Pulling off this rescue is going to be a big challenge. In her last blog post, my wife Joyce, Dr. Grandma, rejoiced greatly in the publication of an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). This article confirmed her central message, and that of others, in advocating strongly a return to foods, rather than [...]

My recent post “ We are the Rats ” dealt with how the lack of testing new food-like substances make us the rats – subjects in massive uncontrolled research studies on how to maximize profits from the invention of new molecules and substances for use in food products.   This post extends that argument to the questionable necessity to taking some [...]

This blog takes the position that business ethics is an important issue.  The social and health costs of profitable, highly-marketed and widely sold foodstuffs are becoming a great threat to the financial and physical well-being of this and other nations. But it is a difficult ideal to achieve, and must be worked at continually.  More [...]

In psychology ‘hedonics’ is “the ethical study of pleasure”.  When hedonics is studied as the science of creating and manipulating sensations associated with eating foods the “ethical” part is seldom if ever remembered.  Hedonics Research and development leads to foods that will grab you and won’t let go of you.  This desirable marketing outcome is [...]

Big Pharma refers to the pharmaceutical industry. Specifically, it refers to the pharmaceutical lobby that represents both biomedical and pharmaceutical companies in seeking to influence government policy regarding the regulation of drugs and medical products.

The Government has created subsidies for certain foods, paid from tax revenues.  There are a number of subsidies. Corn and meat subsidies have been central to lower costs for these farm products.  One form of subsidy goes to government itself to set up bureaucracies to pay for part of the work (e.g, meat inspections). This [...]

Fude: Highly processed substances sold in packages for immediate consumption or quick preparation; also highly processed and designed dishes served in restaurants. In packages, perishable ingredients have been taken out or minimized, and mixed with excesses of salt, fat, and sugar in amounts not found in traditional whole foods. (See Kessler, The End of Overeating .) Hyper-palatability is [...]

A term popularized in the Academy Award nominated documentary of that name, and in an accompanying book . It refers to the industrialization of the entire food chain, and generally, to any of the big industrialized food businesses. Food Inc. seeks to give the public the benefit of cheaper faster, seductive eating, and give it to them anywhere, [...]

Nutritionism in practice involves singling out one or a few important nutrients in certain whole foods as the cause of benefits from those foods.  The person practicing nutritionism is implying that the singled-out nutrients provide the benefits shown in studies conducted using a whole food.  This approach grossly oversimplifies how the body metabolizes complete foods, [...]

Guest blog by Doctor Grandpa We are the rats in studies using a wide variety of food-like substances. These may be new variations on sweeteners, or additives put into many food products to preserve them, dye them, flavor them, or give them texture and mouth-feel.  When public health consequences begin to come to light, spokespersons for [...]

Guest blog by Dr. Grandpa On July 14th, Dr Grandma’s blog post featured Erythritol, calling it the coming alternative to simple calorie-laden sugars and to high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  In this post, Dr Grandpa explains how the industrial food giants have made Erythritol a commodity, which opens up opportunities for innovation by smaller food companies.  On July 14, [...]

(As obtained from secret sources and adapted by guest blogger, Dr. Grandpa) Editors note:  I sent a copy of a crucial new research study I found to Dr. Grandpa to write about.  It fit right in with his guest blog posts on how foods are designed to induce craving – even addiction.  The study is very [...]

Guest Blog by Dr. Grandpa Part 1 is available here: Full, or True Cost Accounting for Food: Part 1 This post is Part 2 in the series on Full, or True Cost Accounting for Foods .  All parts use a graphic model to tell a story of causes and effects. This series tries to “connect the dots” to show [...]

Guest Blog by Dr. Grandpa Update – Part 2 is now available: Full Food Cost Accounting – Part 2 This post was written during the great health care debate in our nation. This debate reached a milestone in the passage by the House of Representatives of the recent healthcare bill. In our humble little Foodland Chronicles, we encourage [...]

Guest blog by Dr. Grandpa.  Note from Dr. Grandma: If you’re new to Dr. Grandma’s Blog, I want to mention that C. Victor Bunderson (Dr. Grandpa) has a PhD in psychology from Princeton University and is a distinguished author and emeritus professor. This year International Brain Awareness Week is March 15 – 21.  Our brains just [...]

Guest Blog by Dr. Grandpa The term “yummy” is a grandmotherly, friendly and warm kind of term, but the food industry wants more.  Terms like “hyperpalatable”, “irresistible”, and “Hedonic” are used in the food industry to describe the search for know-how and methods of preparing and serving food so that we cannot resist it, so that [...]

Market research uses focus groups in segmented sections of an audience to discover what people say they want and would buy.  What people say in these groups and what they actually do when confronted with the opportunity to purchase a product may be very different.  Another approach is to realize that stuff just happens to people [...]

OK, I didn’t like eating salads at the time I was diagnosed with diabetes.  The main reason was time – it takes a long time to crunch through a large bowl of salad.  My Dad had health magazines around the house when I was growing up, and I saw pictures of a vibrantly healthy 80-plus year [...]