Opinion: Marketing, media, obesity

Today's New York Times ran an article about how the U.S. Diet Guide put more emphasis on weight loss for this year's edition. I am so happy about this!

Every time I'm at the grocery store I experience strong emotion when I see some of the 'average' American shoppers. What I REALLY hate to see is a family with three or four overweight kids, pulling a cart full to the brim with the following:

Brightly packaged puddings in neon colors, Lunchables (are those even real food?) and other fake lunches in blue-yellow-and-red boxes, family packs of chips, canned 'juices' like Hawaiian punch, soda, 'fruit snacks' full of preservatives and sugar, 'fruit juices' with no real juice (or a meager 10œ frozen pizzas, sugared cereals, Easy Mac, Popsicles, hot dogs, white buns, frozen ground beef in the long round cylindrical packages, and so on. It makes me sick to see nary a vegetable among these. I get irrationally angry at the ignorance of people who are taking years off their life by heeding the media's call.
It's good to pay close attention when you watch television and see advertisements for fast food, too. If you eat real food, you will notice that the food may have vegetables in it (let's say, a Taco Bell fajita commercial), but somehow it oozes numerous sauces and the veggies look like they have been frozen for about 7 years. These marketing geniuses have us fooled into thinking this looks appetizing? And when you finally TASTE such food, it's pretty much the same way. Oozy sauce filled with salt, MSG, and powdered spices; bite-sized diced vegetables that seem like they've never been fresh, and white-floured grain product that is sugary and almost oily in its consistency.

Why, oh WHY do people fall for all of this? I do know many people don't cook. This is the crux of the situation for these 'convenient' times. How can we teach these young moms and dads that for every Lunchable they give their kid, they're adding grease, salt and sugar to the kid's physical makeup? How can we teach them that advertisements are going to make them unhealthily fat?

What we are now getting is a nation of young, inactive children who watch 3-5 hours of TV average daily. They see ads for fun, 'special' food, hyped by their favorite TV, cartoon, and kids' show characters. The marketing folks know these kids will see the ads about 7 times in 3 days, and next time at the grocery store, you can see it in action! The kids then pull out all their wily ways, schemes, and scenes in order to get that product home with them and in front of the TV.

So, repeat this scenario for another 8 years. The teenager is now obese with all the complications that go along with it; not just the health problems, but also abject self-loathing and major self-esteem issues. In particular, this is the case for girls. So then they decide to combat this problem with any number of solutions. For just as the media provided us with unhealthy yet 'easy' food, they also provide us with unhealthy yet 'easy' methods of weight loss. Good lord! When will it end?

I just wish all parents could teach their kids a few key pointers at a VERY young age. Less TV is better. Don't listen to people who just want to take our money and make our tummies hurt. If you eat this now, you will gain wieght, feel bad about yourself, and have to work extra hard to lose it later. Also, take heed: lifestyles can be addictive. The more fat, salt, and sugar we take and the more TV or movies we watch, the more we crave. Break the cycle!

Does anyone know of a way to combat or circumvent this vicious cycle of corporate greed and marketing brainwashing? Do I need to start teaching educational nutrition classes to the people in line behind me at the grocery store? Because that's about the point that I'm at.

Yay, I'm listening to a related story on NPR right now!

***On a side note, I'm not a super-activist sort of person, but there ARE a few things that I feel very strongly about. Unnecessary animal cruelty (in the name of testing say a razor, a shampoo, or a lip balm) is another thing I get all bent out of shape about. For this, I am grateful for Avon.