that individuals do not necessarily
know when their weight has become a
problem. Being heavy has become a “new
normal,” and people are so accustomed to
seeing bulging waistlines that the shame
factor around fat has diminished. The same
applies to watching other people eat and (not)
exercise. Just by spending time together,
consumers have created a new standard for
what’s acceptable when it comes to meals,
movement and weight. Although many people
would like to “lose a few pounds,” they often
think their weight is fairly average. In our
research, one 55-year-old overweight man
told us he was in “good shape for my age,”
while a 24-year-old obese female said she
needed to “lose a few pounds, but overall not
too worried about it.”
Consumers see food culture as affecting
weight in many ways. They believe healthy
food costs more than inexpensive meals,

and they have begun to attribute more
responsibility than previously to fastfood restaurants and high-calorie foods.
The Hartman Group’s How America Eats
2011 report on eating behaviors and
weight management shows 43 percent of
consumers see fast-food restaurants as
more responsible for obesity than other
restaurants, up from 30 percent in 2004.
Similarly, 38 percent of consumers now
think companies that make high-calorie
snack foods are more responsible than
others for obesity, up from 29 percent
in 2004. Consumers say they would like
food manufacturers to make healthy food
choices easier by standardizing serving
sizes, and they want retailers to sell fresh,
wholesome food. When ranking tactics they
believe promote healthy eating, people cite:
nutrition education programs in schools
(80 percent), nutrition information on menu
items in restaurants (69 percent), and
nutrition labeling requirements for restaurants
(65 percent) and food manufacturers
(63 percent) (Figure 1).
People gain their earliest ideas about
eating from their parents, and obesity has
more than doubled in children (to 18 percent)
and tripled in adolescents (also to 18 percent)

Figure 1. Tactics Consumers Believe Promote Healthy Eating
Educational programs
at schools

Most consumers support efforts to include
more intensive education about obesity and
healthy eating in schools. Question for these
responses: Please indicate your opinion on each
of the following tactics de-signed to promote
healthy eating. (Top 2 Box) Base sizes (n): All
respondents (1,790).

80%

Nutritional information on all
menu items at resutrants

69%

Nutrition labeling requirements
for resturants

65%

Additional nutrition
labeling requirements
for food manufacturers

63%

Obesity lawsuits against
“fast food” resturants


15%

While strong opposition to obesity
lawsuits is on the decline the
percentage of consumers actually
supporting such actions is still small

19

Source: How America Eats 2011 report,
The Hartman Group Inc.


during the past three decades. In 2010, more
than one-third of U.S. children and adolescents
were overweight or obese, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC). People blame parents for the problem,
with 85 percent saying parents are responsible
for what their children eat. They also blame the
U.S. lifestyle of eating on-the-go, unsupervised
snacking at home and parents who do not set a
good example with their own eating habits.
Shifts in cultural norms have a major influence
on weight, from the changing concept of meals
to feelings associated with hectic lifestyles
that have become tied to eating. People snack
more than they eat meals, and often they
eat alone and on the run. Breakfast is almost
completely skipped by 23 percent of overweight
consumers and 32 percent of people who are
extremely overweight, compared to 18 percent
of normal-weight consumers and 19 percent
of people who are underweight. Research
indicates the greatest challenges for overweight
and extremely overweight people are junk food,
comfort food, frequent snacking and eating
because of emotions such as boredom, stress

and frustration.
In the bigger picture, U.S. food culture has
migrated from a series of planned, utilitarian
meals to today’s emphasis on specialization,
authenticity and eating while doing other
activities such as working and watching
television. Many consumers believe busy
lifestyles lead to poor eating habits because
they require people to manage their time
(around work and family priorities) at the
expense of managing their weight. Put simply,
U.S. food culture now means eating more,
eating more frequently and eating alone more
than ever (Figure 2).
In fact, 40 percent of adult meals are eaten
alone, while 51 percent of adult snacking
happens alone. Without companions, people
tend to eat mindlessly and eat more. In
addition, consumers have replaced many
meals with snacks, which are beginning to
define much of U.S. food culture. Snacking
is no longer a “special,” infrequent occasion
just for children or with a limited set of
product categories (cookies or chips). Snacks
have become healthier and their frequency

