News Coverage
Primetime live How to get fat without really trying
Published December 8, 2003
PETER JENNINGS, ABC NEWS (Voice Over) Today, in the United States, nearly two-thirds of the population is overweight. Almost one in three Americans is obese. And no one wants to be. Americans want to be thinner. And yet, old and young Americans are getting fatter and fatter and fatter. We all think it's our own fault. It is not that simple. The food industry is also at fault. MICHAEL JACOBSON, CENTER FOR SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST We're besieged. Wherever we go, we're encouraged to eat junk food. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) And the government is at fault. PROFESSOR MARION NESTLE, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY We have government policies that promote overeating, from the beginning to the end of the food chain. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Tonight, we will tell you how the government and the food industry have helped to make America fat. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Now, we know that blaming the government because so many people are overweight, way overweight, in many cases, will be rejected by those who say that personal health and well-being are a matter of personal responsibility. We were inclined to that point of view. But this project has proved to us that the processed food industry and the government know full-well what is happening. And they are making a bad situation worse. graphics: Primetime Monday ANNOUNCER This is "Primetime" Monday. Tonight, Peter Jennings reporting, "How to Get Fat Without Really Trying." We'll return after these messages. graphics: How to Get Fat Without Really Trying commercial break PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) We went, first, to the farmlands of America, where the food chain begins. During the harvest season here, fertile soil and hard work pay off with an agricultural abundance that feeds the nation and the world. And here in Millersport, Ohio, people celebrate the harvest in a traditional way. The Millersport Sweet Corn Festival attracts 50,000 people to the music, the pageants and, of course, the corn. This is a celebration of American agriculture. SENATOR BLANCHE LAMBERT LINCOLN, DEMOCRAT, ARKANSAS We, as Americans, spend less of our disposal income on food than anybody else on the face of this globe. And it's because our farmers are very efficient. They've worked with their government to be able to, not only be efficient and effective in what they do, but also produce an incredible product. PROFESSOR JIM TILLOTSON, TUFTS UNIVERSITY It's the first time in mankind's history that you haven't have to worry about food. We're the envy of the world with our agricultural system. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) But the story of American agriculture is also one of unintended consequences. Today, American farmers produce for domestic consumption,vastly more food than America needs. Nearly twice as much. And the more food we grow, the more we eat. Abundance has become the enemy. PROFESSOR JIM TILLOTSON When I first started studying nutrition, it never occurred to me that I would need to know anything at all about agriculture. Now, I see it as the basis of everything having to do with nutrition. If you want to understand why people eat the way they do, you need to understand the way agriculture works in this country. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) To begin with, agriculture works in America through farm subsidies. During the Depression in the 1930s, government began subsidizing farmers to save them from financial ruin. The money never stopped. This year, government will put roughly $20 billion into agriculture, most of it directly to the farmers. And not many people in the government have made the connection between subsidies to agriculture and obesity. But there is one and it's very important. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Does the government take dietary guidelines and nutritional concerns into consideration when it's making those grants? MICHAEL JACOBSON There's no concern whatsoever. There's no link between agriculturalsubsidies and health. In fact, we've been trying to find analyses of, what is the health impact of the farm subsidies? We can't find a single study. Congress, the Administration, is handing out these subsidies without knowing, what is the ultimate impact on their constituents, the American public? PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) The Bush Administration's man in charge of public health is Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Do you see any connection between the Federal government's agricultural subsidy programs and nutrition? TOMMY THOMPSON, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES I really don't. Because the subsidy programs are things that are done through Congress, much more so than trying to come up with an overall strategy, as far as nutrition is concerned. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Well, do you see a connection between the money which government gives to agriculture and nutrition? Do you see a connection? TOMMY THOMPSON There's no question that if you have money out there and subsidizing particular things, that product is going to be grown more. And some of the products are not good for nutrition. If that's what you're asking me, yes. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) This is the food pyramid, the government's guide to good nutrition, what we should be eating. Less of what is on top, sugars, fats. Then, meats and dairy. And more of what's on the bottom, grains and fresh fruits and vegetables. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Of the total amount of money that supports American agriculture, how much of that money goes towards fruits and vegetables, both production and promotion? TOM STENZEL, UNITED FRESH FRUIT & VEGETABLE ASSOCIATION You'd have to look at the percentage as less than 1 percent. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Really? TOM STENZEL Minimal. Minimal products. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) We wanted to see what the food pyramid would look like if it reflected where the government farm subsidies actually end up. Look at this. Since 1995, meat and dairy got about 3-times the subsidies of grains. According to data from the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Working Group, sugars, fats, the foods government says we should eat least, got about 20-times more subsidies than fruits and vegetables. TOM STENZEL There's a disconnect between agriculture policy and health policy. That's probably the biggest problem that the Federal government faces. We don't look at how agricultural policy can help improve public health. It's strictly about subsidies. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) And does government know this? TOM STENZEL Government knows it. I'm not sure government, at the moment, knows what to do about it. How do you undo government policy that has not been focused on health and nutrition, but has been focused on subsidizing farmers? PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) The most heavily-subsidized crop in America is corn. Farmers plant nearly 80 million acres of corn. And in the last five years, they got an average of $5.5 billion in Federal subsidies every year. When most of us think of corn, we do tend to think of the sweet corn they're eating here at the Millersport festival. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) But there is another way to think of corn. Not as corn on the cob, but as cheap, raw material for the giant food industry. MICHAEL JACOBSON The vast majority of corn is feed corn. It's fed to chickens, hogs, and especially cattle. That corn helps these animals grow faster, fatter, and holds down the costs of meat. That encourages Americans to eat more meat. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Of course, beef cattle were never intended to eat corn. And so,they have to be given all sorts of antibiotics to keep them healthy. Subsidized corn is everywhere. The whole food system has been, as someone said, "cornified." Corn is processed and put into thousands of products that Americans use everyday. If you want to see more directly how farm subsidies can lead to obesity, there is no better place than your local theater. The popcorn you eat here is made with subsidized corn. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) The popcorn is so inexpensive that the bag it comes in costs more than the popcorn. That's why you can buy the mega-size for just a few pennies more. The oil they cook it in is subsidized, too. And so is the oil they put on top. That is not usually butter but subsidized vegetable oil. And there's corn in the soda. A corn- derived sweetener call high fructose corn syrup. Since the 1970s, its use has gone up more than 4,000 percent. Subsidized corn sweeteners, which have pretty much taken over from sugar,are in candy and pretzels and some hotdogs, too? PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Here's something else to know about obesity. Americans consume nearly 3-times more corn in the form of corn sweeteners than they do in every other form. PROFESSOR MARION NESTLE Corn is the principle source of sweeteners in the American diets. So what these subsidies do is to lower the cost of the ingredients that go in processed foods, particularly high-calorie processed foods, and they make those foods cheaper. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Currently, the government subsidizes corn, corn, corn, and more corn. And very little fresh fruits and vegetables. TOMMY THOMPSON But corn is a staple that is not only used for food, it's also used for the tremendous animal industry that we have in this country. So, it's important that corn continues to grow in America. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Do you believe we should plant less corn and more fruits and vegetables? TOMMY THOMPSON Well, that, you can't make that determination from Washington, DC. PROFESSOR MARION NESTLE The government already controls the way food is grown, processed, and consumed in this country. There are already government policies that are involved in every aspect of the food chain, from production to consumption. We want the government to be involved in personal eating behavior in a more healthful way. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Here's another example of a massive government subsidy which contributes to obesity, soybeans. Most of the soy that people eat is not in its healthy form, such as soy protein, but in the form of oil, including cooking oil and margarine. Soybean oil is the largest source of added fats in the American diet. As for fruits and vegetables? If Americans were to follow a healthy diet, the Department of Agriculture says that nearly twice the number of acres of fruits and vegetables would have to be planted. