Fat land : how Americans became the fattest people in the world (26 page)

20 Wallerstein had first waged war: John F. Love, McDonald's: Behind the Arches (New York: Bantam, 1986), pp. 296-297; Max Cooper interview; Ray Kroc, Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1977), p. 173.

21 "If people want more fries . . .": Love, Behind the Arches, p. 296.

22 Max Cooper, a Birmingham franchisee: Bob Keyser interview; Cooper interview; Love, Behind the Arches, pp. 206, 221, 224, 242, 243, 246.

23 "And we realized we could do one of three things . . .": Cooper interview.

24 In 1983 the Pepsi Corporation was looking: Teresa Carson, "Taco Bell Wants to Take a Bite Out of Burgers," BusinessWeek, August 4, 1986, p. 63.

"Labor, schmabor!": Quoted in Rich Karlgaard, "Interview with Susan Cramm and John Martin," Forbes ASAP, v. 154, August 29, 1994, p. S67.

"We had always viewed ourselves . . .": John Martin interview. See also Karlgaard, "Interview ..." Forbes ASAP, for a retrospective

NOTES

look at the period's innovations, as well as Bernstein and Paul's Winning the Chain Restaurant Game.

27 And the value meal was spreading: Brian Moran and Scott Hume, "Bigger Whopper Lets BK Throw Its Weight Around," Advertising Age, May 13, 1985, p. 2; Rick Van Warner, "Pizza Chains Go Head-to-Head with Two-for-One Promotions," Nation's Restaurant News, v. 21, July 13, 1987, p. 10.

"McDonald's must bite the bullet": Quoted in Peter O. Keegan, "McDonald's to Join 'Value' Stampede," Nation's Restaurant News, v. 24, December 17, 1990, p. 1; Keyser interview.

Two weeks later the front page of the same: Richard Martin, "McDonald's Kicks Off Value Menu Mix," Nation's Restaurant News, December 7, 1991, p. 3. For examples of how value meals and supersizing were approached by the company in later years, see "McDonald's Cuts Prices in Value Menu Move," Marketing News, April 1, 1991, p. 2; "War Clouds: McD, BK Arm for 79-Cent Summer Price-letting," Brandweek, v. 36, May 1, 1995, p. 1; and "McDonald's to Feed Value-Price Move with $66 Million in Ads," Advertising Age, March 3, 1997, p. 36.

A 2001 study by: Erin Lynn Morris, Elizabeth A. Bell, Liane S. Roe, and Barbara J. Rolls, "Portion size of food influences energy intake in adults," FASEB Journal, v. 15, March 8, 2001, p. A890.

28 Certainly the best nutritional data suggest so as well: Judy Putnam and Shirley Gerrior, "Trends in the U.S. Food Supply, 1970-1997," Chapter 7 in USDA/ERS (Economic Research Service) document AIB-750, pp. 133-160.

As of 1996 some 25 percent: Bruce Horovitz, "Portion Sizes and Fat Content Out of Control," USA Today, February 20, 1996. p. 1. A serving of McDonald's french fries: See Center for Science in the Public Interest, "Monster Portions," reprinted in Jane Brody, "Fighting the Lessons Schools Teach," New York Times, April 16, 2002, p.D 5 .

By 1999 heavy users: Jennifer Ordonez, "Cash Cows: Hamburger Joints Call Them Heavy Users, but Not to Their Faces," Wall Street Journal, January 12, 2000, p. 1.

Twenty times a month is now McDonald's marketing goal for every: Interview with Joanne Jacobs, manager, corporate communications, McDonald's; also see Ordonez, "Cash Cows," Wall Street Journal, p. 1.

Little Caesar's pizza "by the foot": Bill McDowell and Laura Petrecca, "Little Caesar's Big New Idea: Pizza by the Foot," Nation's Restaurant News, v. 67, no. 44, 1996, p. 1.

NOTES

29 "Bigness is addictive . . .": Quoted in Horovitz, "Portion Sizes USA Today, p. 1.

3. World Without Boundaries (Who Let the Calories In)

The best single source on U.S. food and nutrient consumption is the USDA; the curious can plumb my own numbers at the agency's Web site (www.usda.gov), which includes several recent studies on the subjects of "away from home" dining, snacking, and overall consumption patterns. For details about school lunch programs, I was fortunate to obtain interviews with a number of Los Angeles school nutritionists, among them Laura Chinnock, the Los Angeles Unified School District's chief nutritionist, and Orlando Griego, then the district's director of food operations. Details of school contracts were obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests; the major fast-food providers, Pizza Hut, Subway, and Taco Bell, did not respond to repeated requests for interviews. A wealth of information can be found in various publications of the American School Food Service Association, the leading professional organization for school nutritionists. I also gleaned invaluable background information from back issues of Food Engineering, Food Technology, and Quick Frozen Foods. Andrew Hagelshaw, the head of the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education, was an invaluable source on the chronology of pouring and fast-food contracts. On the subject of oversize clothing, the archives of the Levi Strauss corporation were particularly forthcoming, as was the company's historian, Lynn Downey. The story of Big Pun was woven from a number of personal interviews with family members and friends, to whom I was introduced by Brian Gilmore at Loud Records; the Westchester County Medical Examiner provided autopsy reports for the case. Interviews with Kenneth F. Ferraro, at Purdue, and R. Marie Griffith, at Princeton, were indispensable in understanding the role of modern religion in obesity.

