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Shut Up and Eat Your Sugar
Manufacturers of processed and fast food for kids are throwing a fit over stronger industry standards.
OK, children, homework time.
Let's see if we can handle this little lesson in logic. One, America has a rather huge child obesity problem. Two, major food corporations constantly pitch ads to children for such stuff as sugar-saturated breakfast cereals and fat-laden "Happy Meals." So, how does fact No. 2 relate to fact No. 1? Yes, No. 2 is a cause of No. 1. It's really not that hard to grasp, is it?
Not unless you're a lobbyist for a food manufacturer. Last year, Congress directed four federal agencies to work together on new standards for commercials that food giants run on cartoon shows and other TV programs for children. This intervention was necessary, because the industry's own voluntary program to push healthy choices for kids was, at best, loosey-goosey. For example, such sugar bombs as Kellogg's Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes were nutritionally A-OK by industry standards--as was a candy named Yogos, the main ingredient of which is sugar.
So, the agencies came up with nutritional requirements that were at least strict enough to prevent the marketing of candy as a healthy food. Ah, progress! But--oh, mercy--the howl of pain from industry lobbyists was piercing. One shrieked that the new proposal "would virtually end all food advertising as it's currently carried out to kids."
Uh...no sir, not all food advertising, just ads for stuff like...well, Yogos.
However, the screams of the food giants--echoed by their congressional puppets--seem to have spooked the agencies. The final proposal has now been delayed, and regulators have retreated to "tweak" it. Note that the main ingredient in the word tweak is "weak." To help fight for strong nutritional standards that advance our children's health, contact the Center for Science in the Public Interest: www.cspinet.org.
30 Comments so far
Show AllYou are right to some small degree. Parents and adults are in control [or should be]of what they buy and eat, as well as what their minor children eat. The word "NO" needs to be a big part of the parent's vocabulary when it comes to food that is laden with fat, salt, sugar and additives. I know that advertizing is a big influencer on the kids, but no is no. Try driving 2 or three blocks out of your way to avoid the local fast food places like McD or BK, etc.
It would also help if parents actually meant that family comes first [that's what they ALL say, as they run out the door away from their family] and cook as well as have nightly meals together, get up and make breakfast [other than pour a bowl or sugar or toast a tart] and actually assist the kids in packing their lunches for school the next day].
There is no substitute for paying attention to what one is eating and often a better diet means cooking food that is fresh and from dishes from "scratch" recipes. It puzzles me that so many people watch the food networks and shows, yet do little to incorporate the ideas presented into their daily lives. Good food takes a bit of work but is well worth the effort and there is no substitute for freshness.
In fact, fixing a meal often takes less time than reading the food boxes or taking the kids to the dentist to fix cavities from eating all of that sugar and junk.
When the American public stop buying all of the junk, then the food processors will do something else for a living. They give the public what they want and how do they know what we want? We buy it! STOP BUYING JUNK AND TRY SOMETHING ELSE.
Food manufacturers spend huge amounts of money on advertising. They tend to spend large amounts of money to fight any regulations on that advertising. Do you think that they would do so, if advertising had little to no effect?
Do you think that many humans only eat to live, for calories and nutrients, and don't to a certain extent live to eat?
Do you think that food manufacturers aren't aware that many humans to a certain extent live to eat, and that certain foods, certain tastes, can give a lot of pleasure to many humans?
Do you realise that being able to cook nice healthy taste dishes, such as those from various food programs, might take work, time, skill, that people might not possess?
Do you realise that food programs, are to a certain extent "food porn"? IE people don't actually watch them to learn how to cook.
You've got a TV show over there in which a young dude travels the country doing 'challenge dining,' cramming large amounts of food down his throat and likening it to an athletic accomplishment. Good post.
You are absolutely correct! It is past time for people to quit blaming everything and everyone but themselves for their crappy eating habits. Kids won't eat it if nobody buys it for them-- they learn how to eat by the examples set at the dinner table and if you as a parent don't have "time" for the ritual of cooking and eating together then don't blame anyone but your own self when your kids are overweight, unhealthy blobs.