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Why do you think fruits and vegetables do get so little support from the Federal government? TOM STENZEL Oh, I guess, you could say our lobbyists aren't as good. Maybe we haven't had the tradition. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Do you mean that? Other aspects, other divisions of the food industry are better lobbyists than you? TOM STENZEL We've not had traditional subsidy programs. So, there's not an ingrained group in Congress that's there fighting for the program, fighting for the fruit and vegetable program. PROFESSOR MARION NESTLE We're talking about huge Agra-business companies that own -hundreds of thousands of acres. And these are, of course, the people who give the largest campaign contributions to members of Congress. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) It does make you think twice about all the symbols of agricultural abundance that we see in the nation's capitol. A reminder of how important subsidies are in the political system and how hard it will be to change that, whatever the impact on the nation's health. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Do you hold the Congress accountable for subsidizing the wrong foods? TOMMY THOMPSON No, I do not. I think that is a decision that Congress makes. And I'm not going to criticize Congress on the decisions they make, as far as food products. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Why do you think no one in government has made the connection between agricultural policy and obesity? TOMMY THOMPSON I don't think -I really don't think it's as you have stated it, Peter. Idon't think that there's any direct correlation out there that agriculture policy has been set up in some insidious way to subsidize things that are gonna be bad for our health. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) I didn't suggest it was insidious. I am suggesting that there is a possibility that government subsidizes more food which you would say,as the country's leading health officer, is bad for us, and subsidizes less those foods which you would tell us are good for us and we should eat. TOMMY THOMPSON And that has also been throughout the ages. And, Congress has made those decisions. And they're political ones, as you know, Peter. And I don't think you're going to change the political arena as far as subsidizing agriculture in America in the near future. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Well, the Secretary's probably right. But with so many voters in the country desperately trying to lose weight, you might think some clever politician would devise an "I'll make you thinner" platform. It would at least question for the first time, how Federal agricultural policy helps to make us fat. We'll be back in just a minute. commercial break PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Americans probably don't think very much about government food policies when they're in the supermarket. But maybe they should. PROFESSOR MARION NESTLE The cheapness of the food ingredients encourages the food industry to produce processed foods that sit on supermarket shelves, have very cheap ingredients, and can be sold at high prices because they're branded. MICHAEL JACOBSON Processed foods are typically made from a mixture of sugar, water, flour, starch, fat, artificial colorings and flavorings. And you could make almost anything out of that. Puddings, snack foods, beverages. Those are dirt-cheap to produce. The food is nothing. It's the processing. That's where the profits are. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) A typical supermarket may have 30, 40, 50,000 products, most of it processed food made with government subsidized ingredients. In 2002, supermarkets sold $174 billion worth of processed food. PROFESSOR JIM TILLOTSON Food industry has pushed on mass distribution of low-cost products. That's their strategy. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Jim Tillotson is a professor. But in the 1970s, he worked for the Ocean Spray company. Tillotson figured out how to make more money by replacing expensive ingredients in Ocean Spray products, like real fruit juice, without people noticing. PROFESSOR JIM TILLOTSON You could make a drink that was very good, probably more inexpensively, by using some fruit juice, sugar and water, and a very fine flavor system. And people couldn't tell the difference. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Since sugar was expensive, Tillotson turned to that inexpensive subsidized corn sweetener, high fructose corn syrup. PROFESSOR JIM TILLOTSON So, we were able to reduce the price and be profitable. And, as a matter of fact, at the time I bought my wife a Volvo. And we always refer to it as the "sugar wagon," because my bonus came from being able to save the company a lot of money using high fructose corn syrup. People asked me, well, weren't you concerned about, eventually, that people would get fat from this? Never crossed our mind. Absolutely never crossed our mind. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) With obesity on our minds, we went to the food marketing institute's annual convention in Chicago. This is where the packaged food industry unveils its new products. All those subsidized farm ingredients are being turned into products like these. CONVENTION REPRESENTATIVE, FEMALE Microwaves in six minutes. CONVENTION REPRESENTATIVE These are interactive beverages. CONVENTION REPRESENTATIVE, MALE It actually is a product designed to emulate chewing tobacco. CONVENTION REPRESENTATIVE It's a Latino inspired beverage. