Corporate Influence and Our Obesity Crisis: How Big Food Shapes What We Eat

When it comes to the rise in obesity rates, the blame doesn’t just lie with our individual eating habits—it also involves the strategic efforts of large food companies to make their products as addictive as possible. Much like tobacco companies once sprayed extra nicotine onto cigarettes to keep customers hooked, the modern food industry hires “taste engineers” to design products that light up our brains and keep us coming back for more.

Making Food Irresistible
Taste is the top factor we consider when choosing what to eat, and the food industry leverages this fact to its advantage. By carefully mixing sugar, fat, and salt—referred to as the “three points of the compass”—food manufacturers create “hyper-palatable” items that bypass our body’s usual signals to stop eating. These foods are, in a sense, engineered to make us crave them, making it tough to eat them in reasonable amounts.

Big Food Has Big Power
Beyond manipulating taste, the processed food industry also wields immense economic and political influence. With yearly revenues exceeding $2 trillion, these companies can afford to spend millions on lobbyists who sway public policy. A common tactic is employing former government officials, a practice known as the “revolving door,” so these seasoned insiders can push corporate interests from within the legislative system.

Things changed even more dramatically in 2010 when the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns. This effectively handed Big Food the power to fight lawmakers who dared challenge their practices—creating a system “of Big Food, by Big Food, and for Big Food.”

Marketing Beyond Policy
Corporate influence doesn’t stop at Congress. On a global scale, the food industry counters public health measures with trade and investment deals that protect their profits. Even medical associations aren’t immune. For example, The American Academy of Family Physicians once took millions from The Coca-Cola Company to make educational materials about sweeteners—a move eerily similar to the time doctors were featured in cigarette ads decades ago.

Additionally, these corporations use “Astroturf” groups—phony grassroots organizations—to promote their message. A tobacco company once founded a group called “Get Government Off Our Back” to resist regulations, and similarly, “Americans Against Food Taxes” includes major sugar and corn syrup trade groups. These front organizations let Big Food appear to speak with a “public” voice while keeping their real identity hidden.

Subverting Science
Another troubling tactic involves research front groups that distort or bury scientific studies. This strategy has echoes of the battle over trans fats: Food manufacturers denied their harmful effects for years, funded research that minimized risks, and sought to discredit any findings that suggested health dangers.

A Global Public Health Problem
The impact of these corporate strategies is huge. Every year, around 14 million people worldwide die from health issues tied to diets high in trans fat, saturated fat, salt, and sugar. As the Director-General of the World Health Organization pointed out, the difficulty in stopping the obesity epidemic isn’t simply a matter of people choosing better foods; it’s about politicians and officials lacking the will to stand up to massive food companies.

The takeaway? While each of us can strive for healthier eating habits, real change will also require limiting corporate influence on our food supply. Public health should come before corporate profit. If government agencies and health organizations prioritize the well-being of the public over industry interests, we might finally start winning the fight against obesity.