Stuffed: An Insider's Look at Who's (Really) Making America Fat [Hardcover]

Hank Cardello (Author), Doug Garr (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 27, 2009

For more than thirty years, Hank Cardello was an executive and adviser to some of the largest food and beverage corporations in the world. For more than thirty years, he watched as corporate profits-and America′s waistlines-ballooned: fattening consumers meant fattening profits. Now, in this fascinating and timely book, Cardello offers a behind-the-scenes look at the business of food,

providing an insider′s account of food company practices, failed government regulations, and misleading media coverage that have combined to place us in the middle of a national obesity epidemic.

With insights culled from Cardello′s time in the food industry, Stuffed explores how food companies have spent the last fifty years largely ignoring healthier fare in the name of their bottom lines while pushing consumers toward "convenience" food and supersize portions without considering the health consequences. From grocery aisles to restaurant booths to boardrooms, Cardello reveals the hidden forces that have long shaped your supermarket purchases and menu selections. He examines the black-and-white mind-set that has produced the carefully targeted marketing strategies that have maximized profits for the food industry and led to weight gain for you.

But Cardello makes clear that the food companies should not take all the blame. They are merely a cog in a larger system that′s broken, and here Cardello illustrates how the government and the media have only made it harder for Americans to make nutritious choices. Highlighting both bit players and high-profile voices of change, Cardello explains the fundamental risks to one-size-fits-all regulatory solutions and the bigger dangers posed by letting the food pundits confuse the health conversation.

More than simply a chronicle of how we got here, Stuffed also puts forth a groundbreaking blueprint for the future of the food industry. In debunking the common myth that "healthier" has to mean higher costs and unpalatable tastes, Cardello provides novel but concrete steps that food companies can take to fatten their profits and slim down their customers. In addition, he stresses the realistic role that consumers must play in America′s new health equation, explaining that unless they demand healthier food with their wallets, America will continue to tip the scales for years to come.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When Cardello, a former food and beverage executive, was initially diagnosed with leukemia (lab tests later disproved it), he began looking closely at the relationship between public health and corporate health. The obesity epidemic in particular, he argues, is connected to food businesses that control almost everything the average American eats. Drawing substantially on his professional knowledge, he examines such factors as marketing and product packaging, the recent controversies involving branded school snacks and beverages, the use of trans fat in restaurants, and the various food lobbies. Cardello believes that bottom-line thinking makes it difficult for Americans to eat well. While agreeing that the basic agenda of corporations and consumers alike is more—more profit, more product—he argues that the industries long-range interests are directly entwined with public health and that with their substantial economic power and overpackaged goods, supermarket and restaurant industries could redirect consumption and wellness in novel ways. Although the tone ranges from finger-wagging polemic to reformist optimism, the author does sketch out several solutions to get around obstacles like entrenched corporate and consumer thinking, and he himself cohosted a 2007 summit between industry leaders and obesity researchers. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Former food-industry executive and current anti-obesity advocate Cardello calls on his erstwhile colleagues to become custodians of their customers’ well-being. . . . The point zings home: The food industry knows how to sell; now it has to sell the right thing.” (Kirkus Reviews )

“Anyone who is interested in their health and thinks they’re educated about nutrition needs to read this book.” (Bookbrowse.com )

“An interesting look into the psychological world of the ‘Big Food’ business. . . . Stuffed is a great book because it is honest, and Cardello does not mince words when it comes to the reality of our nation’s misguided obsession with food.” (Eats.com )

“Food companies would be more profitable and keep their customers longer if they adopted the ideas in Stuffed.” (Tom Ryan, former Chief Concept Officer of McDonald’s Corporation )

“Thought-provoking...informative and filled with clever ideas, [Stuffed] will certainly get people talking and thinking.” (Forbes.com )

“Straightforward and sobering. We all know the food industry is big business, but Cardello shows in clear terms just how big it is—with suppliers all over the world—and why this makes it so slow to improve.” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Ecco (January 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061363863
• ISBN-13: 978-0061363863
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,453,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Henry J. (Hank) Cardello is chief executive officer of 27North, a consulting firm which addresses societal issues that businesses play the largest role in solving. For over two decades, Hank was an executive at some of the world's largest food and beverage companies, including positions as President of Sunkist Soft Drinks, Inc., Vice President of Marketing for Canada Dry, Director of Marketing for Coca-Cola USA, and Brand Manager for Anheuser-Busch and General Mills. Most recently, Mr. Cardello has served as Chief Executive Officer for several nutritional food ingredient companies. In 2000, Mr. Cardello was identified as a "Top 10 Innovator" in the Nutritional Foods industry. He has advised or partnered with several major food, beverage and nutrition corporations such as Coca-Cola, Campbell Soup, Hormel Foods, Nestle, Pillsbury, Quaker Oats, and Tropicana.

Hank concurrently serves as Chairman of the annual Global Obesity Business Forum, an initiative sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Forum brings together senior food industry executives and world renowned nutrition scientists to advance solutions regarding the obesity crisis. Among the major global food and beverage companies participating include the Campbell Soup Company, Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper-Snapple, Group Danone, General Mills, Kellogg's, Kraft Foods, Nestle, McDonald's and Unilever.

Mr. Cardello is the author of Stuffed: An Insider's Look at Who's (Really) Making America Fat out in January, 2009 from HarperCollins. The book provides novel viewpoints regarding how to solve the obesity crisis by highlighting how various constituencies contribute to the problem and by demonstrating how the food industry can profitably do the right thing for their customer's health.