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) We couldn't quite believe what we were seeing here. Thousands of new products. CONVENTION REPRESENTATIVE What I like to say is Yoo-Hoo is like an everyday sort of thing, three or four times a day. Whereas, your Yoo-Hoo double fudge is more like a dessert. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) And while a lot of the products looked familiar to us, everyone was telling us that they had the newest thing. CONVENTION REPRESENTATIVE We have over 100 new products. CONVENTION REPRESENTATIVE It's Sprite with a little tropical flavor. And for us, that little sense of newness. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) When you look at all the products introduced by the industry in recent years, one thing is absolutely clear. The vast majority are foods that Americans should be eating less. CONVENTION REPRESENTATIVE Meal, dessert. So it's like your post-Yoo-Hoo Yoo-Hoo. MICHAEL JACOBSON If you look at the new foods that are being marketed each year, probably 90 percent of them are packaged foods, very often junk foods. The tip of that food pyramid, what you should eat less of. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Last year, there were more than 2,800 new candies, desserts,ice creams, and snacks, and 230 new fruit or vegetable products. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) When we were looking at the mix of products your industry has introduced in the past 10 or 15 years, it looks like you are giving people a greater choice of food which government mostly thinks are unhealthy for them. And less choice of those which are healthy for them. CHIP KUNDE, GROCERY MANUFACTURERS OF AMERICA I think that the food industry is providing a wide variety of choice. And certainly, if you look at some of the recent market trends, you're seeing a major increase in the good-for-you foods category. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Well, here's what we found. Of all the products introduced last year, thousands of them, only 131 of them even claim to be reduced or low in calories. And the more of these top of the pyramid, low- nutrition, high-calorie foods they introduce, the more of them we eat. PROFESSOR BARRY POPKIN, UNIVERSITY NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL In the '60s and '70s, we consumed healthy snacks. Kids consumed milk, we consumed fruit. We consumed what you would think of as really good foods. What's changed in the last decade is we're consuming high-fat, salty snacks. That could be tortilla chips or potato chips, it could be kind of candies and desserts and so forth. We've really changed the nature of what we call a snack. RICK BERMAN, CENTER FOR CONSUMER FREEDOM You can go into any grocery store, into any restaurant, you can buy the diet soda if you want to. You can buy the low-fat alternatives. You can buy the smaller portion if you want to. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Rick Berman runs the Center for Consumer Freedom, funded by the restaurant industry. They have been running advertisements criticizing those who criticize the food industry. RICK BERMAN What the food companies are doing is just responding to consumer demand. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Is it, as far as you're concerned, entirely a matter of personal choice and not at all a matter of marketing? CHIP KUNDE Well, ultimately, it is a matter of personal choice. I mean, we can't dictate what people choose to eat. So, yes, at some point, what people choose to eat or how they choose to move is ultimately the issue here. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Of course what you eat is a personal decision. The overweight and obesity epidemics are a result of people choosing to eat more, eat larger portions, and eat more often. Americans are choosing foods with more sweeteners and more calories. They are drinking more sodas, eating more candy, and snacking all day long. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Don't you think the food industry is simply giving people the products they want? PROFESSOR MARION NESTLE I don't think that you can talk about giving the public what the public wants without discussing the $33 billion a year that the food industry spends to try to promote that kind of want. If you were going to design a strategy to try to get people to eat more food, you'd make food more convenient. You'd make it ubiquitous. You'd encourage people to eat more frequently, on more different eating occasions. And you'd encourage them to eat larger portions. And all of those are deliberate strategies to sell more food. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) In the last 20 years, you have increased the size of your products. You have increased the number of products you introduce. You have increased the marketing of your products. Are these not strategies designed to get people to eat more? CHIP KUNDE No. They're strategies to respond to what people's needs are today. I think that the industry is acting very responsibly to try to bring these products to market in a responsible way. And to make sure that what they're offering fits into people's healthy diets. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Americans talk a lot about being fit and thinner. Americans spend billions of dollars every year on diets and exercise. There were thousands of exercise videos, machines, gadgets, gimmicks, all designed to help us lose the weight we put on by eating too much. And for the food industry, exercise is a convenient answer to obesity. CHIP KUNDE I think people do need to exercise more. And not just exercise. 