Wal-Mart Is Making Food History

Kelly D. Brownell

Kelly D. Brownell, a professor of psychology and epidemiology, is the director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.

Updated January 25, 2011, 1:24 PM

Wal-Mart’s plan to promote healthy foods made food history. The nation faces a crisis with diseases related to unhealthy eating -- most notably obesity and diabetes -- but has not found ways of counteracting the effects of factors that are responsible.

Wal-Mart's decision shows that food sellers are important to the public's health.

The public health community, and to a lesser extent the government, have put pressure on the food industry to clean up its act. Most attention has been on food manufacturers, large companies like Nestlé, Unilever, Kraft, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. But the food sellers are also important.

Enter Wal-Mart, the country’s largest food seller. Wal-Mart has been holding discussions with nutrition experts to change for the better, and the rubber has now hit the road. Its actions could ripple through the food supply industry in powerful ways.

If this bold initiative affects only the foods Wal-Mart sells under its store brand, millions of people could benefit, but this new program could have more far-reaching impact.

Wal-Mart reducing the sugar in its soft drinks sends a powerful message to Coca-Cola and PepsiCo: do the same or be seen as obstructing the effort to improve health and lower health care costs. It will become more difficult for companies to pump out highly processed products loaded with sugar, fat, salt and artificial ingredients.

Certainly there is more room to improve, but the Wal-Mart announcement was a major step. I hope they will continue to make progress, and, in so doing, have a positive impact on many sectors of the American food supply. There are many winners in this picture.

Topics: Health, Wal-Mart, food

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