I take it as a tongue in cheek sarcastic reply. You may be fortunate but how many people have a chance to share your luck as long as you keep blaming the individual while giving Big Sugar and Big Corn a "free" pass? See my reply to cassandra.
The food manufacturers are just giving Americans what they say they want. Convenience, tasty foods at a good price. While I do not like much of what is being put on the grocery store shelves, I also know that I do not have to buy these food items. I opt, instead for fresh, raw and unprocessed foods such a raw meats, fish, poultry, fresh fruits and vegetables and pasta and rice that is not is some kind of convenient sauce packet.
I drink milk without sugar and chocolate or strawberry flavoring, plain Greek yogurt and unprocessed cheese that doesn't look like it is made of yellow plastic and last for a decade or more. I actually brew my own coffee and tea and drink water out of the tap! Drink little soda or fruit juice - read the labels. I buy food and must do my own cooking, thus I avoid, salt, sugar, corn syrup and additives and only god knows what else. I even have a garden.
I choose my own level of food and blame no one for my issues.
While I commend you for being a fully responsible consumer and I share most of the activities you do, I disagree with the assumption that Americans really wanted this. The markets were never free. See, Big Agri goes out of its way to wipe out the competition just like Walmart crushing the small mom-and-pop stores. The truly organic, not the faux organic, items on the market are not as widely available as the junk. I do most of what you do but I also make it a habit of convincing others to think outside the box as best as I can convince each and every one of them. The reason is even the healthy produce needs more consumers to stay afloat. That's not to say that I endorse going large-scale and sloppy. If you do it alone but nobody else in your local town buys like you, then those special places either fold and/or get taken over by their bigger competitors who will then use their money to force these small producers to sacrifice quality.
I find your long comment an intellectual variation of the
reich wing "Take Personal Responsibility". It is an excuse
for corporate misconduct.
There should be some rules on additions of sugar to our foods. IF, the parents want sugar added in the amounts found in our foods now then let the parents add them. That is personal responsibility.
There used to be a Pure Food and Drug Act. How about bringing that back and let the personal responsibility of parents reign again.
You want sugar? Add it yourself.
In addition to the obesity and Diabetes epidemics, many social (a/k/a psychological) problems are a direct result of the sugar overload.
After the birth of my second child I experienced strong mood swings. I had a tendency to just drink coffee in the morning and not eat anything till 1 PM or so. This is when a friend, who was working on a degree in nutrition, told me about hypoglycemia. Essentially, it relates to the extreme mood swings that take place when the body's blood sugar ratio is thrown off kilter.
Since then when I see a parent hand a child a soft drink, a product absolutely SATURATED in sugar, and then the poor kid runs around the restaurant like "The Road Runner" only to meet with disciplinary restraints... I want to cry!
Now that schools so readily disburse mood management drugs to tiny kids, the discussion of sugar's direct role in unbalanced moodswings must be taken seriously.
One could add that while it is generally women who self-medicate by over-eating (especially sweets), men tend to prefer the fermented sugars, those that mature into alcoholic beverages.
In Louise Hay's book, "You Can Heal Your Life," she speaks about the hidden emotional (and mental) elements that factor into diminished health of just about every sort. She relates Diabetes to the absence of the sweetness of life. Sometimes these metaphorical relationships make absolute sense.
I just finished reading Dr. Michael Aziz's book, "The Perfect 10 Diet: 10 Hormones That Hold the Secret To Losing Weight And Feeling Great--Fast!".
His dietary recommendations make perfect sense. He recommends a diet that is 20% protein, 40% fat and 40% carbohydrates.
The catch to the "fat" part is that he wants all the fats to be of the saturated varieties, like butter and extra virgin olive oil.
The diet is really very simple: You don't eat anything that was not available 200 years ago.
Tubs of margarine? Garbage.
Omega 3 organic eggs? Excellent.
