How Food Producers Trick Us — and Our Kids — Into Eating Sugar
As American sugar consumption remains high, new information shows junk food companies have been targeting Black children
The link between Americans’ high sugar consumption and obesity, which can lead to chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease, is well-known. Equally as familiar: Black people are disproportionately more likely to develop obesity than whites.
Now, research points to an overlooked connection between the two: food industry marketing practices.
A new poll from Talker Research, a public opinion firm, confirms that Americans continue to consume unhealthy amounts of sugar — much of it in sugar-sweetened beverages. But there’s a twist for Black consumers: A 2022 University of Connecticut report shows the food industry deliberately aims junk food advertising, including sugary snacks and beverages, at the Black community.
The research helps draw a fuller picture of how excess sugar consumption is driving obesity rates, and related diseases, in the U.S. in general, and in the Black community specifically. Along with obvious sources, like soda, cookies and candy, added sugars show up in prepared foods, including honey, high fructose corn syrup, molasses, sucrose and dextrose as well as brown and white sugar.
Meanwhile, there is legislation in the Senate, and a proposed new Food and Drug Administration rule, that could force the food industry to make key nutrition facts more obvious on its labels.
Amount in One Serving
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, also wants new guidelines for using terms like “healthy” or other deceptive terms to market foods.
“This legislation will reform antiquated labeling rules that undercut efforts to buy healthy food,” the senator said in a prepared statement. “Consumers deserve straightforward, easily accessible information about the ingredients and nutritional value of products they want to buy.”
If approved, the redesigned front-label packaging would show updated product serving sizes, so consumers would know just how large “one serving” actually is. The product’s calorie count and sugar load also would appear in larger print than current labels show. The labels would prominently display key nutrition facts like the product’s calorie count, amount of fat, and added sugar on the front packaging.
"The vast majority of food advertising dollars are dedicated to the promotion of fast food, sugary drinks, candy, and unhealthy snacks, and the rise in digital marketing allows for near-constant exposure to the promotion of products that harm health." Frances Fleming-Milici, University of Connecticut Rudd Center director of marketing initiatives
With front- of- package labels, along with clearly- marked allergens, and clarified guidelines to deter misleading claims, the senator said, “our measure will bring transparency and simplicity to Americans’ shopping experience.”
Black consumers would benefit from these changes since evidence shows the nation’s largest food companies regularly target Black and Hispanic communities with unhealthy products like fast food, sugary drinks, and processed snacks.
Added sugar and targeted ads also work to undermine important public health messages that excess sugar consumption is harmful. Still, more than 8 in 10 survey respondents said they are actively working to reduce their sugar intake.
Cravings and Emotions
In its survey of 2,000 people, Talker found that the average consumer “ingests 99 grams of sugar per day, which is more sugar than what’s in two twelve-ounce cans of soda,” according to a press release from the company. That equals nearly 80 Ibs. of sugar per person each year.
Roughly 4 in 10 respondents said they are most likely to crave sugar when they’re stressed, while 36% said they reach for the sweets if they are bored. Other emotions that trigger sugar cravings include stress fatigue (24%), and loneliness (17%).
Yet sugar consumption didn’t make them feel better: nearly a quarter of respondents reported they felt anxious or irritable (22%), while others felt impatient (20%) and unproductive (20%).
And, like Big Tobacco — which deliberately targeted menthol cigarette advertising at Black neighborhoods — the processed food industry and fast-food restaurants have played significant roles in disproportionately high obesity rates in the Black community.
The 2022 report from UConn’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health found that Black children saw 70% more food-related ads than white children. A significant portion of this advertising promoted fast food and sugary beverages that are known contributors to obesity and related diseases.
In 2021, Black youth and adults viewed 9% to 21% more food and beverage TV ads compared to their white peers, after accounting for differences in the amount of time spent watching TV,” the report found. Ads for candy and gum or mints, sugary drinks, savory snacks, cereal, and sweet snacks made up 75% of Spanish-language and Black targeted TV ad spending, according to the report.
Frances Fleming-Milici, the Rudd Center’s director of marketing initiatives, said the study also found that advertisers have found ways to reach beyond TV ads to deliver their message directly to young people.
“The vast majority of food advertising dollars are dedicated to the promotion of fast food, sugary drinks, candy, and unhealthy snacks, and the rise in digital marketing allows for near-constant exposure to the promotion of products that harm health,” she says.
Billions Spent on Advertising
The Rudd Report’s analysis includes the 19 food and beverage companies that spent the most on advertising. It also includes companies that participate in the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. CFBAI participants voluntarily commit to avoid advertising foods or beverages to children at all or advertise only products that meet the group’s nutritional standards. They also don’t advertise in elementary or middle schools, which countries such as the United Kingdom and Mexico have already banned.
Since the food industry spends billions of dollars on advertising every year, consumers need to be better informed about their choices, Fleming-Milici says.
“Designing labels to increase transparency about product ingredients is one way to help all consumers make healthier choices, but other changes are needed,” she says. “The aggressive marketing of unhealthy foods, particularly food industry efforts to disproportionately target Black and Hispanic consumers with their least healthy products, must also be addressed.”
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