As the title suggests, this blog is about a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Unlike the wild wolf, which in my opinion deserves a place in the Dutch landscape, this wolf in sheep’s clothing does not belong here. Not so long ago, Ozempic was the new weight-loss drug. I wrote a blog about that at the time. That hype is now being overtaken by Triple G. Triple G does not contain just one appetite-suppressing hormone like Ozempic, but three: GLP-1, GIP, and Glucagon.

Weight Loss

People who use Ozempic to lose weight achieve an average weight loss of 14% in one year. The successor to Ozempic contained two hormones, GLP-1 and GIP, with which an average weight loss of 20% could be achieved in the same period. And now there is Triple G, with which users can achieve an average weight loss of 30% in a year. There are even people who reach 35% or more. That is enormous!

Food and Beverage Industry

But let’s take a big step back. How has it come about that half of the Dutch population is now overweight, and that 16% has a BMI above 30 and is therefore classified as obese? I think it is time to unmask the wolf in sheep’s clothing. In my eyes, that is the food and beverage industry. This entirely market-driven industry is making us sick. I am firmly convinced of that. It is no great secret that roughly three-quarters to 80% of the products in supermarkets fall outside the ‘Wheel of Five’ dietary guidelines from the Netherlands Nutrition Centre. Moreover, we also know that many of these — mostly ultra-processed — products are designed to interfere with your feeling of satiety, causing you to keep eating or drinking.

Freedom of Choice

But surely we have the free will not to use such harmful products, you might think. Do we really? Do we still have that free will? The Netherlands is, in my view, a completely right-wing country. The food and beverage industry is given free rein to maximise profits and keep shareholders happy. Literally nothing stands in its way. Food and drinks must be safe for consumption. They do not need to be healthy. Because we Dutch love freedom of choice and are averse to paternalism. But to what extent can we still speak of freedom of choice when we are being manipulated on a large scale by the food and beverage industry?

Culture and Traditions

And what about the major influence of culture and traditions? The range of products in supermarkets is already nothing to write home about year-round. Crisps, soft drinks, biscuits, and sweets are irresistibly tasty and incredibly cheap. The same goes for ice cream, pizzas, snacks, and ready meals. These products are abundantly available all year long. But as if that were not bad enough, the industry piles on even more during the holiday season. Pepernoten around Sinterklaas. Christmas wreaths at Christmas. Oliebollen and drinks at New Year. Sweets for New Year’s Day, Halloween, or St Martin’s Day. Chocolate Easter bunnies at Easter. Orange cream puffs and orange bitters on King’s Day. The list grows longer every year.

Target Audience

By now I also dare to point out who the most coveted target audience for the food and beverage industry is: teenagers! Our daughter started secondary school this academic year, and since then she has regularly been a customer of the soft drinks machine or the nearby supermarket. In that supermarket, the range of fresh bread rolls and fast-food pastries consists for 97% of products containing nothing but white wheat flour, sugar, and a long list of additives.

I shop at this supermarket twice a week because of its widely praised quality of fruit and vegetables. Usually early enough to beat the influx of students, but sometimes that doesn’t work out. On those occasions I watch in amazement at what is being scanned at the self-checkout. What I notice is that the proportion of boys doing their shopping often exceeds the proportion of girls — perhaps because girls tend to be more aware of their appearance at an earlier age than boys.

Soft Drink Machines at Schools

Children are certainly not being made it easy to make healthy choices in today’s food and drink landscape. That worries me. Personally, I think soft drink machines have no place in secondary schools. Put a machine there instead that dispenses wonderfully tasty varieties of coffee and tea. And if a student really wants a sweet drink once in a while, the walk to the supermarket is quickly made. But the fact that it is not available at school does create a barrier — however small.

I think it is very valuable for teenagers to learn to deal with the temptations that our society brings. But I fear that these days it is being made very, very difficult for them. The wolf in sheep’s clothing appears in many guises. Because it is certainly not only the food and beverage industry. You also see it, for example, in the tobacco industry, the gambling industry, and on social media. Not to mention ‘recreational’ drugs.

Sugar Tax

I believe the introduction of a sugar tax has been a long time coming. How difficult can it be to determine where and when such a sugar tax applies? Fruit and vegetables, fresh or dried, would naturally be exempt. And as for the products mentioned at the start of this blog, I would base the level of the sugar tax on the sugar content of the product — since there is already a legal obligation to list this on the label. Just start with the low-hanging fruit and tackle the biggest and most harmful source of sugar in our diet. That is, without any doubt, the consumption of soft drinks.

My Own Share

But then, as already noted, we live in an extremely right-wing country. The interests of (the shareholders of) the Unilevers and Nestlés of this world weigh many times more heavily than our individual health. And even though I personally have no shares in these companies, my pension fund PFZW — which invests my pension contributions — does. That feels to me a little like still investing in Philip Morris shares, whereas that has long been a firm exclusion.

[Dutch Version]