For more than 30 years, Hank Cardello was an executive and adviser to some of the largest food and beverage corporations in the world. For more than 30 years, he watched as corporate profits - and America's waistlines - ballooned: fattening consumers meant fattening profits. Now, in this fascinating and timely book, Cardello offers a behind-the-scenes look at the business of food, providing an insider's account of food company practices, failed government regulations, and misleading media coverage that have combined to place us in the middle of a national obesity epidemic.
With insights culled from Cardello's time in the food industry, Stuffed explores how food companies have spent the last 50 years largely ignoring healthier fare in the name of their bottom lines while pushing consumers toward convenience food and supersize portions without considering the health consequences. From grocery aisles to restaurant booths to boardrooms, Cardello reveals the hidden forces that have long shaped your supermarket purchases and menu selections. He examines the black-and-white mind-set that has produced the carefully targeted marketing strategies that have maximized profits for the food industry and led to weight gain for you.
But Cardello makes clear that the food companies should not take all the blame. They are merely a cog in a larger system that's broken, and here Cardello illustrates how the government and the media have only made it harder for Americans to make nutritious choices.
Highlighting both bit players and high-profile voices of change, Cardello explains the fundamental risks to one-size-fits-all regulatory solutions and the bigger dangers posed by letting the food pundits confuse the health conversation.
More than simply a chronicle of how we got here, Stuffed also puts forth a groundbreaking blueprint for the future of the food industry. In debunking the common myth that healthier has to mean higher costs and unpal...
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"A contrarian's view of the obesity epidemic in America. The author does not discount individual eater's responsibilities, but makes a case that they frequently have limited choices for a variety of reasons that are not necessarily the fault of restaurants and the food industry, but that only those corporations that bring us raw and prepared food can realistically do anything about. Regardless of whether or not you buy his argument, it's interesting reading on how the food industry works from a former insider (executive and brand management positions at Coke, General Mills, etc.). Besides, I learned a lot about how to read those new food labels, how they sometimes carry misinformation (and not always intentionally), and the shortcomings of the new food pyramid."
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William (4 out of 5 stars)