Junk Food and Education

Experts are calling for a ban on TV food advertising when kids are watching.

Apparently Australia has more junk food ads on television than any other country in the world.

o A third of our kids are obese.

o The ‘disease condition’ known as diabetes is rampant.

And we ask – Is there a connection?

Well – one would have to have been hidden in a hollow log in the middle of a forest not to see the connection – wouldn’t one?

o So what’s being done?

Nothing!

Oh I know – there’s a bit of lip service being given and the powers that be are seen to be ‘very concerned’ but in reality – economics governs just about everything and there’s just too much money to be made in the proliferation of pandering to the senses.

Children are so susceptible to the wiles of the advertising world – I’d hate to be a parent trying to side-step my way through the isles of the supermarkets these days.

It seems as though the marketing agencies must be ‘vertically disadvantaged’ as so much of the junk food that fills the shelves are just at the right height for the hungry eyes of our little ones.

o What are we to do?

o Prohibition has never worked!

Of course – education is the answer – appealing to the highest functioning organ of the human species is the only way to go.

Unfortunately, the masters of design (read as: advertising gurus) have figured out that we think more with our senses (read as taste buds) than with our brains.

o The most important form of “educational training” must happen in the home.

o Children copy their parents – first and foremost.

o The old adage of “Don’t do as I do – Do as I say” doesn’t hold water with children.

It’s time for parents to go to the cupboards – throw open the doors and chuck out the junk.

o Set the example – teach the children well.

I don’t know of a better way to turn around the deepening health crisis that presently envelops our society..

All the best in meeting the challenge.