Food and beverage industries win political fights about obesity, even in White House, apparently

Food and beverage industries are winning the battle against obesity, to the detriment of millions of overweight children, many of whom live in rural areas, report Duff Wilson and Janet Roberts of the Reuters news service. The industries have "never lost a significant political battle in the United States despite mounting scientific evidence of the role of unhealthy food and children's marketing in obesity," they write.

Lobbying records analyzed by Reuters reveal that the industries more than doubled their lobbying efforts over the past three years. The reporters found that the White House backed off some anti-obesity steps in the face of industry lobbying though Michelle Obama, in video above, has led a campaign to fight the epidemic.

The industry lobbying dominated policymaking and "defeated government proposals aimed at changing the nation's diet," Wilson and Roberts found. They report that the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the top lobby for healthier food, spent about $70,000 last year; that's about what the food and beverage industry spends on lobbying every 13 hours.

"The political battles over what children eat and drink are crucial to the nation's health, experts say, because the tripling in childhood obesity in the last three decades foretells diabetes, heart disease and other illness in decades to come," Wilson and Roberts write. (Read more)