Figure 2. Language Map: Consumers perceive culture, or How America Eats, as the cause of obesity.
salt
not healthy
value menu
cheap

habit

snacking all day

home cooking

at (kids’)
event

not
enough

too many
servings

other

at desk

lunch room
local restaurant
at desk

fast
food
junk
food

buy in
bulk
coupons
on sale

HOW AMERICA EATS

leftovers

mindless
munching

television

at home
at desk
in car

fatty foods

unhealthy

cheap

office

sugar

too
much

WHAT WE EAT

WHERE WE EAT

cafeteria

microwave entrees

eat in car

on way to work/event

home

shocked pantries

multi-task
on way home

restaurant

large portions

computer

drive thru

time crunch

special
fast food
occassion
socialize
indulge/
casual dining
splurge can make
healthier choice
guided by
nutrition info

quick
& easy

24 hours
convinient

fresh produce

hungry now

spontaneous
alone

coworkers
bar

restaurant

WHO WE EAT WITH
friends
party

cook together
special occassion

family
holiday
evening
meals
meal
TV/movie
night snacks

WHY WE EAT
emotional

WHEN WE EAT
late night
snack
snack
all day

skip
breakfast
in the
car

craving

grab & go

have a taste for
in the mood for

indulging sweets/desserts

boredom
stress
comfort
sadness/depression
sudden
intense
hunger

comfort food
high fat/sugar

cravings

To read the map, consider the color areas the trunk of a tree representing primary themes, and treat the other areas as branches of supporting
quotes, thoughts, tactics, etc., connected to what the primary themes mean to consumers.
Source: How America Eats 2011 report, The Hartman Group Inc.


20


Snacking is no longer a “special,” infrequent occasion just for children or with a limited set
of product categories (cookies or chips). Snacks have become healthier and their frequency
demonstrates a new attitude toward eating in general, including a belief in distributing small
treat moments throughout the day to avoid over-indulgent binges.
demonstrates a new attitude toward eating in
general, including a belief in distributing small
treat moments throughout the day to avoid
over-indulgent binges.
Food marketers can compete in this arena
by offering smaller, snack-sized portions
packaged for people to eat at their desks or
on the go; they can create the higher-quality
snack foods people want and find products
that are appealing for early morning and
late-night snacking where there are few
established cultural cues about what should
be eaten. Companies also can encourage
people to socialize while they eat, which
makes compulsive eating almost impossible.
Their marketing campaigns can demonstrate
empathy for a cultural love of snacking while
encouraging people to think of creative ways

to socialize it. Snacks can return to the “old
days” of afternoon teas and after-school
treats when they were enjoyable, memorable
experiences rather than “bad” foods to avoid.
Although people managing their weight
are frequently targeted by the food industry
for particular products, their needs change
over the course of their weight-management
journeys, which means no single product
is likely to stick unless it meets an ongoing
need. Consumers often embark on weightmanagement journeys after realizing their
eating habits are chaotic. They seek out
weight-loss tips and plans as well as
information about nutrition, health and food
culture, which is an opportunity for food
marketers to become part of a process that,
when successful, leads to healthy eating.

People look to a host of resources—from
social networks to books, magazines, doctors,
television, websites and store displays. They
also tend to follow diets early on because
that allows them to outsource their food
choices and eating habits to experts. Most
consumers find diets do not work because
they lead to boredom, cravings and alienation
from social eating. Other weight-management
strategies include giving up key ingredients
or categories such as sugar, carbs, fast food
or red meat; cutting back on calories and
snacks; and creating rules that ultimately can
be internalized and lead to a more enjoyable
approach to eating. However, shortly after
the rules are formed, people often face
conflicts, challenges and setbacks that spiral
them into a “trying this” and “trying that”

Imagine what you could do
with a pound of insight!
For leading-edge insights on consumer
culture that deliver breakthrough
results, turn to The Hartman Group.
To get a taste for how we do this,
download a free copy of
Trends Insights: From Market Research to
Strategic Implications white paper.

425-452-0818 | www.hartman-group.com


21


feedback loop in which some products can achieve
fad status, then disappear. When people break out
of that loop, they move toward more self-awareness
and an understanding of eating that helps them form
intuitive, pleasure-based attitudes that are complex
but still orderly and routine—in other words, healthy.
The most successful weight-management
strategies include eating fresh foods, preparing
meals at home and watching portion sizes. Meal
planning is a valuable tool that consumers use to
maximize nutrition, seasonality and flavors, and it
helps them shop for and cook more fresh, whole
foods at home. When considering particular meals,
51 percent of people who are watching their weight
say portion size is a consideration at dinner, whereas
only 41 percent say it plays a role at breakfast. Sugar
content is the greatest concern with snacks, while
fat content is the top concern for lunch and dinner.
When reading labels on food products, consumers
say their top weight-management concern is
intake of calories, followed by sugar, fat, and salt or
sodium. They find nutritional information on labels
confusing because there is no standard measure
of serving size. Such information has less influence