Hank has been a featured speaker at several new business and industry forums and has served as an Executive Fellow for the American Marketing Association. He currently sits on the Board of Hormel Health Technology LLC and acts as Chairman for Source Food Technology, Inc. He has been a director for both the National Executive Committee of the Wharton Alumni Association and the Wharton Club of Atlanta. More recently, he has sat on the Boards of Legacy Securities Corporation, an investment banking firm, and the College of Business at James Madison University.

Mr. Cardello's undergraduate degree was awarded Magna Cum Laude in materials science and metallurgy from Lehigh University, and he holds an MBA in marketing from the Wharton Graduate School, University of Pennsylvania.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Where's the beef? January 1, 2010

By Kara M. Jones

Format:Hardcover

The kernel of Cardello's book is that American obesity is caused by: "Too much high-caloric food that's marketed too effectively to too many who can't resist" (pg 144). The author is a former food industry executive, and his portrayal of obesity culprits is based primarily on his previous employment.

The biggest fault of "Stuffed" is that it is premised on a belief that an entire national health history hinges on fleeting cultural events like television ads or newspaper articles. Cardello makes a huge story-telling mistake in writing as if certain singular events (i.e., Wendy's beef commercials) were cardinal landmarks in creating high levels of American obesity. The actual effect of any of these events is never analyzed--i.e., Did more people get heart disease 20 years after Clara Peller starred in a Wendy's ad? Did more people even eat at Wendy's after this ad? We are just supposed to believe that we are fat, so anything that endorses unhealthy eating must have forced us to be this way. Oh, that human history were really so linear, self-explanatory, and uni-causal. Such a narrative also reveals how little research the author actually conducted. It leaves the reader unable to make an informed or justfied judgement about institutional or personal causes of obesity.

Each chapter loosely focuses on a different food market player, such as boxed goods companies, restaurants, consumers, and government officials. However, the relationships between different players are not explored. This is a major drawback, as the government's role in selectively providing food subsidies for unhealthy products is underrepresented. Cardello points the heaviest finger at food companies themselves, and most of his writing seems aimed at convincing General Mills and Kraft to make healthier products. I agree with other critical readers who note that the book's relevant content could be distilled into a 3-page magazine article.

"Ask the typical American what the four major food groups are and he's likely to answer, 'Italian, Mexican, Chinese, and Southern Fried'" (Cardello, pg 90). If this is what you'd answer, then perhaps "Stuffed" is for you. If not, I would recommend something that offers a more researched and systemic look at the health and safety of our national food production. "Food, Inc" is a movie that does so, Eric Schlosser's well-known "Fast Food Nation" takes on convenience food, and Naomi Klein's "No Logo" addresses the power and techniques of consumer marketing in general.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Frightening conclusion and solutions! July 7, 2011

By Jodi-Hummingbird TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

I agree very much with the one-star review written by A. B. Morris on Amazon.

This book is aimed at Americans that have never before read even the most basic information about how supermarkets are designed to make you buy more, and that eat almost entirely or entirely packaged foods and fast foods and...that are not very bright or willing to make any type of changes to the way they eat.

The author shows how out of touch he is with basic healthy nutrition by commenting that the idea of not eating anything with ingredients you can't pronounce is ridiculous and would see you starve to death within a week!

The comments about all healthy food tasting awful were also bizarre. As if all of us hate the taste of all vegetables and fruits, eggs, nuts, seeds and high quality meats no matter how well prepared!

The emphasis in this book is on calories and the evils of fat. Eating too many calories and too much fat makes you fat, the author claims. If that was true just recommending smaller serving sizes of the same old highly processed and sugar-filled junk food might be a helpful initiative. But it isn't true. The old 'calories in and calories out' line isn't true - as the book 'Good Calories, bad Calories' and others have explained.

Eating less (of the same old junk) and moving more isn't helpful advice for overweight people, as sensible as this advice seems. Far more important is what you eat, what nutrients it has in it and how much of what you eat is made up of allergens and refined carbohydrates and sugar (which raise blood sugar and insulin levels).

How can eating smaller portion sizes of sugar-filled cereals possibly work, when eating high-sugar foods leaves you more hungry after you've eaten them than before? It just makes no sense. These types of foods go hand in hand with overeating, as many of us can't stop eating them once we start due to blood sugar peaks and falls and so on.

Sometimes our taste buds may be fooled by fake foods but these foods wont fool our bodies, which need the nutrition from real foods. Chemical sweeteners are NOT a great solution to anything either as they have their own set of problems.

One of the worst parts of the book is the insistence by the author that while trans fats are bad for you, replacing them with saturated fats is no better. This statement is so wrong. Trans fats are unnatural fats that aren't safe for you at any level and which are immensely disease causing and dangerous. Saturated fats are healthy fats contained in many of the foods essential to good health that we need to live! (The claimed link between saturated fat and heart disease is bogus. See 'Eat Fat, Lose Fat' or 'Good Calories. bad Calories' or 'Know Your Fats' for more information.)

Chapters 11 to 13 are just horrible. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Tip Top white bread and McDonald's burgers with omega 3s added to them, and chocolate made with (unhealthy) vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter are not wonderful and healthy win-win solutions!

Although the author does some good points about why food manufacturers are not entirely to blame for health issues caused by poor food choices, the arguments in much of this book were very weak. This book is a scary read!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Different than the rest September 16, 2009

By Burgundy Damsel VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I've read a lot of books about diet, obesity, fast food, etc. I have also worked in food service for a decade. Although the prose of this book is not as fluid or catchy as many of the similar books out there, it is quite readable and the information is unique. Along with the standard collection of statistics, there are anecdotes, case studies and interviews far outside the realm of normal recitation that bring a lot of depth and breadth to the discussion of this topic that one doesn't usually see. Definitely a keeper!