The Politics of Food Marketing

In comparison to the pyramid, American diets clearly are out of balance. Servings of added fats are at least one-third higher than they should be, and caloric sweeteners half again as high. The extra calories in American diets come from eating more food in general, but especially more of foods high in fat (meat, dairy, fried foods, grain dishes with added fat), sugar (soft drinks, juice drinks, desserts), and salt (snack foods). It can hardly be a coincidence that these are just the foods most profitable to the food industry and most promoted by it. To understand this connection, it is necessary to know a bit more about the U.S. food industry.