30 "I had to wait more than an hour . . .": Charles Bernstein and Ron Paul, Winning the Chain Restaurant Game (New York: John Wiley, 1994), pp. 63-64.

31 "We're going to go . . .": Ibid.; interview with Charles Bernstein.

In 1980 even the hidebound U.S. Department of Agriculture: The Hassle-Free Daily Food Guide (Washington, D.C.: USDA, 1979).

32 The numbers show that that is exactly what the American family did: Biing-Hwan Lin, Joanne Guthrie, and Elizabeth Frazao, "Chapter 12: Nutrient Contribution of Food Away from Home," in America's

NOTES

Eating Habits: Changes and Consequences, ed. Elizabeth Frazao, Agriculture Information Bulletin 750 (Washington, D.C.: USDA, 1999), p. 213.

32 Calorically speaking, the shift: Ibid., p. 217.

33 "We calculate that if food away . . .": Quoted in Ibid., p. 236. "Where that may have been a reasonable attitude . . .": Ibid., p. 237.

34 One of the more wide-ranging of these books: Harvey Diamond and Marilyn Diamond, Fit for Life (New York: Warner Books, 1985). "You can eat more kinds of food . . ."; Ibid., back cover, 1987 paperback edition.

"Pressure causes tension": Ibid., pp. 151-152. The authors of 1985's: Jane R. Hirschmann and Lela Zaphiropoulos, Are You Hungry? (New York: Random House, 1985), p. 4. "First, they [children] should eat.. .": Ibid.

35 "To questions like . . .": Ibid.

As the sociologist Edward Shorter: Edward Shorter, The Making of the Modern Family (New York: Basic Books, 1975), p. 242; for an exception to the American rule, see "A Sample Diet for Children 7 to 12 Years," in M. V. O'Shea and John Harvey Kellogg, Health Habits (New York: Macmillan, 1929), pp. 122-124.

36 A counterpoint to the culture of the overfed American: For the best single treatment of the French experience, see Peter N. Steam's excellent Fat History (New York: New York University Press, 1997). By the 1930s French medical journals were full of: See, for example, Paul Maynacher, "L'Obesite chez enfant: est elle d'origine endo-crienne ou d'origine nerveuse?" (Paris: 1934).

37 "to avoid arousing his desires": Paul Strauss, Depopulation de Puericulture (Paris: 1901). For the best single example of the pueri-culture program in action, complete with sample diets and regimens, see A. Moll-Weiss, L'Alimentation de la Jeunesse Francaise (Paris: Librarie de L'Enseignement Technique, 1931).

And the child was never: Moll-Weiss, L Alimentation . . . , p. 31. "The basic message was surprisingly persistent": Stearn, Fat History, p. 199.

38 In a recent study by the Penn State nutrition scholar: Barbara J. Rolls, Dianne Engell, and Leann Birch, "Serving portion size influences 5-year-old but not 3-year-old children's food intakes," Journal of the American Dietetic Association, v. 100, February 2000, pp. 232-234.

Far from trusting their own: Ibid., p. 234.

39 Writing in the journal Pediatrics: H. Niinikoski, H. Lapinleimn, et

NOTES

al, "Growth under three years of age in a prospective, randomized trial of a diet with reduced saturated fat and cholesterol," Pediatrics, v. 99, 1997, pp. 687-694; see also E. Obarzanek, S. Y. Kimm, B. A. Barton, L. L. Van Horn, et al, "Long-term safety and efficacy of a cholesterol-lowering diet in children with elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol: seven-year results of the Dietary Intervention Study in Children (DISC)," Pediatrics, v. 107, February 2001, pp. 256-264.

39 The number and variety of high-calorie snack foods and sweets soared: Megan A. McCrory, Paul J. Fuss, et al, "Dietary variety within food groups: association with energy intake and body fatness in men and women," American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, v. 69, 1999,pp. 440-447-

40 "Today," the Tufts researchers noted: Ibid.

41 To find out how much so, the pre-eminent nutrition scholar: Claire Zizza, Anna Maria-Riz, and Barry Popkin, "Significant increase in young adults' snacking between 1977-78 and 1994-96 represents a cause for concern," Preventive Medicine, v. 32, 2001, pp. 303-310.

