CSPI Executive Director Pens Article Linking “Big Food” and “Big Tobacco”

“Food is not tobacco… But the public health community is concerned
about both diet and tobacco use for a very good reason,” writes Center
for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) Executive Director Michael
Jacobson in a June 2, 2015, Huffington Post blog post claiming that both
industries “share some common bloodlines.”

Jacobson claims that both industries not only market to children,
but purportedly “blame their customers for the harm caused by their
products.” In addition, he argues that these companies emphasize
personal responsibility while overlooking “the extent to which companies
persuade, lure, and manipulate customers—including children—into
making the very decisions that companies say should be up to them.”

“Like Big Tobacco, Big Food goes to great lengths to muddy the waters
and obscure the connections between soda and disease,” the article
concludes. “Big Tobacco and Big Food are now separate industries, but
the playbook is much the same. How the game ends is up to us.”

Issue 567