by Tom Farley
Chapter 13: “Would you like us to say, ‘That’s not our responsibility’?”
Initial press reports on the National Salt Reduction Initiative include “One Family’s Diet Full of Hidden Salt,” Daily News, January 12, 2010; “New York Seeks National Effort to Curtail Salt Use,” New York Times, January 11, 2010; and “Food Makers Quietly Cut Back on Salt,” Wall Street Journal, January 11, 2010. Jane Brody’s column is “After Smoking and Fats, Focus Turns to Salt,” New York Times, January 26, 2010. The Quinnipiac poll on New York City’s food initiatives is available at http://www.quinnipiac.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/new-york-city/release-detail?ReleaseID=1425.
Michael Alderman’s commentary on salt is “Reducing Dietary Sodium: The Case for Caution,” Journal of the American Medical Association 303 (2010): 448–49. His affiliation with the Salt Institute is mentioned briefly at the end of this article.
The final National Salt Reduction Targets and the company commitments to meet them are available at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/diseases/salt.shtml. For the companies’ announcements of their salt reduction commitments, see “Salt Taking a Cut in Groceries, Restaurant Menus,” Associated Press, April 26, 2010; and “Salt Assault Gets Allies,” Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2010.
The report from the Institute of Medicine is J. E. Henney, C. L. Taylor, and C. S. Boon, eds., Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake in the United States (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2010).
The study showing the improvement in quality of care with the electronic medical records is S. C. Shih et al., “Health Information Systems in Small Practices: Improving the Delivery of Clinical Preventive Services,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 41 (2011): 603–9.
Chapter 14: “We are in a coalition with major food companies for one reason only; that is, access to power.”
Background on SNAP is available at http://www.snaptohealth.org, and data on the program is at http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/pd/SNAPsummary.pdf. The history of the program is described in P. S. Landers, “The Food Stamp Program: History, Nutrition, Education, and Impact,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 107 (2007): 1945–51.
The effects of the WIC changes on the foods that stores stocked and children’s diets are presented in T. Andreyeva et al., “Positive Influence of the Revised Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children Food Packages on Access to Healthy Foods,” Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 112 (2012): 850–58; A. Hillier et al., “The Impact of WIC Food Package Changes on Access to Healthful Food in 2 Low-Income Urban Neighborhoods,” Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 44, no. 3 (2012): 210–16; A. Kong et al., “The 18-month Impact of Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children Food Package Revisions on Diets of Recipient Families,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 46 (2014): 543–51; and S. E. Whaley et al., “Revised WIC Food Package Improves Diet in WIC Families,” Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 44 (2012): 204–9.
Edward Cooney’s comment on the Congressional Hunger Center’s ties to the major food companies is in “Let Them Eat Broccoli,” New York Times, October 17, 2010.
On the health department e-mails on the ten-pound claim, see “E-mails Reveal Dispute Over the City’s Ad Against Sodas,” New York Times, October 29, 2010. The editorial mentioned is “Farley’s Big Fat Lie,” New York Post, October 30, 2010.
On the body converting glucose into fat, see L. H. Glimcher and A.-H. Lee, “From Sugar to Fat,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1173, supp. 1 (2009): E2–E9. The study of the effect of overfeeding on weight gain is C. Bouchard et al., “The Response to Long-Term Overfeeding in Identical Twins,” New England Journal of Medicine 322 (1990): 1477–82.
Barbara Rolls’s study on the portion size of macaroni and cheese is B. J. Rolls et al., “Portion Size of Food Affects Energy Intake in Normal-Weight and Overweight Men and Women,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 76 (2002): 1207–13. Other studies on the effects of portion size include B. J. Rolls et al., “Increasing the Portion Size of a Sandwich Increases Energy Intake,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 104 (2004): 367–72; B. J. Rolls et al., “Increasing the Portion Size of a Packaged Snack Increases Energy Intake in Men and Women,” Appetite 42 (2004): 63–69; K. C. Mathias et al., “Serving Larger Portions of Fruits and Vegetables Together at Dinner Promotes Intake of Both Foods in Young Children,” Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 112 (2012): 266–70; J. E. Flood et al., “The Effect of Increased Beverage Portion Size on Energy Intake at a Meal,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 106 (2006): 1984–90; and B. J. Rolls et al., “The Effect of Large Portion Sizes on Energy Intake Is Sustained for 11 Days,” Obesity 15 (2007): 1535–43.
