opioid addiction ”. A robust body of scientific literature has established that UPF ’ s change brain chemistry and neurocircuitry in the same ways as addictive drugs , and are addictive based on the same Surgeon General criteria that were used to determine that cigarettes were addictive . In one striking study , these signals of addictive response were triggered in animals who had UPF surgically implanted into their stomachs — showing that these effects are independent of any taste , smell , or other senses . The same body of science demonstrates that non-UPF foods are not addictive and do not have addictive effects on brain chemistry .
From Joe Camel To The Kool Aid Man : Preying On The Vulnerable
Big Tobacco injected its other dark arts into the U . S . food environment , including one of its most ominous , and successful tactics : targeting children . As Philip Morris ’ CFO bragged in 1987 , after the acquisition of Kraft and General Foods , “ We ’ ve decided to focus our marketing on kids , where we know our strength is its greatest ”. Ad spending directed at mothers was slashed and ad spending directed at children was exponentially increased .
Big Tobacco promoted their UPF using integrated marketing strategies originally designed to sell cigarettes to children ; surrounding children with consistent product messages in the home , store , school , sports stadium , and theme park . They used cartoon mascots , child sized packaging technologies , product loyalty programs , internet apps and games to infiltrate numerous touchpoints of children ’ s lives . Like Big Tobacco ’ s UPF formulation strategies , these marketing strategies became widespread throughout the industry , which now spends billions of dollars every year targeting children with messages promoting unhealthy and addictive substances .
These strategies remain widespread , despite numerous warnings to the industry about the harms . In 2006 , the Institutes of Medicine found that “ the prevailing pattern of food and beverage marketing to children in America … represents a direct threat to the health of the next generation ”. In 2012 , a group of 300 retired admirals and generals declared that this marketing “ is not just a national health issue . It is a national security issue ”, and jeopardizing our ability to field an adequate military .
The Secret Meeting In Minneapolis : The Conspiracy Against American Children
These were not isolated warnings . The UPF industry has been warned repeatedly about the fundamental unfairness and deceptiveness of their practices . Governmental agencies and public health bodies around the world are now decrying the massive societal harms caused by UPF , the devastating public health effects of UPF , and the predatory nature of UPF ’ s marketing tactics . And not only has the UPF industry ignored warning after warning from scientists and public health bodies about the consequences of their actions , they have privately acknowledged that these warnings are true .
On April 8 , 1999 , CEOs from America ’ s largest UPF companies met at a secret meeting in Minneapolis , and looked square at the consequences of their actions . They discussed how their conduct was driving “ devastating public health consequences ” including 300,000 deaths a year , and “ anywhere from $ 40 billion to $ 100 billion dollars a year ” in public health costs . The CEOs discussed how imminent change was needed “ before the problem becomes a crisis for us ”, and that “ no action is ultimately a path to more public health and public relations problems ”.
But they did not change . The CEOs in attendance callously decided to press on and continue making supersized profits at the expense of the public health , and with actual knowledge of the human and economic toll they were inflicting on society . Instead of changing their ways , they piled millions of dollars lobbying legislatures to change the laws and try to prevent their victims from accessing the courthouse doors , publicly denying the scientific studies showing the harms they readily acknowledged behind closed doors and delaying regulatory actions against their most unfair practices .
A Time For Action
We don ’ t have to live this way . We are not powerless to stop billionaire transnational conglomerates from preying on the health of our children . Our civil justice system provides the means for addressing these wrongs : lawsuits . American children are increasingly suffering from previously unheard of chronic diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes and Fatty Liver Disease . And finally the scientific evidence has discovered what the UPF industry has long understood to be the cause : ultra-processed foods that are designed to be addictive , and deceptively marketed to children on a massive scale , are causing these chronic diseases .
58 The Trial Lawyer