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Food companies push healthy-living plans

The food industry is helping promote -- and even fund -- campaigns on healthy eating and exercise. The reviews are mixed.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Aug. 4, 2003.

Walk more. Eat less.

Public health officials have long wished for public-private partnerships to help them get out the message key to making a dent in the obesity epidemic. Lately, this wish is being answered with involvement from the very companies sometimes blamed for contributing to the problem.

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In June, McDonald's announced that it would expand "Step with It!" -- a program created by the Coca-Cola Co. last year that encourages walking. More recently, PepsiCo Inc. and MasterfoodsUSA helped launch "America on the Move," a program that encourages people to walk an extra mile a day or cut 100 calories a day from their diets.

"We've got programs for schools, for families, for physicians," said James Hill, PhD, America on the Move founder and director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado in Denver. "We want to get the simple message out in a lot of ways that are tailored toward different groups. I don't know how to solve the obesity problem, but this is a way to get started."

Public health advocates cheered.

"We welcome America on the Move and the growing number of organizations who are getting behind our campaign to increase physical activity and promote healthier diets," said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. "We know that exercise and diet are effective tools in the battle of the bulge. What we need to do now is urge Americans to get up off the couch, step outdoors onto sidewalk, parks and trails. America on the Move is a step and bite in the right direction."

Physicians, overall, welcome the funding and focus.

"Anything that draws attention to more healthy lifestyles, nutrition, exercise is most welcome," said Mike Richardson, MD, an internist in Charlotte, N.C., and author of Health Basics, A Doctor's Plainspoken Advice about How Your Body Works and What to Do When it Doesn't. "It's one of those problems you have to keep whittling away at, and the more voices chiming in the better."

There is some discomfort over the funding issues, though. Some feel that the food industry's current interest in healthy eating may have more to do with fending off obesity-related lawsuit threats than truly improving people's health. These health activists are afraid that such campaigns may soft-pedal important messages.

"I would respect this program if it said don't drink soda. They're not doing that. What this program does is make a company look like it is dealing responsibly with an epidemic they helped cause and shifting the blame for it entirely to us," said Neal Barnard, MD, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit organization that promotes preventive medicine.

Some point out, however, that food is a little different than tobacco or alcohol. And physicians hope that campaigns encouraging healthy eating may in turn lead to consumers demanding healthier options.

"Smoking companies sell death. Food is a much trickier thing," said Philip Ades, MD, professor of medicine and director of cardiac rehabilitation at the University of Vermont in Burlington. "In a perfect world, the money wouldn't come from a company that makes most of their money with soda/obesity machines. I don't think Pepsi cares that much if they make a profit on Pepsi or healthy crackers, but if people are demanding healthy crackers, they'll make more."

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