The online version of The Australian recently published a report about a growing movement of parents to ban junk food ads especially on television. The reason? Because “the advertising was undermining their efforts to teach children good eating habits.” Heaven knows I’d like to see something similar in the Philippines, but the question is who will define what junk food is?
In this media-driven generation, kids are rather contentious. This isn’t an age where children simply accept what they are told. They challenge their parents’ statements, not necessarily to be disrespectful, but because they have access to a lot of information that they feel may be genuinely more authoritative and valid than what their parents claim. This especially if the parents are prone to believe old wives’ tales like treating hiccups with a piece of rolled thread on an infant’s forehead.
Things like that do make parents less credible. Hence, the validity of a parent’s claim about what is healthy and unhealthy food becomes suspect when taken against big words used in ads like whole grains, low sodium and low sugar. And these are key words in ad campaigns that food manufacturers spend millions on.
Case in point: Jack ‘n’ Jill’s Nova multi-grain chips and the Oishi counterpart. The way the ingredients are emphasized, it’s almost as though the bag of chips properly belongs inside a gradeschooler’s lunchbox. Another case in point: Those soda drinks with zero sugar. Wasn’t the sugar content the main objection against soft drinks? Okay, so you have Coke and Pepsi and other soft drinks manufacturers coming out with the diet and zero-sugar versions. Doesn’t that cast doubt on claims about soft drinks being unhealthy?
So, kids complain and engage their parents in debate. For the old schoolers, it’s nothing but disrespect. The less insecure parents, on the other hand, are thankful for small proofs that their kids have brains that they manage to exercise by challenging old beliefs against evidence provided by modern scientific and medical findings.
When it comes to eating junk food, the arguments and counter-arguments are multi-dimensional. When parents say that potato chips are junk food, some kids counter by saying that they are made from real potatos and they cannot be worse than the bowls of peanuts that their parents consumed in their youth.
Is it the oil content that makes potato chips bad? Well, there are baked potato chips in the market. Is it the salt content? Hmmm… for all the bad press that sodium gets, the human body needs salt in order to function efficiently. If the sodium content of potato chips is drastically cut down, will that finally exclude them from the junk food label? Ever seen those baked potato chips with 25 percent less salt on the supermarket shelves?
Then, there are the gray areas. Does the amount of preservatives in processed food affect their categorization as healthy or unhealthy? Are vegetable crisps healthy or are they junk food? They are getting more and more popular today– small pieces of vegetables made crisp by modern food processing, canned or bagged and eaten in very much the same way that one eats potato chips or chocolate-coated wafers.
What about breakfast cereals? The modern healthy breakfast, according to many. Read the fine print on the labels and notice how many artificial food colorings are enumerated. The two boxes of Post cereals sitting on top of our fridge list two artificial food colorings. The packets of Quaker oats list artificial flavorings among the ingredients.
Then, we go to the fast food joints with their notorious fat-laden chicken nuggets, deep-fried chicken and fatty burgers served with mayo (fat!), gravy (sodium and fat!) and ketchup (preservatives!). Does the addition of two slices of tomatos and a few soggy strips of lettuce make burgers healthier? These days, fast foods also serve fresh green salads. Does the inclusion of vegetable dishes in their menu elevate them to the category of non-junk food restaurants?
What about chocolates? My mother made me bring half a dozen bars of chocolate when I took the UPCAT more than two decades ago. The four-part entrance exam lasted from 7 a.m. to 12 noon with no breaks, but eating was allowed. According to my mother, chocolates were the fastest source of energy and I would need energy to last through the half-day exam. It’s a belief shared by the US military during the second world war. M&M’s (they melt in your mouth, not in your hands) were developed for the American soldiers so they could get their energy in these sugar-laden morsels. Healthy idea?
I have my own standards for determining what is healthy and what is not. First, read the food labels and go through the list of ingredients and dates of manufacture and expiration. Second, know that the more processing a food product has undergone, the more nutrients are lost and the more artificial colors and flavors added. Keep consumption down to a minimum. Third, if the product contains more artificial than natural ingredients, stay away from it. Third, if a product has nothing but artificial ingredients, don’t even look at it.
And these aren’t things that only mothers should know about. My husband goes through food labels and nutritional information as much as I do. He scrutinizes more, in fact, since he has developed a serious aversion to artificial food colors.
If you have to argue with your kids about what is junk food and what is not, do your own research. Be more scientific and authoritative than the ads they are exposed to everyday. Rather than being dictatorial, be informed and reason out based on valid information. If you can support your arguments better than the food manufacturers can with their half-truths and lies, you’ll have better chances of winning your kids to your side.
LOL. I love those sentences! I’ve always held the view that parents who complain that children question them are insecure, and probably so dumb they’re afraid of reasoning out, debates and discussion.
Precisely, so they assert their authority with statements like “Because I said so” or “Because I am your father/mother” etcetera.
Sassy there isn’t much point in arguments about what’s junk food with your kids if first, as a parent, you’re not doing your own cooking and just using that difference to clearly mark that out, right? That was how we knew and grew up with. But certainly not every kid growing up today even with single parents can honestly be expected to really find that out for themselves and in each child-rearing situation would have its own factors and circumstances.
