Archive for March 22nd, 2010

Why are we bombarded with junk food everywhere we go Part 3

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

It was bad enough when McDonalds joined forces with weight watchers about a month ago, but now they are advertising on radio for their special dinner boxes.

This is the quote that their wonderful overpaid marketing department has come up with “We’ll take care of dinner tonight. Grab a value dinner, tuck in and let the stories begin” This is accompanied by the picture of 4 cokes, 4 fries, 2 big macs, 2 cheeseburgers and a pile of chicken nuggets. mmmm nutritious and delicious.

How about they use mine instead “We’ll take care of dinner tonight. Grab a value dinner, tuck in, get really fat and have a coronary heart attack”. Too simple I know, but I should refrain from what I really want to say.

I am still astounded every time I hear the obvious proclaimed as up to the minute news. The latest thing they are shouting about is that there is as much sugar in kids juices as what there is in soft drink. Who didn’t already know this? Is this really news?

We all need to take notice of what is in our foods and especially what is in our kids food because fat kids become fat adults. If you are reading this and you are overweight, I want to ask you, are your kids overweight also?

Childhood obesity is a major major problem for many reasons.

Firstly, overweight children get teased and bullied. It is unfortunate to say because nobody should be teased or bullied, but it does happen. Is that what you want for your child?

Overweight children will most likely develop eating disorders as they get older.

Overweight children will probably become overweight adults.

Do you struggle with your weight? Are you unhappy with your appearance? Are you constantly looking for the quick fix to lose weight? Would you wish this same fate upon your young loved ones? Do them a favour and educate them early how to eat healthily.

Why are we bombarded with junk food everywhere we go Part 2

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

It’s Easter time, hip hip hooray! I’m no expert, but I am fairly sure Easter is not entirely about chocolate…

I think Easter eggs and Hot cross buns started making their way into the supermarkets not long after Christmas and the campaign to make us all fat with chocolate really gained momentum in the last month or so.

I will be the first person to say how appealing those beautifully wrapped shiny bunny rabbits and eggs look. It takes a lot of willpower not to buy one and smash into it straight away. It’s just not right, we are a big fat obese nation! You only need to go to a shopping centre to see that for yourself!

Like I said earlier, it is up to us what goes in our mouths, but it is hard to fight temptation all the time. If it is hard for me to resist and I am super conscious about what goes into my mouth, what is is like for someone who is overweight and just cannot resist the sight of those very cleverly designed and marketed Easter goodies.

I just wish the authorities would get it and do something good for this nation, other than the 1 ad on TV which is now getting old. We all got inspired by the guy walking along getting fat and then changing his life and getting thin again, it is a great ad, but we’ve seen that one, it made it’s mark, it did it’s job and now we need more. We need more than 1 ad when we are constantly bombarded with junk food everywhere we go.

I walked into the local shopping centre the other day and this is the first thing I see as I walk in. It goes for about 15 metres. What chance do parents have, the kids are just going to be begging for some of the sweet treats and I know I have had this conversation with friends of mine, when we went to school you would be hard pressed to find one overweight kid. Now it is about 1 in 10….

There is something you can do to fight back. Don’t eat any Easter eggs until Easter. There is absolutely no excuse for eating any easters products now! If you wait until Easter, it is very limited as to what you can devour, but if you have already started, I shudder to think how much you will consume unnecessarily!

Why are we bombarded with junk food everywhere we go Part 1

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

I feel so strongly about the following subject that I need to break it down into 3 different posts to really convey how bad this problem is.

I am going to start at the local indoor sports centre.

I take my 2 year old daughter to Kinder Gym once a week. It is held at the the local indoor sports centre. They have a gym, personal training, gymnastics, boxing classes, indoor basketball, soccer, table tennis and the list goes on.

I have been going for about 6 weeks now and I normally don’t look at the counter as I walk in but last week Hannah came with me and her first observation was what was on the counter.

There was nothing for sale other than junk food. They had a pretty extensive range too, from dozens of different ice creams, to any chocolate bar you can think of down to lollies like red skins and milkos. Now if you would like something hot, they have a great selection including hot chips, chiko rolls, chicken nuggets etc. Do I need to go on?

This is just crazy. This is meant to be a sports centre! I am not stupid, I know it is up to the individual person to make the decision as to what goes in their mouth, but surely we can help out a bit by providing more nutritious snacks for after exercise other than 100% junk food.

There is no secret as to how tempting junk food is, especially for kids and especially when it is right in their faces all the time!

I don’t know what the answer to this problem is, I just know it is a problem!

What do you think?