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Monday, June 27, 2011

Where are the graphic warning labels for junk food?



















After seeing recent stories about the graphic labels that will soon appear on all tobacco products FIRST COVERED HERE, here’s a thought... if the intent is to wake a complacent public up to the dangers of smoking (as the FDA’s commissioner recently said), what about the potentially harmful health effects of other products people use? A slippery slope, because as you listen to the FDA’s rationale in the interview, many of the same reasons for showing the effects of smoking can be applied to other product categories. Car accidents > mobile phones, and so on. (Notice how I went with the more tasteful combo of moobs and beer belly to start off your week, instead of the more graphic toes need to be amputated shot.) Ill effects can take as long to appear as diabetes et al., so why not include them? Where do you draw the line? Will things move beyond simply removing soda machines from schools to requiring this stuff on everything people eat? Discuss!

7 comments:

Woot said...

capitalism should come with a health warning.

Anonymous said...

Well, you're late on your thinking. Fast food restaurants are already being required to present nutritional information. And I believe California officials were definitely seeking to put warning labels on junk food like the cigarette warnings. The food industry is remarkably similar to Big Tobacco. It's not a coincidence that Philip Morris and Kraft were (and maybe still are?) the same company.

Anonymous said...

Ahead of you. Graphic images aren’t text-only nutrition statements. The food industry will run those all day if they know they won't be held to tighter standards the way tobacco is.

Anonymous said...

No, only meant to say this topic has already gained a lot of traction, with efforts to put warning labels on food. For example:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/business/21chips.html

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/04/23/food_warning_labels_on_fdas_plate/

http://www.newsmax.com/US/FDA-Cigarettes-KathleenSebelius/2011/06/23/id/401186

Anonymous said...

Gotcha. Been thinking about this, just now got around to posting.

Anonymous said...

Great photo in the example. I can read calorie and carb counts till the cow comes home, but it ain't until I see the cow's man-utters that I put the Pepsi back on the shelf.

Mike Carusso said...

Since they're putting the graphic labels on tobacco, have them put the graphic labels on beer & alcohol also.(ie. a graphic of a bad liver)