Claims about our food

The health claims made by potato chip manufacturers apparently vary with the price. Most popular are reminding people what's NOT in the bag: every negative increases the cost by 4 cents per ounce. Expensive chips are much more likely to have any health claim than cheap chips, which tend to emphasize being locally made.

Sugar says that using the term "corn sugar" misleads consumers by claiming that "HFCS is natural and is indistinguishable from the sugar extracted from sugar cane and sugar beets." Corn says sugar is misleading consumers by "wrongfully alleging that high fructose corn syrup (a sugar made from corn) causes health issues that do not arise from consuming cane and beet sugar." While the journalist reporting on this does manage to get M. Nestle (way down at the bottom) to comment, we also get a quote from an "alternative medicine guru and author" ... What? All the real doctors were busy?

Speaking of sugar, how much is in kids' cereals? M. Nestle reports on an Environmental Working Group report:

kids’ cereals are really cookies in disguise, typically 40% -50% sugars by weight.   Kellogg’s Honey Smacks topped the list at 55%. ... 

The good news is that at least some cereals are managing to reduce sugar content. (Image source: General Mills)


 There is a claim that Wendy's may soon be the #2 burger establishment, unseating the Burger ... well, he can't be king since he's #2 and about to be #3, how about the Burger Prince then? I have appreciated seeing Wendy's posting calorie counts in some states that don't require them and have adapted my own consumer choices accordingly. Just don't go to the Wendy's in Ithaca - I got food poisoning there twice. Update: On Wendy's triumphant return to Japan.


Carl's Jr's chief, meanwhile claims the Affordable Care Act will be bad for business because it will increase the costs of doing business. His argument makes it sound as if this is a fixed cost - the company will just have to shell out an extra $18 mil each year. Actually, they are variable costs that depend on how many people they choose to employ. Making labor more expensive does discourage building more stores as he says on an income effect, but there is a substitution effect that tells them to use more machines and fewer people, or more temps who can be excluded from the Act. Yglesias points out that much more relevant are the requirements that say restaurants like Carl's Jr will need to post calorie and other nutrition information, which will likely have an even larger impact than the employment costs.

Categorizing Flash Mobbery

Among my alternate personas is a theater buff. That theater buff gets interested in the various performance moments known as "flash mobs," probably through contagion in interest in improv theater. And being an exacting and precise sort of fellow (when I want to be), I wonder at what truly constitutes a "flash mob." Though there are plenty of web commentators/trolls arguing "this isn't a flash mob," but there have been very few attempts to systematically define what constitutes a flash mob.  It seems to me there are four dimensions:

1. How were the performers gathered? Via social media or traditional means? Do you know all the performers before it starts?
2. How choreographed is the action?
3. Did the venue know ahead of time?
4. Did the audience know ahead of time?

I submit that if the event was planned by traditional means, it's not a flash gathering. Further, if you know everyone who shows up ahead of time, you're not a mob. You and your buds, your colleagues, your classmates, your knitting group, your whatever decide to meet at a certain place and do a silly thing, you're not a flash mob.

If your action is choreographed, I'm happy to still let you be a flash mob, but you can't claim to be improv. Boarding a sub in Vader and Leia costumes and acting out interrogation scenes is NOT improv or a flash mob. However, you should get bonus "flash" points for having or needing very little rehearsal. If anyone COULD join in, you're more likely a flash mob. Flash mobs can carol, flash mobs can line dance, flash mobs can reenact dance steps from Flashdance ... but if it's your dance class or your church choir and you've been rehearsing forever, you're probably not a flash mob. Again, there are really two issues here: to be flash you need less rehearsal; to be a mob you shouldn't necessarily know everyone participating ahead of time.

If you're using the venue's sound equipment and made an appointment with them, I don't see a reason why you can't be a courteous flash mob. But you should get bonus "flash" points if they don't know you're coming.

However, if the audience knows ahead of time that you are coming, you are definitely NOT a flash mob.

The Tabernacle Choir this week gets points for using a nontraditional venue choice, but the audience knew they were there, they got permission weeks ahead of time, they knew everyone performing, it was spread by traditional means, and it was highly rehearsed ... it doesn't sound very flashy or mobby to me. When the Opera Company of Philadelphia that got together at Lord and Taylor to sing the Hallelujah Chorus, they probably weren't either because they knew everyone performing ahead of time. However, if they were joined by enough spectators or announced it via the web to attract additional singers, I would be willing to allow it.

Birthday parties can be planned on Facebook, but that doesn't make them flash mobs. Police in a number of areas point out how many disturbances are not flash mobs.

The groups that get together to swing Jedi lightsabers or freeze motionless for 3 minutes probably do count.

Potentially there is a fifth dimension that you need a critical mass of people to be considered a mob, but that number will vary with location and purpose, and I am just generous enough to allow for less-successful flash mobs that just didn't attract enough people to go viral.

Food Advertising

On children and food marketing – note particular point #2:

• Kids preferred the taste of the cereals with cartoons
• They preferred boxes labeled “Healthy Bits” more than “Sugar Bits”
• They most preferred “Healthy Bits” with a cartoon
• They least preferred “Sugar Bits” without a cartoon

Adachi and Liu (2010) “Estimating Threshold Effects of U.S. Generic Fluid Milk Advertising” AJAE, 92(3) 727-739. They find two interesting thresholds: advertising below a certain level does nothing for sales and above another threshold the marginal effects rapidly decrease. Advertising also makes people’s milk purchases less price sensitive and change more with changes in income.

Cracked explains some of the problems with food advertising that doesn’t mean a thing. Winners include “Real” food, “Fat Free,” “All Natural” and “Less…” (warning: I wouldn’t say the language is strong … it’s on unnecessary steroids)

Some products don't even make it clear what they have less fat than. A York Peppermint Patty claims "As Always... 70% Less Fat!" Cool! I'll cancel my situps! But after searching the bag for actual context, I found that their 70% less fat is 70% less fat than "the average of the leading chocolate candy brands*." No [kidding], York Peppermint Patty. I kind of figured toothpaste had fewer calories than nougat.

Still curious, I searched for the other end of that asterisk and saw, "*3 grams of fat per 41 gram serving vs. 11 grams of fat in the average of the leading chocolate candy brands." I'm not a mathematician, but those leading candy brands are more than 25% pure fat. Do you want a medal for defeating that?