For many communities Walmart is the beating consumer heart. Their budget prices help to shape the lifestyle and diet of many families.
Consequently the company's announcement to reduce the sodium in its store-brand packaged foods by 25 percent and added sugars by 10 percent, to remove trans fats entirely, to drive down the cost of produce was noted carefully by consumers and food corporations.
One professor sees the initiative as far-reaching and positive.
It will bring "a great deal of attention to the public health potential of reformulating foods to create healthier products" and it will "pressure food manufacturers to reformulate their products lest they be seen as laggards standing in the way of the nation's efforts to reduce health care costs."
"Food companies have systematically trained Americans (and global consumers) to eat in perverse ways. We now expect extreme levels of sweetness, fattiness, and saltiness in our foods. We turn a blind eye to countless chemicals and artificial ingredients in food products. People now eat in their cars, snack all day long, are exposed to enormous portions, and have food available 24 hours a day in multiple locations.
It is time to turn this ship around."
It seems to me the food diet pendulum began swinging away from the over processed years ago; Walmart and the giant food companies now have to be a little more responsive to consumer demands.
Via Huffington Post