Portion Size
%
51
Dinner

on consumers eating in restaurants and foodservice
settings because even people watching their weight
say such visits are not about making healthy choices.
Food marketers should take into account the vast
world of food culture when considering consumers
who are watching their weight and trying to eat
healthier foods. Only when the conversation—
publicly and within companies—turns to that rich,
complicated arena will food companies be able to
predict with any certainty whether they are meeting
consumers’ needs with categories and products that
are likely to last. ■

As CEO, Laurie Demeritt (laurie@hartman-group.com) provides
strategic and operational leadership for The Hartman Group’s
research and consulting teams. Laurie and The Hartman Group
analysts are recognized for their unique ability to blend primary
qualitative, quantitative, and trends research to help clients
develop successful marketing strategies by understanding
the subtle complexities of how consumers live, shop and use
products, and how to apply that understanding in ways that
lead to purchase.

People who are watching their weight
say portion size is a consideration at
dinner, whereas others say breakfast.

41
Breakfast
%

Source: The Hartman Group Inc.


22


Snacks: It’s all About Balance
BY TOM DEMPSEY

G

o to a sporting event, or a mall, or the airport, or
even just walk down the street and it’s obvious
many Americans are not making healthy dietary
decisions or getting enough exercise.

It is a matter of personal
responsibility. And yes,
the food industry can
make it easier with
better-for-you options
and more helpful labels.
Specifically, the snack
food industry can—
and is—playing an
important role providing
the information and
the products to help
consumers make
healthy choices and
still enjoy their favorite
foods, in moderation.


For proof, do some people watching the
next time you are out and about. Too many
folks are hurriedly stuffing themselves with
foods high in calories, fat, sugar and salt, not
even thinking about what the excesses will do
to their health.
As Americans, we are given the opportunity to
make our own decisions about diet and health,
consciously deciding what, how much and when
to consume food and beverages, and then the
extent to which we will exercise to work off the
calories. Surveys have shown Americans don’t
like to be told what to do—especially when
it comes to personal matters. We should be
making our own decisions; that’s what a free
country is all about.
It is a matter of personal responsibility. And
yes, the food industry can make it easier with
better-for-you options and more helpful labels.
Specifically, the snack food industry can—and
is—playing an important role providing the
information and the products to help consumers
make healthy choices and still enjoy their favorite
foods, in moderation.
As the former president of Utz Quality Foods,
a major snack manufacturer in the United
States, I can tell you snack makers have
worked tirelessly to be responsible when it
comes to health and wellness. We did that at
Utz, and snack companies across the nation are
doing so as well.
In fact, snack manufacturers were among
the first in the food industry to offer 100-calorie
packages of their products to help consumers
manage their caloric intake. Companies have

23

developed and created low-fat, low-calorie and
low-sodium products for the same purpose. They
are on the store shelves today in grocery and
convenience stores across the nation.
Industry Action
Here are some specifics about what the
industry, led by the Snack Food Association
(SFA), has done:
Support for Competitive Foods Standards
in Schools: SFA and the majority of its members
support competitive food guidelines set forth by
both the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA)
Healthier U.S. Schools Challenge (USSC) and the
Alliance for a Healthier Generation (AHG). Both
guidelines have gone through extensive review
and allow for a good variety of better-for-you
(BFY) food products to be available to children in
schools. SFA is working with USDA to respond to
its interim final rule and eventual implementation
of a final rule to reflect what we continue to
support in USSC and AHG.


Healthier Than You Think:

With consumers snacking more and “mealing”
less, the snack food industry is working hard
to decrease, sugar, fats and calories, and add
more whole-grains.
Reformulation: Many of the companies
SFA represents manufacture foods that may
be healthier than you think. Our industry, like
others, has worked hard to decrease sodium,
sugar, fats, trans fats and calories, and added
more whole-grains. In fact many of our
products come from combinations of a few
simple ingredients.
Better-for-you Items: Our industry has
worked to offer consumers a variety of new,
BFY products including reduced-fat and
reduced-sodium popcorn and potato chips,
whole-wheat crackers, pita chips, granola
bars, pretzels and baked chips, and clearly
mark these on their packages with icons
and verbiage. SFA’s members have also
pioneered portion control through smallersize packages.
Responsible Marketing: Many in
our industry are engaged with the Better
Business Bureau (BBB) in its Children’s Food
and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI),
where they have championed responsible
marketing to children. Through this program,
snack makers have led the effort to
successfully shift the marketing mix to only
allowing those items that meet strict nutrition
criteria for kids under 12 years of age.
Labeling & Access to Nutrition
Information: Snack makers have supported
the provision within the Affordable Care Act
that requires the disclosure of calories and
other nutrition information for certain foods
sold in vending machines. Operators who own


