Farting against Thunder
2 10 2006
Do you like crisps?
I do.
I like crisps, peanuts, popcorn, honey-roast cashews, rice cakes, pretzels, mignons morceaux, poppadoms, puffy wheat puff matter snacks etc.
When I was little, I used to stop at the newsagent on the way home and buy four packs of tomato cheetos and 4 packs of pickled onion Space Raiders. I might also have bought myself a Wham bar as well for pudding. I’d then scoff the lot in front of Neighbours and Home and Away (shown back to back).
I barely remember any adverts for crisps and suchlike on TV. It was just something that people did. But let’s assume for a moment that this is an issue of advertising versus public information for a minute.
Who do you think is throwing more resources at the issue of reaching out for the minds of kids when it comes to what they eat? The government or the food manufacturers? I suspect the government is farting against thunder here.
The other thunder the government faces is the attitude of parents and kids. This food is bad for you but it tastes great and is fairly cheap. So kids shut up whilst they stuff themselves full with 25p chicken kievs from the frozen food shop and parents are happy because their household budgets balance. Parents also don’t like being told what to do with their kids, it seems and some are deliberately feeding their kids rubbish in an attempt to exercise “Choice”.
Obesity is a health issue. But it is also a class issue. Cheap, affordable and available food is the stuff that makes us fat. Families on low incomes buy in bulk and buy frozen. Wealthier families consume more fresh fruit and vegetables and better quality food.
So that’s why, whilst I’m impressed by the design of the poster and the message the government is promoting, I fear that the real story has become about the government advertising campaign, rather than the health risks people are exposing themselves to: the posters are doomed to rot on bus-shelters and fade away like people’s concerns over the crap they (as do I) shovel into their bodies.
“Fruit and vegetables is good” and “sugar” is bad just doesn’t cut it. More serious changes needs to be done. I don’t think this commercial won’t be very effective at all.
When eating good food, good as in MMMMmmmmm, not necessarily healthy, seratonin, a “mood”-drug will be released in the brains, making us temporarily happy. Most people are unconscious on this, and when feeling sad, they eat candy/crisps to make themselves feel better, rather than dealing with the problem in some other way.
I believe this “mood”-drug is also released when training, or maybe it was endorfine, but this is the “natural” lucky-pill.
Well, getting slightly off-topic so I’ll cut to the point on this “mood”-matter: I can imagine people will be sad, depressed, maybe even a bit frightened after watching the commercial, which, in result will give them an even bigger lust towards eating crisps/candy, without them understanding why. Perhaps, just thinking out loud.
So, what can be done o’rly?
- Raise unhealthy sugar/fat-taxes/
- __Lower healthy food prices!__
- The government needs to spend _ALOT!_ more money on educating people on food. “Fruit and vegetables is good” and “sugar” is bad just doesn’t cut i, as stated earlier in the post.
Asking the average joe how to lose weight, they would probably say something like: “cut out ALL food”, when it is actually “eat RIGHT fat, and ENOUGH of it, medium carbs, high/medium protein, cardio!”
It’s not hard at all, and can be easily taught. You can learn ALOT on reading on the right places (muscletalk!!!), but when you can get cheap crisps and feel gooood, why bother?
- To some degree…. force people?
Conclusion: There is a solution to this problem, but it’s going to be expensive. But the alternative is spending even MORE money on obese people that is being done now! Tough choice? I think not…