Why do sugary beverage and fast food industries thrive in the emerging world? An interesting public health paradox has emerged in some developing nations. Despite government commitment to eradicating noncommunicable diseases and innovative prevention programs aimed at reducing obesity and type 2 diabetes, sugary beverage and fast food industries are thriving. But political leaders in countries such as Mexico, Brazil, India, China, and Indonesia are reluctant to introduce policies regulating the marketing and sale of their products, particularly among vulnerable groups like children and the poor. Why? In Junk Food Politics , Eduardo J. Gómez argues that the challenge lies with the strategic politics of junk food industries in these countries. Industry leaders have succeeded in creating supportive political coalitions by, ironically, partnering with governments to promote soda taxes, food labeling, and initiatives focused on public awareness and exercise while garnering presidential support (and social popularity) through contributions to government anti-hunger and anti-poverty campaigns. These industries have also manipulated scientific research by working with academic allies while creating their own support bases among the poor through employment programs and community services. Taken together, these tactics have hampered people's ability to mobilize in support of stricter regulation for the marketing and sale of unhealthy products made by companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestlé. Drawing on detailed historical case studies, Junk Food Politics proposes an alternative political science framework that emphasizes how junk food corporations restructure politics and society before agenda-setting ever takes place. This pathbreaking book also reveals how these global corporations further their policy influence through the creation of transnational nongovernmental organizations that support industry views. I am impressed. No book like this exists; it breaks new ground and will be very useful. The policy implications across the world are significant. ―Kelly D. Brownell, Director, World Food Policy Center / Dean Emeritus, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University Shedding light on the power of the food and drinks industry, which in theory should be waning but in practice is stronger than ever, this highly readable book takes the classic case of American politics and the corporate sector's power therein and extends it to new contexts in ways that can inform scholarship and indeed activism about the form of corporate power in play. This is a big step forward for food studies. ―Alistair Fraser, Maynooth University, author of Global Foodscapes: Oppression and Resistance in the Life of Food A masterful analysis of the political and corporate influences that put unhealthy food in the hands of vulnerable populations. Eduardo Gómez has provided a blueprint for shaping a world where industrial interests do not trump the health of populations. ―Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, Boston University; coeditor of Teaching Public Health Eduardo Gómez masterfully integrates political science and public health literatures to shed light on one of the world's most pressing challenges―reconciling economic development with public health, especially among vulnerable populations. Junk Food Politics highlights how political will and a principled commitment to population health might ultimately be the only way to undo this Gordian knot. ―Joseph Wong, Roz and Halbert Professor of Innovation, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto Across a number of emerging economies, multinational corporations have followed a common playbook, working with governments in the apparent pursuit of policies to reduce noncommunicable diseases such as obesity. When those policies have been adopted, however, the regulatory system has not enforced them, and many countries have failed to pass such policies into law at all. With impressive empirical scope, Gómez shows that making policy together with the junk food conglomerates has not proved nutritious for the body politic. ―Pepper D. Culpepper, Oxford University, author of Quiet Politics and Business Power: Corporate Control in Europe and Japan Gómez makes a timely and persuasive case that companies selling sugary beverages and ultra-processed foods in six large emerging markets have used lobbying, largesse, institutional infiltration, and government partnerships to lock in marketing, sales, and labeling practices that have contributed to the rapid rise of obesity and type 2 diabetes. ―James W. McGuire, Wesleyan University In this wide-ranging, theoretically rich study of food politics in developing countries, Eduardo Gómez reveals an entire political economy previously hidden from view. The same arrangements that allow politicians to fund anti-poverty programs also durably trap children in cycles of poor nutrition and higher obesity and shield much of their polit