Good quality organic full cow/goats milk cheeses? Excellent.
Soda? Garbage.
Trans fats? Garbage.
Organic poultry and fresh wild fish? Excellent.
Chemicals and processed foods? Garbage.
Basically you eat a balanced diet of a huge breakfast, a moderate lunch and a very light supper.
Heavy on organic fruits and vegetables and salads and fish and poultry and 8 glasses of water a day. Throw in organic beans, cheeses, nuts and seeds and whole grains and there you are.
No sugar ever. No maple syrup or honey. High quality dark chocolate once in a while is good.
And a good cardio workout 3 days a week for 45 minutes. A brisk walk, a bike ride, some weights at the gym etc.
I loved the book and especially his recommendation to bring in a large garbage can to clean all the crap out of the kitchen before you get started.
You would be surprised how quickly that trash can will fill up once you start throwing out everything that has a chemical you cannot pronounce, sugar, high fructose corn syrup etc. in it.
And with the good fats included (I had an omelette this morning with the eggs, some real Swiss cheese, mushrooms and spinach cooked with real BUTTER!), you feel satisfied after your meal.
No more "fat free or low fat" anything! REAL yogurt. REAL cottage cheese.
As Dr. Aziz points out in his revolutionary book, we've been sold a bill of goods that is killing us. It's really all about balancing our hormones (insulin, glucagon, leptin etc.) that will help us lose weight and feel great!
The big food companies bought out most of my favorite healthy cookie companies and replaced fruit-sweetener or honey sweetener with dehydrated cane juice sweetener. Another name for cane sugar which is addictive and a fast burning substance which leaves your body depleted in the end. Oh well, back to the kitchen.
Yes sugar is bad for you and especially the refined stuff.
Aspartame is even worse. "Diet Soda" is saturated with this stuff.
I can not recall whether the article was carried here on CD but i read one several months back that outlines how the "Food processing Industry" goes about MANUFACTURING the food we eat.
In the 30's and 40's they did extensive tests to see which "flavors" were most appealing to humans and which substances were most addictive.
They then set about creating products in their laboratories that were a combination of the two. Nutrition and health was never an issue. It was "How can we ensure the consumer ingests as much of our product as possible" ?
The end result is that our food supply is hopelessly contaminated with Chemicals manufactured in laboratories. Indeed Chemical and food processing Companies are joined at the hip .
It wasn't until the 80s that high fructose corn syrup and aspartame made it to the market but I agree with what you said. There is a natural sweetener called stevia which is used in sodas manufactured in Japan. By the way, I heard that Diet Coke in Canada is sweetened with stevia instead of aspartame.
Raw sugar is also a good substitute for HFCS and aspartame. It used to be done on a large scale while not being as unhealthy as corn syrup.
This is a very complicated writer. He could've said all that in less than 100 words.
First of all I would like to thank the msm for slipping this one by me, but hey, my fault, I don't have t.v. and I rarely listen to radio.
Second, if this did hamstring and straighten out the 'sugar puff' industries, that would be great as maybe kids would get off the white powder and eat something that is good for them.
Third, keeping kids off 't.v. commercial junk food' could set the standard for them eating better for the rest of their lives; kinda like keeping babies and very young kids away from churches and synagogues as long as possible, could keep them from growing up as paranoid bigoted psycho fanatics which would be good for all the people of the world.
Here's a secret about sugar and dieting. If you're gonna be tempted into eating a junkfood item such as cookies, chips, pizzas, fried meat, etc... do not take it with soda or any sweetened drink. Take it with plain water so that not as much fat is stored. The junkfood already has a lot of sugar and other harmful chemicals. You can't expect soda or most fruit juices to do the job of digesting the food properly. A glass of water always works. Water intake is also used on most dieting plans as well. I would still say stay away from the processed junk but just a tip in case you lose to temptation.
You can't regulate what is said in commercials. This is just getting sillier and sillier. You either can advertise food to children or you can't.
