Sugar Secrets

2nd part...

              Obesity was the only problem that arose at that time heads of major American food companies came to an unusual meeting. 

Among them are the heads of Kraft, Nabisco, Nestle, Coca-Cola, and General Mills. These are the managers, who do not usually fight for a place in the grocery store.

They do not meet often. 

But, in 1999, they met to talk about obesity. Gillian: Journalist and author Michael Moss. He described the Minneapolis convention in his best-selling book.

And they had pulled together a group of people within the industry, who had been very anxious, umh, both the burden of the industry and its endurance, to be blamed for obesity. 

Gillian: They met at Pillsbury Company headquarters, 31st floor. The message they received was consistent. And it was brought in by two of them: Michael Mudd, chief executive officer at Kraft, and Jim Hill, a leading food researcher.

 In the slide presentation received by Fifth Estate,

two men handed over to the directors. The global epidemic. 

Gillian: There were too many warnings Mudd told them, before drawing a parallel is designed to make them uncomfortable.

 The tobacco companies had just settled a major case against their product-caused disease. He asked if the food industry wanted to follow.

 If anyone in the food industry ever doubted that there was a slippery slope out there, I think he is a different slippery person right now.

Gillian: The paintings emphasize the point. Maps show obesity rates rise and spread throughout the land like an explosion. 

What a life the results of all this? Studies show that people who are overweight have a higher risk of developing chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and cancer.

 Gillian: To put at the top of the list of contributing factors: The existence of an inexpensive, delicious, universal size,

strong food.

 In other words, it is exactly the diet of C.E.Os. they were in charge of the sale. The two men were hoping to earn a living by reading the link between diet and obesity.

 Instead, they received verbal abuse, starting with Stephen Sanger, head of General Mills. He was furious

Mudd for bringing this to them and blaming them for this, and his defense was, "Look, we are already giving consumers a choice.

If they are looking for low fat or low sugar, we have those products in the grocery store. We feel we already have a responsibility, both to consumers from a health perspective, um, but also to Wall Street.

 Gillian: In other words, they didn't want to know. Now, it is one thing to silence abusive speech in their companies. Eventually Michael Mudd left the food industry due to frustration. 

But people who benefit from sugar have proven themselves to be very effective in crushing dissent everywhere, including in science halls. Before us, day by day.

It is becoming more and more enticing. Gillian: His name was John Yudkin, a British nutritionist who in 1972 wrote the book.

The sugar industry did not like it. "Pure White and Killing" was the culmination of decades of research, according to his son Michael, which led Yudkin to what was then the controversial conclusion.CONTINUE