10 Dark Secrets of the Food Industry

With the public health crisis known as obesity reaching emergency proportions in the United States, the public spotlight is turning on the makers of the highly processed, high-calorie junk foods that help to fuel the growing calamity. In a recent study, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 32 percent of children were overweight but not obese, 16 percent were obese, and 11 percent were extremely obese.

Two nutrition experts warn that, since food corporations' bottom line is to increase profits, the public needs to be skeptical about their claims of wanting to serve the public good by guiding children away from the obesity track to "healthy product choices." David Ludwig, a pediatrician, and Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition at New York University, say there are 10 facts that makers of junk food want to keep under wraps about their products and how they promote them.

1. Food giants spend as much as $10 billion a year to promote junk food to children. 2. Studies funded by the junk-food makers are likely to favor their sponsors far more than those not supported by the corporations. 3. Food makers donate a lot to the American Dietetic Association and other supposedly objective professional nutrition groups.

4. Processed foods - which are typically high in calories, sugar and/or fat, and low in fiber and nutrients - are the food industry's most profitable items. 5. Natural, unprocessed foods are generally more filling than the highly processed alternatives. 6. Many foods the industry touts as healthy alternatives to junk food are little healthier than the junk food they're supposed to replace. Sports drinks and vitamin waters, for example, are often nearly as sugary as the soda they're designed to replace.

7. A health claim on a food label (such as "No Trans Fats!"), while true, may be just a distracter from the salt, sugar or saturated fat the food otherwise contains. 8. Pressure from the food giants has muddied the government's nutritional guidelines. 9. Food corporations fund front groups, such as the Center for Consumer Freedom, that work against anti-obesity initiatives. 10. The food industry works aggressively to attack critics' credibility.