Obesity, junk food, media influence, eating well and individual responsibility

[syncretic]

The forum has many threads on food and health so I looked a place to park this but it didn’t fit very well or the previous threads were too old to revive. From the ABC:

Why it’s becoming nearly impossible to be healthy in Australia

The author has some credentials on the subject. Put simply he claims that against constant media pressure and other differences, such as where we live, we are as a nation powerless to eat less and to choose better foods.

He begins with an argument by analogy; that if half a school class was failing we would not blame the pupils but the teacher, the school or the system. Therefore as such a large number of us are overweight or have eating related disorders we are not to blame as individuals. This is a very weak form of argument as unless the analogy is perfect the conclusion about the classroom does not transfer to eating habits.

He then goes looking for explanations. The advertising bombardment about food, often targeted, that we get on TV, online etc is given a big slice of blame pie. The place where we live gets mentioned and some good reasons are given: poverty is a good indication of poor diet and broader health outcomes.

Then supermarket push-selling, labelling laws and junk food advertising controls (or lack thereof) are mentioned. He comes to the conclusion that better education and regulation are the answer. It is very hard to say this is wrong as far as it goes. The role of exercise however doesn’t get a mention.

All of these possible remedies have had a run here, sometimes at some length. All of them have something to recommend them and if implemented well may well have some benefit. I don’t want to go through every one again, for those who haven’t read much on the topic there is plenty of good material here. My questions are:

Do you accept that the individual is almost powerless?

Are there other important reasons for making bad food choices that haven’t been mentioned?

If better education and regulation are the answers, or a big part of it, how will these things be achieved?

[vax2000]

I think that like every topic that is posted on the forum it does not account the choice of the individual to either abide by a healthy diet or suffer the consequences for ignoring well intentioned warnings .

In my case I suffer from diagnosed ISB (Irritable Bowel Syndrome ) and Gerd ( Gastroesophageal reflux disease ) .

I have to follow a strict diet , the FODMAP diet , which keeps the conditions under control . So it would be fair to say any add for junk food etc is ignored by me . I know all to well the consequences of eating certain high FODMAP foods .

I know of people who have diabetes and continually ignore their doctors advice and are in total denial about certain foods that are harmful to them . Human nature no doubt . The why me syndrome .

One only has to watch some of the YouTube offerings from the USA that concern fast food chain reviews to see obesity gone mad . One I watch occasionally " Jack on the Go Show " shows very obese people who seem to have a complete disregard for food intake . The presenter , Jack Scalfani , has already suffered a stroke that has paralysed his right side . He is still out there reviewing Arby’s , Taco Bell and Chick Fillet . The portions served in the Yank fast food chains are much bigger than ours . But there is good old Jack shovelling it down . I worry for him that he will not survive the next stroke .

No doubt his doctors and others have warned him of the consequences of his actions . I know in US schools they have great courses in nutrition .

What it all boils down to is " You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink " No amount of education will change the mind of a population that does not see an inherent danger in what they are doing life style wise .

[phb]

I am one that doesn’t agree one is powerless. I read the article and think the school analogy isn’t a good one.

Individuals have choice and individual power to make dietary decisions. No one forces or tells them what to buy. The real argument is the choice between convenience of fast/processed foods/meals…and eating things only that one likes to eat or tastes good.

There might be an assumption by many that any food sold is good for you, otherwise it would not be allowed to be sold. There is merit in such arguments, until one realises many foodstuffs available aren’t good in high consumption (bag of sugar, container of salt, bottle of oil etc).

We were brought up with fresh food (unprocessed meats, veges, fruits, nuts etc) or slightly processed (frozen veges, tinned foods etc). The only processed food regularly was bread and cold meats, when there wasn’t leftover roast meat in the fridge. We also grew up with knowledge that any food that doesn’t look anything like what it does in the natural state, is processed and should be eaten with discretion/treated like treat foods.

Education should be in the home like many of us had when we were kids. Kids should learn to cook. Parents should also not force their food preferences in their kids, such as saying things are yuck or don’t like this or that. Unfortunately, parents often are part of the problem as they teach their kids convenience is good and diet isn’t overly important.

[Gaby]

At home, in the kitchen of the young and healthy:

• Frozen vegetables : convenient, dependable, they’re veggies therefore they must be good. Neglect to notice the salt, the sugar and sometimes the sauce, already added.

• Avocado: it’s a fruit it must be good? Spread it on toast, mix it in salads. (But there’s 22g of fat, including saturated fat, in a med. avocado.)

• Nuts are good for you, (but not those already roasted and salted.)

• Follow that tasty recipe which adds coconut milk to chicken, meat, etc. (but: coconut milk has 24g of fat, mostly saturated, per 100 ml.)

• Need to keep up fluids: drink a lot (but there’s lots of sugar in soft drinks and in alcoholic drinks:
  1-2 tsp of sugar in a glass of wine,
  21g of sugar in a shot of crème the menthe,
  13g of sugar in a can of cream soda.)

Life style of the young and healthy:

• Watching spectator sports while munching on fatty, salty chips or similar.
• Participating in a sport and quenching the resulting thirst with sugary soft drinks as often as possible.
• Sitting in front of the TV. Sitting in front of the computer. Playing video games sitting in front of the screen. Munching on salty, fatty treats all the while.
• Going to work and sitting behind a desk.
• Using the car to go to the nearest convenience shop: we don’t pay car registration to walk to the shops!
• Spending Sunday mornings sitting outside a favourite coffee lounge, drinking lots of double shot coffees and nibbling on buttery pastries.

The young manage to reach middle age, no longer young and healthy, they now see the value of a healthy diet and of keeping fit. Best of luck to them.

[Wend]

The largest number of people with eating disorders are ‘binge eaters’ not recognised decades ago. My point is food has much more than nutritional requirements. ‘Comfort food’, food with associations of happy families / friends - spot the advertisements, influence eating.
Do you know Anyone who wants to be obese? Do you know anyone who does not have basic understand of nutrition? If eating was just about making ‘healthy choices’ then everyone would be at optimum weight.

[gordon]

Old topic I know, but…

My wife had unsalted cashew nuts on the list of items to buy yesterday in Woolies, but upon reaching the nuts section found that salted cashews were $13, while unsalted were way more expensive at $18. A discount for the added salt, and not by a small margin!

In addition to Tamworth having the record for the most overweight city in Australia, it appears at least one supermarket wants it to also have the highest blood pressure!

My wife decided not to buy any cashews.