"This large increase in total energy . . .": Ibid., p. 303. "Not only did hunter-gatherers . . .": Gary Frost and Anne Dornhorst, "Starting the day the right way," Lancet, v. 357, March 10, 2001, pp. 736-737. See also Ambroise Martin et al, "Is advice for breakfast consumption justified?" British Journal of Nutrition, v. 84, 2000,

PP.333-344-

43 The old, wide-ranging interpretation of in loco parentis: The classic definition can be found in Blackstone's Commentaries, Book One, Chapter 16. For a more contemporary discussion, see James Q. Wilson, "In Loco Parentis," The Brookings Review, Fall 1993, pp. 12-15; see also Kern Alexander and M. David Alexander, The Law of Schools, Students and Teachers in a Nutshell (St. Paul: West Publishing, 1984).

As Thomas R. McDaniel wrote: Thomas R. McDaniel, The Teacher's Dilemma (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1983), p. 16. Its principal proponent, a cigar-chomping: David Frum, How We Got Here: The Seventies (New York: Basic Books, 2000), pp. 325-326; Bruce J. Schulman, The Seventies (New York: Free Press, 2001), pp. 206-215; J° e l Kotkin and Paul Grabaowitz, California Inc. (New York: Rawson, Wade, 1982).

44 In 1981 the California Department of Education: Interview with Laura Chinnock; interview with Gene White.

NOTES

44 "What that did was to force us . . .": Chinnock interview.

45 "If the school cafeteria couldn't cook the meals . . .": White interview. For the experiences of other major cities, see David Nakamura, "Schools Hooked on Junk Food," Washington Post, February 27, 2001, p. Ai.

46 The answer came in the early 1990s, when a group: Chinnock interview; interview with Andrew Hagelshaw.

"it was as if this huge light bulb . . .": Interview with Project Lean member, who requested anonymity. Project Lean is a statewide organization advocating major changes within the school food programs. Also, interview with Jackie Domac, nutrition instructor, Venice High School.

But the single most important innovation: "Agreement, Domino's Pizza Inc. and Los Angeles Unified School District," signed June 1, 1998, and "Agreement, Pizza Hut Inc. and Los Angeles Unified School District," signed June 1, 1998. Also Chinnock interview; White interview; interview with Orlando Griego.

47 By 1999, 95 percent of 345 California high schools: "Fact Sheet: 2000 California High School Fast Food Survey" (Berkeley: Public Health Institute, 2000).

Portion sizes for pizza were a case in point: "Product Specifications: Pizza Wedge," Item 4 A, B, from LAUSD Food Services Product Specifications; "Pizza Hut Agreement," p. 2; "Domino's Agreement," p. 3.

48 "The concern was that somehow that would affect the taste . . .": Chinnock interview.

"The response was nil. . .": Ibid.

This time the inducements came in the form of: "Contract, Coca-Cola Bottling and Venice High School," April 2001; also see Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), pp. 51-55; Nakamura, "Schools Hooked on Junk Food"; interview with Jackie Domac.

49 Between 1989 and 1994 consumption of soft drinks: Joan F Morton and Joanne F Guthrie, "Changes in children's total fat intakes," Family Economics and Nutrition Review, v. 11, 1998, pp. 48-49; Lisa Harnack, Jamie Stang, and Mary Story, "Soft drink consumption among U.S. children and adolescents: nutritional consequences," Journal of the American Dietetic Association, v. 99, April 1999, pp. 436-441.

"Compensation for energy consumed in liquid . . .": David S. Lud-wig, Karen E. Peterson, and Steven L. Gortmaker, "Relation between

NOTES

consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and childhood obesity," Lancet, v. 357, February 17, 2001, pp. 505-508. 50 The lone dissenter was a Cornell University: Robert C. Atkins, Dr. Atkins'Diet Revolution (New York: Bantam, 1973). Banting, who lost some fifty pounds: William Banting, On Corpulence (London: Harrison and Sons, 1864), 3rd ed. See also Hillel Schwartz, Never Satisfied (New York: Anchor, 1986), pp. 100-101; Greg Critser, "Today's Diet Moguls Could Learn from the Victorians," USA Today, March 1, 2000, p. A19.

52 In 1989 W. W. Norton published: Martin Katahn, The T-Factor Diet (New York: W. W. Norton, 1989).

"Dr. Ornish's program . . .": Dean Ornish, Eat More, Weigh Less (New York: HarperCollins, 1993).

"Basta with pasta!": Barry Sears, The Zone Diet (New York: HarperCollins, 1995).

That same year Bantam: Michael Eades and Mary Dan Eades, Protein Power (New York: Bantam, 1995).

53 There had been legitimate scientific debate about: For a good overview of nineteenth-century thought on liver function, see Patricia B. Swan, "Experiments that changed nutritional thinking," paper read at Experimental Biology 95 symposium (Atlanta, Georgia), April 11, 1995. See also Claude Bernard, An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (New York: Dover, 1957), trans. Henry Copley Greene.