Learning a Healthy Lifestyle

image by Joe 13

Childhood obesity trends are horrifying. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have noted that in the 70’s childhood obesity rates were less than 6% while studies done today are showing a trend upwards of around 20%. In other words, in a single classroom, instead of there being just one child picked on for being overweight, we now have two or three kids. When considering the fact that childhood obesity leads to serious health consequences, one starts to wonder why it is steadily increasing and what is being done to slow it down.

While there are many factors affecting the obesity rates in the US, one huge area to be addressed are the school vending machines. In an educational and supposedly safe environment for children, it is difficult to understand why junk food or high calorie yet nutrient deficient foods are allowed into our schools. Some might argue freedom of choice, but for children who often cannot make the right choice; it is up to adults to do something about it.

Recently I talked about slotting fees and how they are the reason why junk food is so popular at the supermarket. Slotting fees are a fee paid by food companies to supermarkets, so they would place the food company's products on shelves in higher traffic aisles, which consequently results in more sales. Because junk food companies have more profit, they can spend more on slotting fees (and advertising).

Now, slotting fees probably are a very important reason for junk food's popularity, but it's definitely not the most important reason. The main reason for the popularity of junk food can probably be found in the denomination of the term itself.

Do we choose ourselves what food products we buy at the supermarket? Yes and no. Ofcourse we choose what we take from the shelves. Nobody is forcing us to buy a certain food product. On the other hand, our shopping behavior is being influenced by other things than personal preference. In this post I will try to find out why more often people buy junk food instead of healthier food.

While surfing the stumbleupon health page I found a link to this YouTube video which was titled "How the Food Industry is deceiving you". The actual title of the documentary appeared to be "How to get fat without really trying", a Peter Jennings report, for ABC in 2004.

Though already 4 years old, the documentary is still just as relevant today as it was then. Food industry has been influencing what we eat for years and it still does today.

Today I found a documentary where two BBC journalist go undercover as employees at London's biggest supermarkets. One journalist applied at the Sainsbury's meat stand, while the other solicited for a job at Tesco's fish market. Earlier I said supermarkets only have one goal: to sell as much as humanly possible. What you're about to see in this this documentary can definitely fit that discription. Be warned, unhygienic practices ahead!

Ever wonder why you always buy more than you got on your shopping list? Supermarkets use psychology and marketing techniques to sell as much as possible. Their only goal is to make you buy things and when you've done that, they want you to buy more.

Social scientists have studied our shopping behavior. With the results of those studies supermarkets create specialized marketing strategies. An enormous effort goes into designing a supermarket. They consider all the different aspects, ranging from optimal product shelf space to deciding which background music makes you spend the most.