Would you support a ban on processed food

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes 100 percent. The food in the US is crap. Everyone is getting sick!

This is panicky misinformation brought to you by grifters and charlatans.

Chronic diseases and cancer are highly correlated to levels of exercise/being sedentary, obesity, sugar intake.

It’s not correlated at all to artificial colors or whatever else you think makes US food different from “Europe”.

As for processed foods, Europe and Asia have tons of processed foods. Have any of you ever visited a foreign grocery store?

Americans are fat and are addicted to their cars.

As their stores increasing look like ours, their rates of chronic preventable illnesses are also increasing. We've just been at the bad food game for longer and we are pushed bigger portions everywhere, so the quantity consumed here is also a factor. The less expensive a restaurant is, the more food they pile on your plate. Twice this year I have gone to such places with relatives and was stunned that each entree contained more food than I put on the table for a family of four.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. I would support science rather than quackery and grifting to be driving our policies. I would support increased oversight and testing by the FDA to ensure food safety and labeling regulations are met.

I would be fine with a rating system being developed ..that is based on actual scientific research…identifying foods with highest nutritional content and higher % of natural ingredients.

People forget that before Teddy Roosevelt ushered in regulations you basically played Russian roulette with food buying. Stomach cancer was prevalent due to the ingredients. Arsenic,formaldehyde and many other poisonous chemicals were common place. Spoiled meat was the norm. Heinz invented ketchup as a way to cover up the taste of spoiled meat. Heinz also lobbied hard to get food ingredient label laws in place. His competitors undercut him by selling cheaper knockoffs and lying about the ingredients. This hurt consumer confidence in the product as well. When Heinz succeeded and the FDA was in place and started enforcing the regulations, his knock off competitors disappeared.

Consumers should have information access to what is in food.

This plus cutting the subsidies is the answer.

And banning words like "healthy" "thin" "skinny" "natural" "low fat" and such on items that require a label at all.

[Anonymous]

I would support a health tax on processed food (tax dollars go into health care and related research), subsidies for small, sustainable farms, and grants to producers selling at least 25% of their food production to low income clients/areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope things like Oreos, Coke, Sprite, Doritos, Cheerios, and "instant" mashed potatoes are banned. No nutritional value.

Instant potato flakes are just dehydrated potatoes except for small amounts of emulsifiers and preservatives that are in just about everything that is not raw produce or meat. The only problem with Cheerios is it contains some sugar (2.5% by weight) but far less than, say Capn Crunch (42%). A 1 ounce pkg of Cool Ranch Doritos is 86% whole grain by weight, along with tomato powder, onion powder, garlic powder, red pepper powder, cheddar and some other cheeses, and vegetable oil. They also have Disodium Inosinate and Disodium\Guanylate which are flavor enhancers that naturally occur in meat, seafood, and vegetables.

Seriously, finding a way to define and tax ultra-processed food would be difficult and add a ton of regulations, especially since a lot of additives are derived from sources that are considered food. Then you have to consider people who because of disabilities face real barriers to cooking from scratch.

Not defending what's on most of the shelves but changing the American diet is a heavy lift.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Healthy food already is relatively more affordable than processed food.

Wrong. An apple costs more than a bag of doritos.

A 30 serving container of oatmeal costs less than a bag of Doritos. A 3 pound bag of apples is about the same price as a bag of Doritos

[Anonymous]

Yes I would support this. A good start would be to limits which foods that can be bought with food stamps/BET. Programs like WIC already do this with great success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope things like Oreos, Coke, Sprite, Doritos, Cheerios, and "instant" mashed potatoes are banned. No nutritional value.

Instant potato flakes are just dehydrated potatoes except for small amounts of emulsifiers and preservatives that are in just about everything that is not raw produce or meat. The only problem with Cheerios is it contains some sugar (2.5% by weight) but far less than, say Capn Crunch (42%). A 1 ounce pkg of Cool Ranch Doritos is 86% whole grain by weight, along with tomato powder, onion powder, garlic powder, red pepper powder, cheddar and some other cheeses, and vegetable oil. They also have Disodium Inosinate and Disodium\Guanylate which are flavor enhancers that naturally occur in meat, seafood, and vegetables.

Seriously, finding a way to define and tax ultra-processed food would be difficult and add a ton of regulations, especially since a lot of additives are derived from sources that are considered food. Then you have to consider people who because of disabilities face real barriers to cooking from scratch.

Not defending what's on most of the shelves but changing the American diet is a heavy lift.

I read stuff like this and all I can dream about is the job creation and massive government bureaucracy we will need to determine what is processed, what is not, and the government inspectors going around and inspecting food production facilities. We could literally end unemployment in the US.

[Anonymous]

Processed food is the leading cause of heart disease and cancers in the US so yea, I would support a ban. I never touch the junk.