Big Food

Simon N. Williams is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department for Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA. His research focuses on how public health policy can help to regulate the rapid growth in the consumption of unhealthy products, including soft drinks and tobacco. Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, New York City, USA, and the author of three prize-winning books: Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (2007); Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety (2010); and What to Eat (2007).

Introduction Big Food: taking a critical perspective on a global public health problem 1. The transitional dynamics of caloric ecosystems: changes in the food supply around the world 2. Big Food without big diets? Food regimes and Kenyan diets 3. Density of outdoor food and beverage advertising around schools in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) and Manila (The Philippines) and implications for policy 4. Snack food advertising in stores around public schools in Guatemala 5. The incursion of Big Food in middle-income countries: a qualitative documentary case study analysis of the soft drinks industry in China and India 6. Comparison of food industry policies and commitments on marketing to children and product (re)formulation in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji 7. Encouraging big food to do the right thing for childrens health: a case study on using research to improve marketing of sugary cereals 8. Big Sodas long shadow: news coverage of local proposals to tax sugar-sweetened beverages in Richmond, El Monte and Telluride 9. Big Food and gamified products: promotion, packaging, and the promise of fun 10. Food as pharma: marketing nutraceuticals to Indias rural poor