yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Why Nestle Is the Worst


3m read
·Nov 4, 2024

Processing might take a few minutes. Refresh later.

What is the most evil company in the world? Exxon, who depletes oil wells and poisons our atmosphere? Or Philip Morris, who continues to manufacture cigarettes even after millions of people have died from smoking them? Maybe Monsanto, who exploit the agricultural industry and alter our food to stay profitable?

Well, all of these companies are bad in some sense, but one company is worse than all of them combined: the most evil business in the world, Nestlé. Nestlé is the biggest food manufacturer in the world, with over 2,000 different brands produced in over 400 factories in 189 countries. The company makes around 100 billion dollars in sales annually from Perrier and espresso, Coffee-Mate, Hot Pockets, KitKat, Crunch bars, Trader's ice cream, Power Bars, L'Oréal, Purina. It would be difficult, if not almost impossible, for you to go through life without using one of their products.

In 1867, troubled by the high infant death rate, Henry Nestlé created baby formula, a milk-based substitute for babies who couldn't have breast milk. Nestlé had excellent intentions and never marketed its product as better than breast milk. Sadly, after his death, integrity seemed to disappear from the company. In the 1970s, cigarettes were in their heyday, largely thanks to misleading and expertly crafted advertising campaigns around them. Nestlé took a page from Big Tobacco's notebook and executed a similarly deceiving campaign to push its baby formula on the masses.

Through paid doctors and shady advertisements, Nestlé convinced much of the public that formula was better than natural breast milk—an undeniably false claim. But their deceit didn't stop there. Nestlé then hired hundreds of saleswomen in Africa and Asia, dressed them up like nurses, and sent them to local communities to profess the false benefits of baby formula to mothers all over the developing countries.

At the discretion of Nestlé, these saleswomen gave formula samples to nursing mothers that would last just long enough for the mother to stop producing milk but not long enough to feed the baby until they could be weaned. When the formula samples ran out, mothers who were no longer able to nurse had to buy more formula from Nestlé. But since many of these women couldn't afford formula or the milk it was supposed to be mixed with, they began diluting it with water.

In areas where education, especially for women, wasn't always so comprehensive, many women didn't know that the water they were giving their babies was often contaminated. Millions of infants died due to the contamination. Millions of others grew up nutritionally deficient.

The best way to combat misinformation and protect yourself from corporate propaganda is through knowledge, which is why I always recommend our sponsor for today's video: Brilliant.org, the best way to learn math and computer science interactively. Brilliant currently has thousands of lessons from foundational and advanced math to AI, data science, neural networks, and more, with new lessons added every single month. Brilliant turns learning into a game, with fun features like being able to challenge yourself and compete with others that'll make you fall in love with learning.

I've recently been fascinated by AI, so I took Brilliant's course on introduction to neural networks, and I loved learning! Thanks to the interactive nature of the course, I was able to fully understand how AI engines work. To try everything Brilliant has to offer completely free for 30 days, go to brilliant.org/aperture or click the link in the description. The first 200 people to visit also get 20% off a premium subscription, which unlocks every single course Brilliant has to offer. You'll not only be furthering yourself and your knowledge, but you'll be supporting Aperture at the same time.

Back to our story. In 1978, Nestlé executives were called before the United States Senate to explain why babies were dying after being given formula. But like most corporations, it refused to take responsibility for how mothers prepared the baby formula. They weren't totally exonerated, though. In 1981, new regulations were put in place in the United States, making it...

More Articles

View All
Sea Turtles Nesting in Costa Rica - 360 | National Geographic
Sometime around the last quarter moon, we typically see these large groups of turtles forming offshore and essentially wait for some cue. It’s like they’re all out there kind of wait for it, wait for it. At some point, hundreds of thousands of turtles sta…
Taking a Jet Pack Flight | Explorer
Can we get out in the field and see it in action? Yep, you bet. Beautiful scene! It’s a good day for a flight. Best of luck, buddy! [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] This mag can fly. Seeing a man soar in the air is nothing short of majestic, even more…
Vatican City Explained
Vatican City: capitol of the Catholic Church, home to the pope, owner of impressive collections of art and history all contained within the borders of the world’s smallest country: conveniently circumnavigateable on foot in only 40 minutes. Just how did t…
The Jacobian Determinant
In this video, I want to talk about something called the Jacobian determinant. It’s more or less just what it sounds like: it’s the determinant of the Jacobian matrix that I’ve been talking to you the last couple of videos about. Before we jump into it, …
Should you buy your private jet in cash?
Steve, I’m about to buy my first jet. Should I pay cash or should I finance it? I really think it depends. If you can make more money than they’re going to charge with the bank, obviously then borrow the money. But I’d say about 80% of the people finance…
How Do You Become Santa Claus? Santa School, Of Course! | National Geographic
Now the reason why it’s important that you learn to do this, it’s because you’re the most photographed people in the world. The Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School is the world’s oldest Santa Claus school. It is here to help Santa’s become [Music]. The S…