'Cause when you think of exercise, it often seems like it's more than you can fit into your very busy day. But you can take small steps. MICHAEL JACOBSON Obesity's not going to be solved through sheer physical activity. The food industry would like to blame everything on lack of exercise. Eat as much as you want, exercise it off. Go out and buy a bike or play basketball with your kid. We should do that. But that's only part of the battle. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) And here is why. You have to jog for 15 minutes to burn just one ounce of potato chips. You have to bike for an hour to burn the calories in this soda. And this super-sized meal at McDonald's has so many calories, you have to walk for six hours to burn it off. It is hard to see how exercise alone is the solution to obesity. And one food company appears to get it. MICHAEL MUDD, KRAFT FOODS We need to be part of the solution. We need to try to make a difference here. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) If you need to be part of the solution, does this mean you're part of the problem? MICHAEL MUDD I think food is part of the problem. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Michael Mudd is a senior vice president at Kraft, the largest American food processor. They make Triscuits and Oreos and Oscar Mayer products, among other things. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) What do you think the right policy is? Do you think it has as its bottom line, eat less? MICHAEL MUDD If you ask the question, should America be eating less? Definitely, we should be eating less, especially if we're not going to increase our activity. CHIP KUNDE We would not support a move to eat less because that's not going to solve the problem. Simply suggesting to people that you eat less food, really, is, I think, it's not the approach to take. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Given what you do for a living, isn't that rather self-serving? CHIP KUNDE Well, our message is, "eat a balanced diet, eat foods that are on the top of the pyramid in moderation and get some activity in your life." PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Kraft's approach is different. The company has proposed a wholesale review of all their products and their marketing because they know obesity is an epidemic. MICHAEL MUDD What we'll do is go category by category, product by product, to look for small but meaningful opportunities to improve the nutrition. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) What's the definition of "meaningful"? MICHAEL MUDD Let's say I have a reduced-fat product that takes out five grams versus the original, and ten people choose that product. So, on a population-wide basis, we've saved 50 grams of fat. But if I take the regular version of that product and I remove one gram of fat, and I do it in a way that doesn't affect the taste, and now 90 people choose that product, on a population-wide basis, I've saved 90 grams of fat. And that's my definition of a meaningful change. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) In other words, making every product a little healthier would have an effect on more people. Public health experts say that it could help if Kraft follows through. But counting on voluntary measures by the food industry to improve the American diet is something of a gamble. After all, their job is to sell more food. And it is hard to imagine the companies sacrificing their profits for the benefits of public health. PROFESSOR MARION NESTLE What the food companies are worried about now is that there will be a public backlash against their products. And so, they're all scrambling to try to figure out what to do. If the public starts eating less, that's going to be bad for business. And there's no getting around that. PROFESSOR JIM TILLOTSON Eat less means that we're not going to buy as much product. Goes all the way down the chain. The supermarkets, the restaurants, the food manufacturers, agriculture. We're not going to need as much product. And that's going to be a very difficult lesson to get through. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) We have said from the outset that the processed food industry is very smart, and will adapt as it sees fit when there is public pressure. Look at all the low-fat products they've introduced. Trouble is, when the companies take out the fat, they often put in more sweeteners, which means more calories. So, since all those products with reduced fat came on the market, Americans have actually put on more weight. ANNOUNCER "How to Get Fat Without Really Trying" returns in a moment. commercial break ANNOUNCER "How to Get Fat Without Really Trying" continues. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Selling food is a huge business. And behind every ad campaign is a food stylist. "FOOD STYLIST", FEMALE We use margarine most of the time because of the color. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) These are the people who make food look irresistible in the advertising. "FOOD STYLIST" These drinks look better than real life. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) At the Food Stylist Convention in Minneapolis, we learned what it takes to make cereal look perfect. That's hair tonic they're using instead of milk, which might wilt the cereal. This isn't ice cream, it's Crisco shortening. "FOOD STYLIST" And they can light it. They can try big scoops, little scoops. We can play around with this all day long. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Food styling makes all the ads look great. And they can be very seductive. The food industry spends $34 billion a year to market their products. And these particular ads, who do you think they are designed for? PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) It is estimated that the food industry spent more than $12 billion last year promoting food they want children to eat. It is twice what they spent ten years ago. Paul Kurnit is an advertising executive who specializes in marketing to children. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Why is so much time and money spent advertising to children? PAUL KURNIT, ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE Kids are, in many ways, unsocialized. They are fresh-eyed. They are open to new ideas. Kids are big business. There's no question about that. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Most of the food that is advertised to children is processed food. And it is exactly what children are buying. Children spend more of their own money on food than anything else. More than on CDs or movies or clothes or toys. And the public health implications of children's diets are enormous. MARGO WOOTAN, CENTER FOR SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST The problem is, is that most of the foods that are marketed to children are unhealthy foods. And the children are exposed to so many messages about junk food that the cultural norm around food has changed. So that children think that they should be getting candy and cookies and chips and soda and these other junky foods all the time. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) The average American child sees 10,000 food advertisements a year on television alone. Most of those advertisements are for fast food, sugar-coated cereal, soft drinks and candy, and other foods dense in fat and calories. These are your members. Are you happy to hear those statistics? CHIP KUNDE Well, I think that companies are -trying to market their products responsibly. And if you look at some of the categories that are there, it's not -all those foods that are available all the time and advertised on television. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) They're not advertising fruits and vegetables on television. CHIP KUNDE Well, they're advertising other options for cereal on television, and other snack products, as well. MICHAEL JACOBSON There are baby food desserts. Maybe that's where it starts. And then, when kids are 2 years old, they gain the strength to turn on the television set and they see the constant stream of commercials. Then, they go to school. And even in schools, there are encouragements to eat junk food. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) When you're putting together an advertising campaign do you care whether the product is healthy or not? PAUL KURNIT I care that the product has a positive role in a child's life. It is not my fundamental responsibility to be sure that that product, in and of itself, fulfills a complete diet. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Have you played a role in making less-healthy products appealing to children, thereby increasing their desire for those products? PAUL KURNIT I played a role in making all kinds of products appealing to kids. And the issue of less-healthy is a judgment call that you can make. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) But you know what's less healthy. You know where asparagus and soda pop line up. PAUL KURNIT You are absolutely correct that I am not going to get the same return on investment for a client in advertising asparagus and spinach to a kid as advertising some of the "so-called" less healthy products to kids. Guilty as charged. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) Have you noticed how most food is marketed to kids, directly to kids? They put cartoon characters all over the package, including characters from Disney, the parent company of ABC News. They turn candy into breakfast cereal. They encourage kids to eat junk food in school. And they tell kids they can win money if they buy certain foods. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) They probably won't get a lot of money. But if children eat them they will get a lot of calories. And if you are the parent of a small children we can almost guarantee that they're asking you to buy some of this. That's what the industry wants kids to do. PROFESSOR MARION NESTLE Parents that I talk to, who have young children, tell me that the last thing in the world they want to argue with their kids about is food. And the marketers know that. And so, they deliberately target the advertising to generate what they call a "nag factor." My kids, for example, pestered me endlessly to buy Lucky Charms cereal, which was the one that we had the most fights over when they were young. And every now and then, I'd let them get it. It was too much trouble arguing with them. PETER JENNINGS (Voice Over) And here is something ironic. The people who make the ads often blame parents for not protecting children from the effects of the advertising that they've created. PAUL KURNIT More often than not, children who nag their parents to buy them any kind of product are children and parents in whom the relationship is fundamentally flawed. PETER JENNINGS (Off Camera) Sounds a little bit like you're criticizing the parents for not doing a good enough job. PAUL KURNIT I am. I think that there is a parental abdication of responsibility and limits in terms of what is appropriate for their kids...