Yesterday, Mintel Menu Insights revealed in a press release that people overwhelmingly disregard the health quality of food when dining out, opting instead for certain menu items based on taste, hunger satisfaction, and price.
This revelation comes as no surprise to ACSH s Todd Seavey: America loves donuts. The rest of this public health haranguing is as irrelevant and futile as confessing to a priest once a month about impure thoughts and serves much the same guilt-acknowledging social function.
ACSH staffers hope this will help disabuse the public of the notion propagated by some activist groups that the food industry is to blame for unhealthy meal options.
ACSH s Jeff Stier once had a conversation with the head of nutrition at Burger King, and he recalls the lesson he learned about failed attempts to market healthy alternatives in fast food chains. People will eat what they want to eat, says Stier. The effort to blame companies for selling people what they want is a misguided approach.
ACSH s Dr. Ruth Kava agrees: This underscores the point we ve been trying to make, which is that simply putting things like calorie content on a menu board doesn t mean that people will automatically choose a healthy diet. We need to work on motivating people to choose healthier food by making nutrition seem as important as taste and price.
Former FDA commissioner David Kessler is among those attacking the food industry, likening their marketing techniques to those of the cigarette companies. But the comparison between deadly products like cigarettes --which are designed to be addictive -- and food is disingenuous at best.
That argument is way out of line, says Dr. Kava. Food makers are, of course, trying to produce foods that appeal to people, but foods are not cigarettes.