And I have to go back to the subsidy problem. These foods are cheap because we make them cheap. Stop all ag subsidies and see what happens. In New Zealand, the corporate farms mostly went away.
I agree on the problem of subsidies but am not sure about the commercial part. When you said "You either can advertise food to children or you can't", I assume that you meant parents being their own private advertisers for their kids.
The commercials of the 1970s and 1980s were not only less silly but also less seductive. It has been getting harder for parents to convince their kids off today's commercials for three reasons I can think of:
1. The education system that has deteriorated in the last 3 decades gave young adults the faith based impression that parental responsibility will come without training.
2. Parents are put through longer working hours either because each one does more than one job or their current job forces them to work beyond 40 a week. This makes it very difficult for parents to have sufficient time or energy needed to take the time to train their children out of junk food.
3. The commercials themselves are more careful in being able to both seduce the kids and giving parents the false impression that they really care about health. Some of these commercials will throw out some "healthy" phrases to keep both the parents and the kids in the dark.
I hope our younger generation of parents can succeed in getting children to think beyond the commercials despite those 3 reasons.
Stanley1979: When I say either advertise or not I mean no food ads on children's television shows. Period. But to deny parental responsibility is simply wrong. I understand that parents are under stress for the reasons you cite but that is a sign of a dying society. If parents are unable to raise children properly, social systems will collapse. Maybe that's the plan, maybe it's just unfortunate serendipity from their efforts to turn us all into serfs.
Throw away your t.v.'s, maybe in the street. You won't watch and your children can't watch it. You will save their minds and bodies. No phony excuses like 'well, we watch the 'nature' channel, or the 'history' channel or 'educational' programs.' These are sinister hooks. Nothing is worthy on the television, not even John Stewart or Colbert who shill for the Democrat Party. If conversation doesn't hold your attention, read. If reading doesn't work, sit quietly and meditate. Better yet, go outside and take a walk or go to bed.
"One shrieked that the new proposal "would virtually end all food advertising as it's currently carried out to kids.""
Tricky: should one laugh, or cry? Or simply comment "no shit, Sherlock". OMG! These laws will legislate us! They will prohibit things that we are currently doing.
Well, yes. That's kinda the point.
http://www.paulmurray.id.au
I use to love Reagan on Death Valley Days. I remember him doing commercials for cigarettes. He was the greatest communicator. I started smoking at 14. The target that advertizers were marketing to.
Really.
I stuck with a vegetable diet. Mostly Ketchup.
I poured the tomato Ketchup over my Freedom Fried other vegetables.
Why would anyone let the ghastly monsters contaminate their childrens' minds?
It is not the sugar, it is the corn. How do you fatten cattle in a feed lot? You feed then corn.
Excuse me while I guzzle a gallon of high fructose corn syrup, uuuhhhmmm good!
Would corporations murder kids for money? Hehe. Would Catholic priests bugger kids?
We cooked breakfast and dinner and made lunches for school everyday. We educated our kids about fueling the body with nutritious foods, not sugar filled, processed/pre-packaged crap.
I know the power and influence of these commercials. They can take an immature mind and condition it to WANT purple goop if that's the product. We have a rule: MUTE the commercials. We even got our friends doing it when they saw the benefit. It works and gets easier over time. I recommend this as a start for those wanting to make a change. I also recommend John Carpenter's film "They Live"...its a great metaphore.
I suggest everyone take a look at the work of Weston Price, an American dentist who travelled the world in the '20s to see if the rest of world had such bad teeth and health. westonaprice.org
Spend your money on good, fresh food, spend time in the kitchen, and you won't spend it at the doctor's office. Edible "consumer products" are sold in grocery stores and restaurants, food is not.
"Shut the hell up and EAT your sugar!!"
That in itself shows a big part of the problem. Parents, who are not immune to attention deficit disorders, have become more reliant on that great pacifier 'sugar' and t.v. to shut the kids up when that regular kid is experimenting with his senses and the reactions he gets from his inattentive parents.