world u.s. n.y. / region business technology...

4/23/13 The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food - NYTimes.com

www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?_r=1& 1/3

Search All NYTimes.com

More in the Magazine »

Enlarge This Image

The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food

Grant Cornett for The New York Times

By MICHAEL MOSSPublished: February 20, 2013 1347 Comments

On the evening of April 8, 1999, a long line of Town Cars and taxispulled up to the Minneapolis headquarters of Pillsbury anddischarged 11 men who controlled America’s largest food companies.Nestlé was in attendance, as were Kraft and Nabisco, General Millsand Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Mars. Rivals any other day,the C.E.O.’s and company presidents had come together for a rare,private meeting. On the agenda was one item: the emerging obesityepidemic and how to deal with it. While the atmosphere was cordial,the men assembled were hardly friends. Their stature was defined bytheir skill in fighting one another for what they called “stomachshare” — the amount of digestive space that any one company’sbrand can grab from the competition.

James Behnke, a 55-year-oldexecutive at Pillsbury, greeted the menas they arrived. He was anxious butalso hopeful about the plan that he and a few other food-company executives had devised to engage the C.E.O.’s onAmerica’s growing weight problem. “We were veryconcerned, and rightfully so, that obesity was becoming amajor issue,” Behnke recalled. “People were starting to talkabout sugar taxes, and there was a lot of pressure on foodcompanies.” Getting the company chiefs in the same roomto talk about anything, much less a sensitive issue like this,was a tricky business, so Behnke and his fellow organizershad scripted the meeting carefully, honing the message to

The Jobless Trap Richie Havens,Guitarist andSinger, Dies at 72

Log In With Facebook

MOST E-MAILED RECOMMENDED FOR YOU

51 articles in thepast month All Recommendations

Log in to see what your friendsare sharing on nytimes.com.Privacy Policy | What’s This?

What’s Popular Now

1. WELLHow Therapy Can Help in the Golden Years

2. OBSERVATORYIn Parents’ Embrace, Infants’ Heart RatesDrop

3. EDITORIALA Confirmation Too Long Delayed

4. In Europe, Paid Permits for Pollution AreFizzling

5. LETTERSDo the Police Belong in Our PublicSchools?

6. MINDPlaying for All Kinds of Possibilities

7. LETTERWhy I’m a Gold Bug

8. For Wounded, Daunting Cost;; for Aid Fund,Tough Decisions

HOME PAGE TODAY'S PAPER VIDEO MOST POPULAR

Magazine

WORLD U.S. N.Y. / REGION BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE HEALTH SPORTS OPINION ARTS STYLE TRAVEL JOBS REAL ESTATE AUTOS

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

GOOGLE+

SAVE

E-MAIL

SHARE

PRINT

SINGLE PAGE

REPRINTS

Helpdhorwichmsw...U.S. Edition



Grant Cornett for The New York Times;; PropStylist: Janine Iversen

Readers’ Comments

Readers shared their thoughtson this article.

Read All Comments (1347) »

its barest essentials. “C.E.O.’s in the food industry aretypically not technical guys, and they’re uncomfortablegoing to meetings where technical people talk in technicalterms about technical things,” Behnke said. “They don’twant to be embarrassed. They don’t want to makecommitments. They want to maintain their aloofness andautonomy.”

A chemist by training with a doctoral degree in foodscience, Behnke became Pillsbury’s chief technical officer in1979 and was instrumental in creating a long line of hitproducts, including microwaveable popcorn. He deeplyadmired Pillsbury but in recent years had grown troubledby pictures of obese children suffering from diabetes andthe earliest signs of hypertension and heart disease. In themonths leading up to the C.E.O. meeting, he was engagedin conversation with a group of food-science experts whowere painting an increasingly grim picture of the public’sability to cope with the industry’s formulations — from thebody’s fragile controls on overeating to the hidden power of

some processed foods to make people feel hungrier still. It was time, he and a handful ofothers felt, to warn the C.E.O.’s that their companies may have gone too far in creatingand marketing products that posed the greatest health concerns.