I think just teaching children how to appreciate food in all its forms and trying to be as honest with them about it is probably the best way of making them aware of what makes for edible substances today. It’d be next to impossible to act like some kind of food fascist, I’d think, just as much as there’s now more ways to point out to them what people in, say, other cultures and countries eat or what else is cooking in the world. I just think arming them with more knowledge or awareness of what’s sustenance and what’s not is all we can really do against marketing campaigns and all this local advertising onslaught on their senses.
You’re your own best teacher to your kids. And like Jon said, maybe there aren’t as many stupid kids as there are more stupid parents?
Whenever i see someone drinking coke or pepsi specially the new zero sugar coke, i start squirming and wincing with pain, because although they advertise that they don’t use sugar, its either aspartame or splenda which is the sweetener that they use. furthermore, coke has phosphoric acid which is bad for the bones, because they make them brittle.
Ben, in fairness to the other parents, media hasn’t been much help in providing the truth about food. Even the scientific community, in fact, are full of “paid endorsers”. Research studies are funded by corporate businesses so the results can hardly be expected to be objective. Truth is, it isn’t always that easy trying to determine which is true.
Secondly, everyone will always have an excuse for not knowing. Everyone will always have a justification as to why their kids eat more junk than real food. Lifestyle, work, single parenthood just among the many. People can sigh and blame circumstances or they can make wiser choices.
pirkash, to begin with, I have no idea what is “good” about Coke, etc. in terms of taste. Soft drinks always give me an indigestion. LOL
pirkash,
Is aspartame that bad as well? I understand that’s the same substance used in non-sugar sweeteners like Equal.
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As with all food, everything is really about moderation. Too little sodium will make you just as sick as having too much. Too little glucose will likewise render you sick as having too much. Too little fat is likewise bad.
Junk food once in a while is fine. Junk food everyday is unhealthy. It’s our duty as parents (and as humans!) to regulate what *we* eat and what our children eat as well.
Reminds me how sad it is when children are born into families which have unhealthy eating practices. You don’t expect those kids to be any more healthy than their parents are.
Hear! Hear! Mr. Jon Limjap!
The key is moderation. What’s the use of living if you can’t enjoy what you like eat, if everything advertised is bad for your health. I for one likes Lay’s potato chips and I gobble a lot when watching TV, but only on weekends.
Has anyone noticed the aftertaste that these sugar substitutes leave in the mouth? I never could tolerate them — not Equal, not Splenda.
BlogusVox, LOL try Cheetos. And there’s this new brand of potato chips, kettle-cooked, comes in brown bags.
Coke, Pepsi or any soda is bad for your health. Pirkash Ganglani is right about phosphoric acid in their drinks. Try pouring Coke or Pepsi on your rusted battery terminal. That’s how good or bad it is. You are better off drinking coffee, tea, chocolate, red wine or just plain water.
But if you insist on having Coke or Pepsi ocassionally, don’t drink the diet or zero calorie. Those artificial sweeteners, including Splenda and Equal are worst than sugar.
I wonder if we’ll do a good job of steering Mina towards more healthy food. Daddy dreams of her eating fistfuls of tofu and broccoli eh. Hahah. Me, I like things like potato chips and french fries. Pero I have found chips without partially hydrogenated oils (big no-no) and without any artificial ingredients. Good enough for me.
The three things I really stay away from are packaged foods with the following ingredients: partially hydrogenated in the words, msg, high fructose corn syrup.
To anyone who wants their blood glucose levels to be normal, i suggest you invest in a juicer and a blender first of all, and then instead of suffering from diabetes and hypertension in your later years and paying for costly medications, learn how to make delicious fresh juice combinations, the natural fructose and sugar from spinach, celery, cucumber, ampalaya and other fruits in various combinations will cure your sweeth tooth.
Instead of using butter and margarine, try dipping your slice of warm bread or pandesal in some olive oil as palaman.
Avoid mayo and salad dressing using mayo if you can.
A general rule should be, to avoid processed and canned foods as much as possible.
Try drinking green tea without sugar, C2 is full of sugar as well as all those local and imported powdered drinks.
pinayhekmi, maybe she can enjoy all of it. Sam and Alex do LOL although fries and chips much less frequently than the veggies.
pirkash ganglani, oh yes to all! But to be honest, mayo and butter are still staples in my house.
pirkash ganglani, I invested on juicer , blender,vegetable and fruit dryer and red ginseng steamer but after a few months of using these gadgets they all ended up in the store room……he he he
to be frank with you, i eat more junk food than my girls who are only 4 and 6 years old — i should learn from them
fact is, their dad cant tolerate the smell and taste of those fast food joints so we dont frequent them; and instead of buying chips, he would make homemade ones. plus, hindi masyado marami ang fast food ads sa tv dito and wala ring masyadong fast food joints around.
raq, re “hindi masyado marami ang fast food ads sa tv dito”
Lucky you! Nakow, you should see the JUNK on TV here.
Connie,you know here Fastfood restaurant the like of Mc Donald or Popeyes are closing shops,now a days you rarely see fastfood ads on TV,could it be that, once a nation is becoming affluent people tend to look for more healthier food as it show the mushrooming of restaurant serving healthier food alternatives.In PI maybe the future of restaurant business is all about health food too,what do you think?