or operate 20 or more vending machines will
be required to post calorie information, unless
certain nutrition information is already visible
on individual packages—an activity many
of our members are working to implement
to ease consumer’s access to nutrition
information. SFA also supports the industry’s
effort to provide front-of-pack labeling so
consumers can more easily compare the
nutrition information of different products.
Preserving SNAP Choice: For more
than 40 years, the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) has been the
foundation of America’s national nutrition
safety net, the first line of defense against
hunger among low-income people. SFA’s goal
is to preserve the ability of SNAP recipients
to exercise choice in their food purchases. In
an April 2012 report on the profile of SNAP,
USDA stated across broadly defined food
categories, there is little difference in the food
choices made by low-income and higherincome families. However, amendments to
limit SNAP choice have been proposed in
Congress. SFA is working with anti-hunger
advocates and others to allow all consumers
to make their own choices.
Nutrition Facts Panel: Over the past
few years there have been several FDAcommissioned consumer studies and
Advanced Notices of Proposed Rule Making
(ANPRMs) issued related to the Nutrition
Facts Panel. SFA expects proposed changes
will likely include: an increase in prominence

24

of calories, change in serving size (RACC),
addition of required nutrients such as
potassium, update of the daily reference
values (DRVs) and the reference daily
intake values (RDIs), and lowering trans fat
label levels (from 0.5 to at most 0.2). SFA
is working with industry partners to help
FDA understand potential consequences
of changing the label, including consumer
confusion, increased cost and changes to
existing commitments that are based on
current serving sizes. Once the proposed rule
is published, SFA will work with members
to determine the key areas of greatest
concern and consider submitting comments.
Ultimately, however, SFA companies will
continue to provide the required information
to help consumers make informed choices.
One of today’s most frequent messages
from dietitians and nutritionists is that a
good way to help curb one’s appetite and
successfully lose weight is to consume
smaller, regular, frequent meals throughout
the day. The right snacks, eaten in
moderation, can help make that possible. The
snack food industry, with the help of SFA, is
working to provide those choices to make it
even easier for consumers to enjoy their food
selections while improving their health. ■

Tom Dempsey is CEO of the Snack Food Association
and former president of Utz Quality Foods.


Reshaping

Obesity

with Industry’s CEOs
BY LISA GABLE

W

hen Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, addressed the Midwinter
conference of the Food Marketing Institute in January 2008, she
had an important message to deliver: “We can do something
and we should do something.” Nooyi knew more than one in
three American adults and nearly one in five American children were obese;
and she knew the potential health consequences of obesity: type 2 diabetes,
hypertension, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and other ailments. And while
companies in her industry were making changes in the marketplace to
provide lower-calorie options to the consumer, critics were either unaware of
the industry’s efforts or skeptical of the results they produced. At the time,
the food and beverage industry recognized the need to become even more
actively and visibly engaged on obesity, so when Nooyi challenged them, she
had a group of colleagues that were eager to lead.
In the fall of 2009, some of the country’s
largest food and beverage manufacturers and
retailers formed the Healthy Weight Commitment
Foundation (HWCF), setting out to do their part
in addressing the obesity challenge, focusing
on two key elements that would determine its
success: to make a significant marketplace
commitment with its findings buttressed by
an independent outside evaluator, and to put
its resources behind a consumer education
campaign and open its doors to any organization
looking to participate in this effort.
HWCF has grown from 16 founding-member
companies into a coalition comprised of more

and schools reduce obesity, especially childhood
obesity, by 2015. Research shows “energy
balance”—balancing the calories consumed
with energy expended—is an effective weightmanagement concept easily understood at all
ages. We offer consumers more choice in the
marketplace—helping balance their “caloriesin”—and promote active, healthy living through
regular exercise—“calories out.” We focus
our efforts on two critical areas: families and
schools. It is at school and in the home where
children spend most of their time, and where
educational and support initiatives can achieve
the most.
Time to Step Up and Commit
In May 2010, HWCF was the first industry
group to step up and make a commitment
to the First Lady’s Partnership for a Healthier
America, an organization working to mobilize
action around the goals of the First Lady’s Let’s
Move! Campaign. The Foundation committed to
reduce calories sold in the marketplace by 1.5
trillion via a variety of ways: offering reduced
portion sizes of single-serve products, lowering
the calorie content of current products and
introducing new lower-calorie products.
Critics are quick to challenge the credibility
of industry commitments, so we knew bringing
in an independent, outside evaluator to evaluate

