Being overweight means your BMI lies between 25 and 30. Higher than 30 makes you obese. Excessive bodyweight is, as we all know, very unhealthy. It is associated with a lot of diseases, such as type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, sleep apnea, certain types of cancer and asthma. Besides physical problems, a lot of overweight people have symptoms of depression. Our society has a distorted idea about what beauty is, making overweight people feel bad about how they look.
A promotional add has been released in the United States, I'd like to share with you guys. In this infomercial, a man in his thirties is rushed to the hospital after he had a heart attack. Through flashbacks we learn that his bad eating habits and sedentary lifestyle started at a very young age.
It's sad that such a good intention can lead to such an amount of bullcrap. Let me point out what bothers me about this clip.
First, the mother is seen as the root of all evil. But he clearly has a dad, too. Isn't he also responsible? The period in history where it was solely women cooking is over, people. Dads should take their responsibilities too.
But I do agree a lot of trouble can come from parents not stimulating their children to make the right nutrition choices. As an example, I have a little cousin, 4 years old, who goes to kindergarten. He is very skinny and weak, and a bad eater. Maybe, just maaaybe, some trouble could be spared if his mom stopped giving him chocolate milk for breakfast and if she stopped forgetting to give him a good lunch instead of some candy bars. When you are 4 years old, you can't make the right choices yet. But you should stimulate children to learn to appreciate all foods.
The hypothesis that mommy is responsible for all of this is just ridiculous, but I do agree that it can have a giant impact on the childs health.
Second, no solutions are presented in this story. They tell us to 'start here', but what does that mean? The man shown isn't capapble of going back in time to undo his unhealthy habits. Instead of giving answers, they focused only on what you shouldn't do. But people with weight problems often don't have enough knowlegde about food. They don't know how to cook healthy, and they should be properly informed about calories, vegetables, cooking... Obese people don't need another clip showing them how bad their habits are. They need knowledge.
But what bothers me the most is the fact that all other factors that can lead to obesity are ignored. The man pictured is stated to be 32 years old. Can you really still blame mommy for your weight when you are 32 years old? I would love to see a commercial blaming all possible causes. Blaming mommy is way too easy. What about killer companies such as Monsanto, trying to make us eat crap instead of real food. GMO's are largely forbidden here in Europe, and I believe that to be one of the main causes why we don't have more morbidly obese people.
The food in schools often is below quality. Not only that, no real subject on the matter is presented in the classroom. This should be obligatory, since we are eating ourselves into an early grave.
Fastfood restaurants and instant meals become more and more popular. As an example, the company 'Just Eat' just reached an enormous profit. The company provides an app in which you can easily order food online. (http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/30540/DM-Apps/article/detail/1989857/2014/08/14/Omzet-Just-Eat-door-het-dak-het-succesrecept-van-de-fastfoodapp.dhtml, link in Dutch)
Yes, I sometimes order food online, too. But the trend that food should be easy and fast is getting us into trouble. There is nothing wrong with eating a nice pizza or burger once in a while. But I wonder how many people order food on a daily basis.
I would love to see warnings on fastfood, just like we have warnings on packs of cigarettes. Do they help? No, sadly enough I haven't been able to kick that habit yet. So maybe we should rise the prices for fastfood, like they did for smokes. Don't forget that coronary diseases and not lung cancer or other smoking-related health problems, are the real killers. Conditions related to a large amount of body fat kill much more people every year than smoking and 'second hand' smoking combined. Think about that. Healthy food really isn't that expensive.
But of course, companies such as Mc Donalds and Pizza Hut are world wide bussinessess, with a lot to say and a lot of MONEY. Most of us have seen 'Supersize Me', and although I am aware that this is not a scientific study, the results of eating fast food every day are pretty clear. So why haven't there been real changes made to the menus? Yes, you can order salads now. But be honest, nobody does that. And even if you do, most of those salads contain as much calories as a portion of fries, because the salad is drenched in oil and vinegar.
Teaching your children to eat healthy and exercise regularly is probably one of the most important things you can do to prevent people from becoming obese. But it is not the only reason for weight problems. We have all become way too lazy and we all eat way too much meat. I've seen images of American and Belgium barbeques and feasts with amounts of meat piled up, combined with greasy fries and questionable salads. Eating healthy is considered boring, and that's the real problem here. (I'll get back on that later)
I think obesity is a problem that goes way further than just bad eating habits. A lot of people are addicted to food, just like I am addicted to cigarettes. So I know what I'm talking about when I tell you that bad habits don't usually change overnight. Also, campaigns like this one will have less to no effect.
Our governments should try something else, if they really want this problem solved. Promote healthy food instead of showing us the results of obesity. We all know that by now. Stimulate farmers to keep producing natural products instead of GMO crap. Stop eating ridiculous amounts of meat.
Tabbaco commercials are banned in most countries, which is a good thing. It's pretty ironical that Mc Donalds, of all companies, was one of the main sponsors during the last World Cup in Brazil. If children are bombed with spots for happy meals and other crap, no one bats an eye. As long as they don't smoke, right? Kind of reminds me of this South Park episode, 'Butt out':
Mary Jane
pissedofpenguin@gmail.com
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