Junk food marketing to children – is the end in sight?

This seems to be focusing on food rather than sweets but presumably these will be included in discussion of the wider issues. I was in a branch of a nationwide cut price department store shortly before Easter and took the chance to pick up a couple of Easter eggs for grandchildren. Having checked them through the till, the Manager made a point of asking me if “in addition” to what I already had purchased I would like to buy some more sweets. The area up to and around the cash desk was lined with shelves and containers full of easter eggs, various packets of sweets, crisps, etc. and when I said that I understood that shops were being discouraged from having those kinds of things near the checkout he said he’d never heard of it. I pointed out it was due to concern for the health of children and he said it wasn’t him that made the stores policy. He was obviously completely unconcerned.

The sad fact is that this is not an overnight phenomenon but has its roots way back in the middle of last century. Thanks to some poorly designed research, Ancel Keys, Senator McGovern and a young vegetarian report writer, animal fats got themselves a bad reputation and carbohydrates became the focus of the modern diet. This despite many eminent scientists of the time raising concerns to the contrary and there being absolutely no dietary requirement for carbohydrates at all.
Fat adds flavour to food, our forefathers knew this. With its fat content reduced, food became tasteless so the food industry added sugar. Sugar is 50 % fructose (HFCS 55%, Honey 45%, Agave syrup 95%). Fructose has no nutritional function. In fact, in this form, the body cannot process it so the liver converts it to a type of fat that can never be used for energy but will lead to metabolic disorder as it builds up. At the same time, sweetness of any kind prompts the body to expect a food source and release insulin. With nothing to do, that spare insulin running around in the bloodstream initiates the process of insulin resistance that will sooner or later lead to full blown type 2 diabetes. John Yudkin tried to tell us this when he published his research in ‘Pure, White and Deadly’ but he was laughed into obscurity when discredited by Ancel Keys.
Fat has 9 calories per gram, protein and carbohydrates each have 4. So it stands to reason that it is better to eat less fat and get our energy from carbs, right? Wrong! Fat takes a really long time to be processed so requires quite a lot of energy in its digestion. This means some of its extra calories are being consumed before it itself is absorbed. In addition, because of the way the body processes fat it enters the bloodstream directly, bypassing the liver at this stage. Carbohydrates, on the other hand, are digested really quickly, pass into the liver and are converted to sugars. What isn’t used for instant energy returns to the liver to be converted to fats and stored for later use – except there will be no requirement later since by then we’ll be eating our next meal and starting the cycle all over again. Protein, by the by, is also digested slowly. Between them fat & protein keep us feeling fuller for longer whilst the carbohydrates are long gone leaving us hungry for the next sugar laden snack.
So then, because waistlines are expanding, the food industry starts adding artificial sweeteners to our diets. Oh great, diet coke can help me lose weight right? Wrong! Remember ‘sweet’ of any kind kicks off the insulin cycle. So, because there is no food source for it to get to work, it adds to the insulin resistance started by fructose consumption. But, even worse, artificial sweeteners interfere with production of the hunger hormones that are responsible for feelings of satiety. Because we don’t get that ‘full’ feeling we eat more so waistlines expand. Diet drinks may, in an of themselves, contain fewer calories but they do drive increased calorie consumption.
And the worst thing about all this? The Food Industry knows all it. Obesity is not the fault of the obese. The Food Industry is making a profit from a health epidemic of its own making! And what is the Health Industry doing about it? The Health Industry is encouraging us to eat the carbohydrates, drink the low calorie pops and add the artificial sweeteners to our coffees that are driving that health epidemic!!! No wonder the NHS is running out of money.
Admittedly these are not the only reasons that the modern western diet is leading to a health catastrophe but they are major contributors.