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Airdate: The Men Who Made Us Fat

ABC1begins a 3 part UK series that looks at the war against obesity and what role the food industry has played.

2014-05-19_2301This week ABC1 begins a 3 part UK series The Men Who Made Us Fat that will look at the war against obesity and what role the food industry has played in contributing to increased levels.

Around the world, obesity levels are rising – more people are now overweight than undernourished. In this fascinating and thought-provoking series, Jacques Peretti explores the profitable ways eating habits have been revolutionised over the last 40 years. Travelling to the USA, he learns about a sweetener championed in the 1970s to make use of the excess corn grown by farmers but now known to interfere with the hormone that controls appetite.

He reveals the history of ‘supersizing’, a concept that boosted both food consumption and profits, and speaks with industry professionals about the introduction of value meals, king-size snacks and multi-buy promotions.

In episode one, Jacques Peretti traces those responsible for revolutionising our eating habits to find out how decisions made in America 40 years ago influence the way we eat now. Peretti travels to America to investigate the story of high-fructose corn syrup. The sweetener was championed in the US in the 1970s by Richard Nixon’s agriculture secretary Earl Butz to make use of the excess corn grown by farmers. Cheaper and sweeter than sugar, it soon found its way into almost all processed foods and soft drinks. HFCS is not only sweeter than sugar, it also interferes with leptin, the hormone that controls appetite, so once you start eating or drinking it, you don’t know when to stop. Meanwhile, in 1970s Britain, food manufacturers used advertising campaigns to promote the idea of snacking between meals. Outside the home, fast food chains offered clean, bright premises with tempting burgers cooked and served with a very un-British zeal and efficiency. Twenty years after the arrival of McDonalds, the number of fast food outlets in Britain had quadrupled.

9:30pm Thursday ABC1.

2 Responses

  1. There is nothing new in this, processed foods high in sugar and fat provide a lot of energy without making you feel full. The major problem is that we have made them so cheap and readily available that people consume too much of them.

    HFCS is made to be like honey and fruit juice can be higher in Fructose. Chips are probably more of a problem.

    In Australia we just use sucrose, because we grow sugar cane, in Europe it is sucrose from sugar beets. We manage to get plenty fat without HFCS.

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