New Haven, Conn. -- Yale University professor Kelly Brownell sees Ronald McDonald on
television on Saturday mornings. But he thinks Joe Camel, and the cartoon character's
influence on children and smoking.
Considering the amount of fat in
hamburgers and french fries, Brownell believes Ronald McDonald causes nearly as many
deaths each year as cigarettes.
The director of the Center for Eating
and Weight Disorders at Yale, Brownell is writing a book promoting a novel concept: Fat in
foods should be regulated by the government, just as the Clinton administration wants to
regulate the nicotine in tobacco.
"We're facing what I believe is a
national crisis," said Brownell, a professor of psychology, epidemiology and public
health. "The contribution of diet to poor health in America is staggering. It's an
epidemic."
Brownell believes the government should
subsidize the sale of healthy food, increase the cost of non-nutritional foods through
taxes and regulate food advertising to discourage unhealthy practices.
In other words, that Twinkie's going to
cost you.
His book is not due out for at least a
year, but already Brownell's proposals have produced virulent reactions from conservatives
and food industry executives. [soon to be derogatively labeled "Big
Food," like "Big Tobacco," I predict -- Chip]
"It is extraordinarily
impractical," said J.D. Foster, executive director and chief economist of the Tax
Foundation, a business-backed think tank in Washington.
"You would have to create an index
of healthy and unhealthy foods," Foster said. "Can you imagine if we went down
that road? It would almost be funny."
Nevertheless, that is precisely what
Brownell proposes.
"If 20 years ago somebody had said,
'I predict that states will recover the health care costs from the tobacco industry for
deaths; I predict that an icon of the smoking advertising, Joe Camel, would be banned from
billboards,' people would have said, 'Oh that's horrible government intrusion,'"
Brownell said.
"What is now taken for granted, 20
years ago would have been thought of as impossible," he said.
The federal government estimates that
more than 400,000 Americans die each year due to smoking-related diseases. About 300,000
Americans die each year from illnesses related to obesity, poor diet and a lack of
exercise.
Human biology aside, Brownell believes
the number of overweight Americans is growing because of a "toxic food
environment" in which high-calorie, high-fat foods are pushed by a pervasive
fast-food industry.
Advertising is much to blame, he said,
noting that terms like 'supersize' and 'extra value meal' have become a part of the
American vernacular.
"If you go to the average 5- or 6-
or 7-year old in the United States and you ask what it means to 'supersize,' just about
all of them will tell you," he said. "The average American recognizes
'supersize' as a verb."
A spokesman for McDonald's in Oak Brook,
Ill., said Brownell's comparison of the company's trademark clown to Joe Camel was
"ludicrous."
"Ronald appeals to young children,
no question, but I think young children ... typically come to McDonald's with parents or
guardians to help them make appropriate dining choices," said spokeswoman Julie
Cleary.
Unlike Joe Camel, Ronald McDonald also
represents a children's charity -- Ronald McDonald House -- which provides temporary homes
for families with youngsters who require medical attention at nearby hospitals.
Brownell admits that his comparison of
the food industry to tobacco producers is "not a perfect parallel."
"You have to eat. You don't have to
smoke. And theoretically, people could walk into a McDonald's and order the salad,"
he said.
But advertising for non-nutritious foods
is so widespread that fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods don't stand a chance,
Brownell said.
He doesn't like the pork industry's
claim to be "The other white meat," either.
"The implication is that pork is
like chicken and therefore you should eat more of it," he said. "That was a
public relations coup that did a lot for the sale of pork, but is it good?" The pork
industry is better off, but the American people are not."
Not so, said Al Tank, chief executive
officer of the National Pork Producers Council in Washington. Since the advertising
campaign was launched in 1986, the port industry has cut fat content by 31 percent, cut
calories by 14 percent and cholesterol by 12 percent, Tank said.
"Many cuts of pork have less fat
than skinless chicken. The pork industry has put its money where its mouth is," said
Tank, whose organization represents 85,000 pork producers in 44 states.
Foster said taxes can decrease demand
for products. But he is critical of using them in such a manner.
"There's a certain, superficial
logic to it, but if anything, it really highlights how ludicrous it is to modify people's
behavior as if the federal government really knows what's best," Foster said.
Even Michael F. Jacobsen, executive
director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based consumer
group that promotes healthful eating, questioned who would decide what foods are healthy.
Besides, Jacobsen said, Brownell's
proposals don't have a chance in a Republican-controlled Congress.
"I think his basic idea of taxing
junk foods and using the revenues for some health purpose makes eminent sense, but it's
dead on arrival," Jacobson said. "The industries that would be taxed would fight
tooth-and-nail, and creating such a tax would be very complicated.
Yet as fast-food restaurants pop up on
ever corner and gas stations double as mini-marts, Brownell insists radical action is
warranted.
"McDonald's is trumpeting the fact
that it has served billions and billions of people fatty food," he said. "Now, I
have to ask, 'Are we happy about that?' And as the billion and billions becomes trillions
and trillions, will we be better off?"