Brian Wansink’s self-refilling bowl study is B. Wansink et al., “Bottomless Bowls: Why Visual Cues of Portion Size May Influence Intake,” Obesity Research 13 (2005): 93–100.
A study on the growth of portion sizes in fast-food restaurants is L. R. Young and M. Nestle, “Expanding Portion Size in the US Marketplace: Implications for Nutrition Counseling,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 103 (2003): 231–34. More information is in L. Young, The Portion Teller Plan: The No-Diet Reality Guide to Eating, Cheating, and Losing Weight Permanently (New York: Morgan Road Books, 2005). A study on the growth of portion sizes overall is S. J. Nielsen and B. M. Popkin, “Patterns and Trends in Food Portion Sizes,” Journal of the American Medical Association 289 (2003): 450–53.
Chapter 15: “They always had two nuclear weapons.”
The Suffering Every Minute of Every Day ads are posted on the World Lung Foundation’s website http://www.worldlungfoundation.org.
Data on life expectancy in New York City during this period are included in the health department’s annual Summary of Vital Statistics and in a March 2013 Epi Research Report entitled “Increased Life Expectancy in New York City: What Accounts for the Gains?,” both of which are available at http://www.nyc.gov/health.
Information on marketing expenditures by the tobacco companies, including those for point-of-purchase displays, is in the annual Federal Trade Commission Cigarette Report available at http://www.ftc.gov. The surveys of smokers leaving retail outlets are summarized in O. B. Carter et al., “The Effect of Retail Cigarette Pack Displays on Unplanned Purchases: Results from Immediate Postpurchase Interviews,” Tobacco Control 18 (2009): 218–21. Studies of the effect of point-of-purchase displays on children include M. Wakefield et al., “An Experimental Study of Effects on Schoolchildren of Exposure to Point-of-Sale Cigarette Advertising and Pack Displays,” Health Education Research 21 (2006): 338–47; T. Dewhirst, “POP Goes the Power Wall? Taking Aim at Tobacco Promotional Strategies Utilized at Retail,” Tobacco Control 13 (2004): 209–10; and L. Henriksen et al., “Effects on Youth of Exposure to Retail Tobacco Advertising,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 32 (2002): 1771–89. The prospective study from Stanford is L. Henriksen et al., “A Longitudinal Study of Exposure to Retail Cigarette Advertising and Smoking Initiation,” Pediatrics 126 (2010): 232–38.
The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is accessible at the World Health Organization’s website http://www.who.int/fctc.
Youth smoking rates in Ontario after the tobacco product display ban was put into effect (from 2008 to 2009) are available from the annual Youth Smoking Survey results on the Health Canada website at http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca.
The Supreme Court case on the Vermont law on prescribing patterns of physicians is Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc., no. 10-779 131 S.Ct. 2653 (2011).
The opinion about the legality of a product display ban is discussed in M. Berman, M. Miura, and J. Bergstresser, Tobacco Product Display Restrictions (Boston: Center for Public Health and Tobacco Policy at New England Law, 2010), available at http://publichealthlawcenter.org.
The virtual reality study on tobacco product displays is A. E. Kim et al., “Influence of Tobacco D
isplays and Ads on Youth: A Virtual Store Experiment,” Pediatrics 131 (2013): 1–8.
The expenditures for price discounts for cigarettes is contained table 2D of the Federal Trade Commission’s Cigarette Report for 2011, available at http://www.ftc.gov.
Chapter 16: “I hear that your mayor wants to ban soda!”
The health department’s EpiQuery data analysis tool, available at http://nyc.gov/health or https://a816-healthpsi.nyc.gov/epiquery, can be used to view results from the department’s annual telephone surveys, which include questions on obesity and sugary drink consumption.
A report on the declines in childhood obesity in New York City was published in the CDC newsletter: M. Berger et al., “Obesity in K-8 students—New York City, 2006–07 to 2010–11 school years,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 60 (2011): 1673–78.
The first stories on the portion cap were “Mayor Bloomberg Wants to Impose 16-Ounce Limit on Sugar Drinks,” New York Post, May 31, 2012; and “New York Plans to Ban Sale of Big Sizes of Sugary Drinks,” New York Times, May 30, 2012. The poll about this proposal was done by Quinnipiac University, and the results were posted on its website on June 13, 2012.
