How Big Food Companies Target Young Americans with Unhealthy Products, with Vani Hari & Grace Price
What this video covers
A 35-minute segment of The Megyn Kelly Show in which host Megyn Kelly interviews Vani Hari alongside Grace Price, the 18-year-old creator of “Cancer: A Food-Borne Illness.” The discussion centers on how big food corporations market unhealthy products to young Americans: Hari and Price argue companies use toxins and dyes in foods sold to Americans that they don’t use for people in other countries, and that these companies deliberately target children to get them hooked on unhealthy products.
The conversation draws an explicit parallel between big food and the tobacco companies of the past. Price — who says “ultra processed foods are the new cigarette for my generation” — claims the tobacco industry bought food companies like General Mills and Kraft, applied tobacco product-development tactics to engineer highly palatable foods, and exited in 2001, leaving the playbook behind. Hari adds that companies like Kellogg’s keep creating new cereals targeting the smallest children. On the parent front, Hari shares her Halloween routine: her family sorts through the candy, talks about the ingredients, puts the worst of it back in the basket by the door, and overnight the “Switch Witch” replaces it with a toy or coloring book — plus she posts candy-swap lists on her site and Instagram each October. Kelly also pitches the guests her own idea on air: a grocery chain “blessed by the Food Babe” stocked only with pre-screened products, saying she would invest — Hari says she’s been asked about it many times and maybe in the future.
Key points
- Hari and Price argue big food companies use toxins and dyes in American products that they omit from products sold in other countries.
- Price calls ultra-processed foods “the new cigarette” for her generation, claiming the tobacco industry bought companies like General Mills and Kraft and applied tobacco product tactics before exiting in 2001 — her claim.
- Hari’s Halloween advice: sort the candy with the kids, discuss the ingredients, leave the worst by the door, and let the “Switch Witch” swap it for a toy or coloring book; she publishes candy-swap lists each October.
- Kelly pitches a pre-screened grocery chain “blessed by the Food Babe” and says she’d invest; Hari says she’s been asked many times and allows it may happen in the future.
- Kelly highlights Hari’s TruVani bar (“the only bar”) as an example of kitchen-ingredient products.