Research shows “energy balance”—balancing
the calories consumed with energy expended—
is an effective weight-management concept
easily understood at all ages.
than 250 organizations—including retailers,
food and beverage manufacturers, restaurants,
sporting goods and insurance companies,
trade associations and non-governmental
organizations, and professional sports
organizations—working together to help families


25

our findings was essential to our success.
Beyond our public commitment to the First Lady,
we turned to the one of the most respected
thought leaders in the obesity sphere—the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). RWJF
is the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted


82%
OF SALES
GROWTH

$1.25B
SALES
INCREASE

exclusively to improving the health
and health care of all Americans and
has an unimpeachable reputation.
This past May, HWCF
announced it had exceeded
its goal of reducing 1.5
trillion calories in the
marketplace by the end of
2012, three years ahead of
Lower-calorie products drove 82 percent of the
schedule.
sales growth among the HWCF member food
Evaluating calories sold
and beverage companies studied, over four
in the marketplace for 16
times the rate of higher-calorie products.
separate companies requires an
incredibly complex econometric
Lower-calorie sales increased by over $1.25
process, comparing sales yearbillion, compared to less than $300 million for
higher-calorie products.
over-year while considering
changes in product portfolios.
Anyone familiar with business
can imagine how difficult it
might have been for fierce
I N S T I T U T E
competitors to come together
and direct some of their
For more information visit www.obesity-solutions.org
collective energies toward
developing great-tasting,
lower-calorie foods that meet
consumer demands for taste, value and
convenience. RWJF will announce the results of
its evaluation in the first half of 2014.

HUDSON

Energy Balance
Beyond transforming the marketplace,
HWCF also sought to leverage resources
and reach of its membership to provide
parents, teachers and caregivers with the
necessary tools to educate children on the
need for energy balance. To do this, HWCF
partnered with another best-in-class company,
Discovery Education, the leading provider
of digital curriculum worldwide. Discovery
worked closely with us to create the Together
Counts™ program. The program platform is
built upon Discovery’s existing channel, which
reaches 53 percent of all U.S. elementary
schools. The program leverages Discovery’s
reach, credibility, deep relationships with
elementary schools, and proven ability to
provide educators with useful tools. The goal
was to provide a one-stop shop for lesson
plans and resources for teachers and parents.


26

On togethercounts.com teachers can find
free, open-source, standards-based lesson
plans; and parents, school health professionals
and community organizations can find tips,
tools and resources to use at home, including
bringing resources to at-risk communities with
the support of its sponsors and partners.
It isn’t enough to simply put information
out there; we needed to find ways to grab the
attention of parents, teachers and students and
engage them as active leaders in making longterm changes. Understanding that incentives
drive change, HWCF launched competitive
awards campaigns to encourage schools to
improve their energy balance, providing prizes
and support with the help of its non-profit and
corporate members. For example, schools can
enter the Find Your Balance Challenge through
the submission of an Energy Balance business
plan to win a grand prize of $30,000 or runnerup prizes of $5,000 each. This year’s winner
will use the award, along with matching funds
from the New England Patriots, to upgrade the
facilities in their school cafeteria to prepare
produce, add a permanent salad bar, build a
gymnasium, invest in heart-rate monitors and
pedometers, purchase playground and fitness
equipment, and fund a greenhouse.
Recognizing that nutritious eating and
lifestyle habits start at an early age, this past
September at the Clinton Global Initiative,
HWCF and Discovery Education launched
“Smart from the Start,” which focuses on preschools. Pre-school and Head Start programs
are eligible to compete for a $20,000 grand
prize and ten $2,500 runner-up prizes. In
addition, HWCF has funded two additional
Smart from the Start grant programs that
provide financial incentives for PTAs and PTA
Councils to create sustainable programming.
Winners will be selected on the basis of their
business plans, demonstration of how they use
the Together Counts curriculum and their ability
to show innovative and creative changes.
Big Challenges Remain
HWCF has made incredible progress in four
years, but many challenges remain to address
the problem of obesity. Unfortunately, there