The Million Big Gulp March rally was described in “A Rally for Sweet-Drink Rights Comes Soaked in Patriotism,” New York Times, July 23, 2012. A promotional video made by the public relations firm is posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctAiZ0w8YCI.
Chapter 17: “The NSRI’s success is far from guaranteed.”
The Center for Science in the Public Interest’s report on changes in salt in foods is M. F. Jacobson et al., “Changes in Sodium Levels in Processed and Restaurant Foods, 2005 to 2011,” JAMA Internal Medicine 173 (2013): 1285–91. The editorial on the National Salt Reduction Initiative is S. Y. Angell and T. A. Farley, “Can We Finally Make Progress on Sodium Intake?” American Journal of Public Health 102 (2012): 1625–27.
The articles on sodium and mortality mentioned in the chapter are K. Stolarz-Skrzpek et al., “Fatal and Nonfatal Outcomes, Incidence of Hypertension, and Blood Pressure Changes in Relation to Urinary Sodium Excretion,” Journal of the American Medical Association 305 (2011): 1777–85; and M. J. O’Donnell et al., “Urinary Sodium and Potassium Excretion and Risk of Cardiovascular Events,” Journal of the American Medical Association 306 (2011): 2229–38. Examples of comments criticizing these studies are D. R. Labarthe and P. A. Briss, “Urinary Sodium Excretion and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality,” Journal of the American Medical Association 306 (2011): 1083–87; and P. K. Whelton, “Urinary Sodium and Cardiovascular Disease Risk: Informing Guidelines for Sodium Consumption,” Journal of the American Medical Association 306 (2011): 2262–64.
The meta-analysis mentioned is R. S. Taylor et al., “Reduced Dietary Salt for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials (Cochrane Review),” American Journal of Hypertension 24 (2011): 843–53. The editorial on it is M. H. Alderman, “The Cochrane Review of Sodium and Health,” American Journal of Hypertension 24 (2011): 854–56. “It’s Time to End the War on Salt” appeared in Scientific American on July 8, 2011. The notice that the Taylor meta-analysis was withdrawn is posted at the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2013): CD009217; the study that was removed from the meta-analysis was S. Paterna et al., “Normal-Sodium Diet Compared with Low-Sodium Diet in Compensated Congestive Heart Failure: Is Sodium an Old Enemy or a New Friend?” Clinical Science 114 (2008): 221–30. The discredited article from this research group is J. J. DiNicolantonio et al., “Low Sodium Versus Normal Sodium Diets in Systolic Heart Failure: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” Heart (2013), doi:10.1136/heartjnl-2012-302337. The entire topic of the duplicated and subsequently missing data is discussed at http://retractionwatch.com. The meta-analysis that excluded the suspect study is F. J. He and G. A. MacGregor, “Salt Reduction Lowers Cardiovascular Risk: Meta-Analysis of Outcome Trials,” Lancet 378 (2011): 380–81.
The Institute of Medicine report on salt is Sodium Intake in Populations: Assessment of the Evidence (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2013), and the editorial about it is M. H. Alderman and H. W. Cohen, “The IOM Report Fails to Detect Evidence to Support Dietary Sodium Guidelines,” American Journal of Hypertension 26 (2013): 1198–200.
The FDA’s docket on salt is number FDA-2011-N-0400.
The story of how Congress blocked the publication of the guidelines on food marketing to children was described by Marion Nestle at http://www.foodpolitics.com on January 16, 2014.
The Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada (July 2010) is available at http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca.
Christine Curtis’s study on sodium changes is C. J. Curtis et al., “Change in Sodium Density in the U.S. Packaged Food Supply, 2009–2012.” At this writing, the study is under review at a scientific journal. The study I used to estimate the impact of these changes on mortality in the United States is K. Bibbins-Domingo et al., “Projected Effect of Dietary Salt Reductions on Future Cardiovascular Disease,” New England Journal of Medicine 362 (2010): 590–99.
Chapter 18: “This is an attack on small business.”
Information about the ties between Coca-Cola and both the NAACP and the Hispanic Federation is in “In NAACP, Industry Gets Ally Against Soda Ban,” New York Times, January 23, 2013.
