Marion Nestle:
Well, first of all, it was a big surprise, because I keep thinking I have seen this before. It looks exactly like the report that Michelle Obama’s task force reported in 2010.
A lot of this is right. It’s a report about intentions. It wants to make America’s kids healthier again. It talks about color additives and closing the generally recognized as safe loophole, which are the two things that this administration has done so far that look like they’re making real progress.
And it talks about a lot of other things in very general terms. It’s a report about intentions. It’s not about actions. And what you wonder is, how on earth are they going to do these things? What do they plan to do? The word regulation is only mentioned once in the context of the generally recognized as safe loophole.
They talk about really important issues like stopping marketing to children, but they do that in, we’re going to investigate. We’re going to explore. We’re going to think about. We’re going to maybe do something about food industry marketing of junk foods to kids, which I think would really make a big difference.
And what’s disappointing about it is that the things that would make a big difference aren’t here.
