On Monday, June 23, 2008, the radio program, Marketplace aired a story about high fructose corn syrup. To listen to the Marketplace story online, visit: (http://marketplace.publicradio.org//display/web/2008/06/23/corn_syrup/?refid=0)

Corn syrup has come under fire in terms of the very real obesity epidemic. With products that include cola, fruit drinks and many other processed foods, it’s hard to believe that it didn’t play a part.

In addition to nutritionists and other health groups targeting corn syrup, Mother Nature is also affecting the fate of corn syrup. With the recent floods, corn prices have sky-rocketed, leaving many Americans unable to buy expensive products that may contain corn syrup.

With so much heat, corn syrup producers are thinking of new ways to market the syrup. Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association, has announced that her organization will deploy an 18 month marketing campaign using print and online advertising. There are reports that the organization will dedicate up to $30 million dollars to this campaign. To see examples of the Corn Refiners Association’s campaign, visit (http://www.sweetsurprise.com/) In the audio interview, Ms. Erickson stated, “There will be a particular focus on magazines targeted at moms given their important role in preparing and buying foods for their families.” It seems as though moms and other US shoppers have been reading food labels more closely, and the sales of products containing corn syrup have gone down in the past year.

This story raises many interesting questions, including:

• Do public health organizations have an obligation to present counter arguments to marketing campaigns like www.sweetsurprise.com?
• Do you feel that the corn producers or the consumers of the product are to blame for the obesity epidemic?

- Kayla Dean & Caralyn Champa

On May 1, 2008 Walgreens announced on their website (www.walgreens.com), that it has “completed it’s acquisitions of I-Trax, Inc., parent company of CHD Meridian Healthcare, and privately-held Whole Health Management, two leading companies that together operate more than 350 worksite health centers. The acquired companies services include primary and acute care, wellness, pharmacy and disease management services and health and fitness programming. The acquisitions position Walgreens as the leading provider of worksite health services. Combined with Walgreens wholly-owned subsidiary and convenient care clinic manager, Take Care Health Systems, the will form the platform for the new Walgreens Health and Wellness division”.

According to Walgreens.com, Walgreens is now the nation’s largest drugstore chain. It’s 2007 fiscal sales were $53.8 billion. Walgreens has 6,271 stores in all but 2 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

For more information, or to read Walgreen’s entire news release, please visit the following link:

http://news.walgreens.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=4950

What are your thoughts on this merger? What do you see as the potential benefits?

-Kayla Dean, Research Assistant

Hello world,

Welcome to the Ofstead and Associates blog. We look forward to discussing public health, epidemiology and other health related issues with you each month. My name is Kayla Dean, and I am the research assistant here. I will be the voice of Ofstead on this blog. Please stay tuned as we will post our first entry in a couple of days

- Kayla