I've tried to read several articles inspired by the British show, "The Men Who Made Us Fat," but i keep bumping up against the title. It reminds me of grade-schoolers who do something naughty, and when caught make the excuse, "It wasn't MY fault -- Johnny made me do it!" The parent/teacher glares at the child and asks, "And just HOW did Johnny 'make' you do it?" ... At least, parents and teachers of my generation did that; GOK what they do these days.
Now, i KNOW the situation isn't analogous. ;-) It just "takes me back," is all....
Nor am i hinting that the parental reply should have been, "Yes, it IS your fault, you little monster." The bit is, pointing the finger of blame doesn't do a damn lot of good in solving the problem. And WHERE should the finger point, anyway?
In trying to find a villain we'll all love to hate, i suspect the writers went for the cheap and easy target. SHAME on vendors who try to sell us stuff! Don't they know they're responsible for every bite/drink we take of their products? (Our wills are as weak and flabby as our bellies, some people seem to think.) Don't they know that it's up to them to make sure we don't get too many calories in one sitting? That it's incumbent upon our restaurant server to make sure we finish our vegetables before they bring round the dessert cart?
No? ... How about this -- they should be held accountable for the human psychology that makes us snap up a perceived bargain? They should be legally responsible for our evolutionary taste for sweets, that they take advantage of? For knowing that pictures of food encourage our appetites?
Or MAYBE ... the dietary advice from MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS has, for half a century, told us to eat the wrong things, things that make us hungry two hours after we finish a meal and mess up our glucose tolerance simultaneously? (Things that -- coincidentally -- make us avidly search for a snack to tide us over till our next meal, which will do the same thing AGAIN.) Told us to forgo satisfying red meat and satiating fat, and instead eat skinned chicken breasts and plenty of pasta ... oh, and don't forget your healthyfruitsandvegetables! If you finish, you can have some low-fat frozen yogurt for dessert -- because you WILL have room for it, i can guarantee that.
NAW!!!
this reminds me of the story about the frog in the water with a small flame under the pail.... It get hot without him noticing...
ReplyDeleteWe have noticed now. We can save ourselves, and those who we influence. The remainder.... Oh well.
all those years we did what we were "supposed to" and still fought weight-gain -- all the while blaming ourselves.... i feel kinda stupid, now, for not doubting conventional wisdom sooner!
ReplyDeletethat's what it sounded like, from the reviews at various sites.... i still subscribe to the Malnutrition Theory, and that the damage begins not in the brain but in the liver!
ReplyDeletei'll bet Nigel approved, though. ;-)
You talkin' 'bout me? Carry on with your eyes clamped shut and your fingers in your ears shouting "I'm not listening!" over & over again at the top of your voice.
ReplyDeleteI've presented evidence on more than one occasion of the power of advertising/marketing/public relations/etc, but you choose to ignore it.
At the end of the day, neither you nor I are going to solve the obesity epidemic problem.
P.S. Why do you think the government/health professionals give out the dietary advice that they do. Go on. Take a wild guess!
no, Nigel, i wasn't talking about you. i was talking about television media idiots and the medical industry. i too deplore garbage foods and the jerks who advertise them, but ultimately it's up to individuals to choose what they want to eat. in the 1930s it was proven than you can't legislate "morality."
ReplyDeleteYou wrote "i'll bet Nigel approved, though. ;-)" I did. Were you referring to another Nigel?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that ultimately it's up to individuals to choose what they want to eat. However, those choices should be made freely and uninfluenced by companies for the sake of profit.
Is food just another commodity for making loads of profit out of? Is making loads of profit more important than good health? That's how it seems to me. If so, the human race is metaphorically "going to hell in a handcart".
P.S. I see you didn't take a wild guess. Answering questions is so hard. Here's a clue:- Bribery & corruption by "Big Food".
oops -- yes, i was talking about you approving -- sorry, i'd forgotten i added that! :-( i think we agree that it would be better if the CIAB and its advertising didn't exist ... but it does. i don't think that cutting out their existing ad practices is going to help anything, though, they'd get around it somehow. and i see "unintended consequences" written all over any legislation in that direction.
ReplyDeletei believe that education is the answer, and to do that we have to get manufacturers' fingers out of the policy-making pie. how THAT is going to happen is the big mystery....
junkfood has got to have some of the attractiveness removed from it, like cigarettes.