DIET COLUMN

Not too surprising to me or for most people, but a study was done which supported a known fact, linking junk food or a “Western” diet and heart attacks. More specifically, junk food was found to be responsible for a third of heart attacks.

Researchers examined diets of 52 countries, questioning more than 16,000 patients, in which 5,700 of them had recently suffered their first heart attack. The participants were divided into one of three groups based on their diet/reported food intake. One group was labeled ‘Oriental’ because of its high intake of tofu, soy, and other sauces, the second group was ‘Western’ because of its high intake of fried food, salty snacks, and meat, and the third group was labeled ‘Prudent’ because of its high intake of fruits and vegetables.

The statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are staggering: they report that about 32 percent of children are overweight, and 16 percent are obese - 11 percent were extremely obese.

The situation has gotten so dire that even the junk food companies are trying to get in on the health kick. PepsiCo says on its website that “we can play an important role in helping kids lead healthier lives by offering healthy product choices in schools.”

But are companies like Pepsi trying to do what’s right, or are they just shuffling the same deck of cards - the one that’s stacked against us? As this piece at Yahoo.com rightly points out, companies like Pepsi have one and only one obligation - to increase stockholder’s value. Which means, sell more product. That said, you could still increase the bottom line while making your products healthier.