Payments from the beverage companies to the city of Chicago are described in: “Beverage Giants Offer City $5 Million Prize to Avoid New Tax,” Chicago Sun-Times, October 8, 2012; “Coca-Cola Gives $3M to City for Anti-Obesity, Diabetes Efforts,” Chicago Tribune, November 12, 2012; and “Key Member of Rahm’s Communications Team Joining Coca-Cola,” Chicago Sun-Times July 29, 2013.
The legal cases mentioned are Boreali v. Axelrod, 71 N.Y.2d 1 (1987); Metropolitan Board of Health v. Heister, 37 N.Y. 661 (1868); Paduano v. City of New York, 257 N.Y.2d 531 (1965); and Sorbonne Apartments Co. v. Board of Health of the City of New York, 88 Misc. 2d 970; 390 N.Y.2d 358 (1976).
The portion cap legal case is New York Statewide Coalition of Hispanic Chambers of Commerce v. New York City Department of Health, 970 N.Y.2d 200 (2013).
The quote from the legal argument comes from “Fight over Bloomberg’s Soda Ban Reaches Courtroom,” New York Times, January 23, 2013 (original article no longer on New York Times website but available at www.newsdiffs.org).
Chapter 19: “It keeps me up at night.”
The town of Haverstraw’s experience with a tobacco display ban is recounted in L. E. Curry et al., “The Haverstraw Experience: The First Tobacco Product Display Ban in the United States,” American Journal of Public Health 104 (2014): e9–e12.
The studies mentioned on the potential value of the law raising the sales age of tobacco to twenty-one are: J. DiFranza and M. Coleman, “Sources of Tobacco for Youths in Communities with Strong Enforcement of Youth Access Laws,” Tobacco Control 10 (2001): 323–28; S. Ahmad, “Closing the Youth Access Gap: The Projected Health Benefits and Cost Savings of a National Policy to Raise the Legal Smoking Age to 21 in the United States,” Health Policy 75 (2005): 74–84; A. Wagenaar and T. Toomey, “Effects of Minimum Drinking Age Laws: Review and Analysis of the Literature from 1960–2000,” Journal of Studies on Alcohol, supp. 14 (2002): S206–S225. Data on smoking trends among the Needham high school students comes from the town’s health department; comparison data for that region of Massachusetts is available in the “MetroWest Region High School Report 2012,” available at http://www.mwhealth.org.
Transcripts from all New York City Council hearings are posted at http://council.nyc.gov.
The report in which the U.S. surgeon general concluded that smoking in movies causes youth to start smoking is Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young Adults (Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC, 2012). The prospective study of children and movie exposure is L. Titus-Ernstoff et al., “Longitudinal Study of Viewing Smoking in Movies and Initiation of Smoking in Children,” Pediatrics 121 (2008): 15–21.
The e-cigarette brands marketed by the big
three tobacco companies (before a proposed merger of Reynolds America and Lorillard) were Blu (Lorillard), Vuse (R.J. Reynolds), and MarkTen (Altria, Philip Morris). For the invention of electronic cigarettes, see “A High-Tech Approach to Getting a Nicotine Fix,” Los Angeles Times, April 25, 2009. Some of the business aspects are described in “Vapor Trails,” Business North Carolina, March 2013, available at http://www.businessnc.com/articles/2013-03/vapor-trails-category.
The profile on Sean Parker is “Sean Parker: Agent of Disruption,” Forbes, September 21, 2011.
Chapter 20: “That is, ultimately, government’s highest duty.”
Statistics on noncommunicable disease mortality globally are available in R. Lozano et al., “Global and Regional Mortality from 235 Causes of Death for 20 Age Groups in 1990 and 2010: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010,” Lancet 380 (2012): 2095–128, and at the website for the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, http://www.healthdata.org. The UN secretary general’s report Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (A/66/83) is available at http://www.un.org/en/ga/ncdmeeting2011/documents.shtml.
Articles on the life expectancy gains in New York City include “Increased Life Expectancy in New York City: What Accounts for the Gains,” Epi Research Report, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (March 2013); T. Alcorn, “Redefining Public Health in New York City,” Lancet 379 (2012): 2037–38; and S. H. Preston and I. T. Elo, “Anatomy of a Municipal Triumph: New York City’s Upsurge in Life Expectancy,” Population and Development Review 40 (2014): 1–29. The comparison of life expectancy gains in New York City to those of other major U.S. cities is based on data provided by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