In This Article:• ‘In This Field, I’m a Game Changer.’

• ‘Lunchtime Is All Yours’

• ‘It’s Called Vanishing Caloric Density.’• ‘These People Need a Lot of Things, but They Don’t Need a Coke.’

The discussion took place in Pillsbury’s auditorium. The first speaker was a vice presidentof Kraft named Michael Mudd. “I very much appreciate this opportunity to talk to youabout childhood obesity and the growing challenge it presents for us all,” Mudd began.“Let me say right at the start, this is not an easy subject. There are no easy answers — forwhat the public health community must do to bring this problem under control or forwhat the industry should do as others seek to hold it accountable for what has happened.But this much is clear: For those of us who’ve looked hard at this issue, whether they’republic health professionals or staff specialists in your own companies, we feel sure that theone thing we shouldn’t do is nothing.”

As he spoke, Mudd clicked through a deck of slides — 114 in all — projected on a largescreen behind him. The figures were staggering. More than half of American adults werenow considered overweight, with nearly one-quarter of the adult population — 40 millionpeople — clinically defined as obese. Among children, the rates had more than doubledsince 1980, and the number of kids considered obese had shot past 12 million. (This wasstill only 1999;; the nation’s obesity rates would climb much higher.) Food manufacturerswere now being blamed for the problem from all sides — academia, the Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention, the American Heart Association and the American CancerSociety. The secretary of agriculture, over whom the industry had long held sway, hadrecently called obesity a “national epidemic.”

NEXT PAGE »

This article is adapted from “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us,” which

will be published by Random House this month.

Michael Moss is an investigative reporter for The Times. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2010

for his reporting on the meat industry.

Editor: Joel Lovell

Go to Your Recommendations »What’s This? | Don’t Show

9. Study Finds Sharp Rise in Attacks byTaliban

10. THOMAS L. FRIEDMANHow to Put America Back Together Again

Ads by Google what's this?

Fusion vs. Civic Hybrid

Compare the Civic Hybrid to aFusion. View Prices & Photos Today!www.honda.com/ford_fusion

Villas in Lucca, Tuscany

Handpicked Luxury Tuscany Villas.Private Pools, Concierge and Cooks.TuscanyNow.com/Tuscany-Villas

1 Tip To Lose Belly Fat

Cut pounds of stomach fat everyweek by using this 1 weird old tip.MiracleGarciniaCambogia.com

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14



A version of this article appeared in print on February 24, 2013, on page MM34 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline:(Salt + Fat 2 / Satisfying Crunch) x Pleasing Mouth Feel = A Food Designed to Addict.

SAVE E-MAIL SHARE

1347 CommentsReaders shared their thoughts on this article.

Newest Comments Closed

Food

Addiction (Psychology)

Get Free E-mail Alerts on These Topics

Diet and Nutrition

Sugar

Ads by Google what's this?

3 Early Signs of DementiaDoctor: Know These 3 Warning Signs

You're About to Suffer Dementia

www.newsmax.com

© 2013 The New York Times Company Site Map Privacy Your Ad Choices Advertise Terms of Sale Terms of Service Work With Us RSS Help Contact Us Site Feedback

N.Y. / REGION »

Redefining a Little Library

SCIENCE »

A Virtual Pack, to Study

Canine Minds

OPINION »

Anxiety: The Hand That

Feeds Us

MUSIC »

Wanted: Mistresses, Must

Be Married

OPINION »

Draft: How

Writers

Interact With

the WorldMany writers label Wi-

Fi a distraction, but the

impulse to connect with

the outside world is an

ancient one.

WORLD »

In China, Breathing

Becomes a Childhood Risk

ALL READER PICKS NYT PICKS

INSIDE NYTIMES.COM

world u.s. n.y. / region business technology...

Documents