are no silver bullets. In the absence of a single magic
solution, HWCF has focused on what we can do.
Industry can, and should, offer choice in the
marketplace, and it appears consumers are buying-in.
To measure the success of our calorie commitment,
we commissioned the Hudson Institute, a non-partisan
research institute, to analyze the 2007-2011 U.S.
product and sales data of the 16-member food and
beverage manufacturing companies.
The study found lower-calorie products drove
82 percent of the sales growth among the food and
beverage companies studied—more than four times
the rate of sales growth of higher-calorie products.
The sales of lower-calorie food and beverage products
increased by more than $1.25 billion, compared to less
than $300 million for higher-calorie products. Of the
15 new products attaining annual sales of $50 million
or more, 10 were lower-calorie items. Based on this
data, the Hudson Institute recommended “(c)ompanies
should emphasize selling lower-calorie foods and
beverages as an effective pathway to improved overall
sales growth.” In other words, selling more lowercalorie foods and beverages is just good business.
We recognize there are any number of
governmental programs that include health and
wellness education, each of which has its own
standards and requirements. Many of these
programs have struggled to find funds for federally
mandated education programs. We have found this
to be a challenge worth addressing to maximize
the value of our investments. HWCF has met the
National Association for the Education of Young
Children (NAEYC) school standards, and aligned
our resources with the SNAP Nutrition Education

Grants Program (SNAP-Ed), the Expanded Food
and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) and the
Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). This is a
significant investment we can make on behalf of our
partners and provides an important service to states,
localities, schools and non-profit partners that are
implementing programs on the ground.
How Industry Can Get Involved
All HWCF tools and curricula are free and opensource. Companies (and all organizations) are free to
use this wealth of resources to help schools, families
and communities maintain active, healthy lifestyles.
Companies and other organizations can also
become members of HWCF and become involved
in our current programs and help shape future
programs. Members are encouraged to build on our
programs, or an element of any program, in a manner
that is best suited to them and their partners. Through
participating in our ongoing efforts, organizations can
secure a voice at the table in dealing with one of the
most important challenges America faces.
The cause is important. The goal is achievable.
All potential partners are welcome. Together, we can
achieve a lot for America, and its children. ■

Lisa Gable is the founding president of the Healthy Weight
Commitment Foundation, a CEO-led coalition that brings
together more than 250 organizations to combat childhood
obesity. Our curriculum and resources can be founded at
togethercounts.com.

Source: WeeklyBite.com

27


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Health & Nutrition
Executive Editor
Senior Editor
Editor-in-Chief
Managing Editor
Legal & Regulatory Editor

Heather Granato
Lynn A. Kuntz
Judie Bizzozero
Teresa Esquivel
Alissa Marrapodi
Josh Long

Marketing Manager
Audience Marketing Manager
Audience Marketing Coordinator

Melissa Black
Katherine Hecker
Amanda Saye

Vice President, Marketing Services
Creative Director
Art Director, Health & Nutrition
Art Director
Advertising Art Director
Media Operations Manager
Program Managers

Danielle Dunlap
Joseph DiPastena
Andrew Rosseau
Darcey Saxton
Matt Courter
Melissa Ewing
Kristin LaBarbera
Carolyn Rzeppa

800/581-1811
Lauren Kane
480/990-1101 Ext. 1113
Jennifer Thompson
480/990-1101 Ext. 1170

EVENTS DEPARTMENT
Senior Vice President of Events,
Director of SupplySide
Senior Director of Events
Event Manager
Education Manager
Sales Director, SupplySide
Senior Event Sales Manager
Associate Event Sales Managers

Exhibit Operations Manager
Exhibit Operations Coordinator
Event Registration Coordinator

Chief Executive Officer
Executive Vice President/CFO
Controller
Senior Vice President,
Human Resources

Dana Hicks
Sarah Waschler
Marisa Freed
Natasha Weaver
Lily Wang
Todd Willis
Todd Berger
Will Hirachita
Thomas Baker
Lola Ortega
Vanessa Cruz
Carrie Freese

John Siefert
Kelly Ridley
Amie Higginbotham
Heather Wood

Published by VIRGO Publishing, LLC
3300 N. Central Ave., Suite 300
Phoenix, AZ 85012
Phone 480.990.1101 • Fax 480.990.0819
Website: www.vpico.com


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