TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Exploitative Internet Marketing Fuels Child Obesity

Re: Exploitative Internet Marketing Fuels Child Obesity

annie (dmr436@gmail.com)
14 Sep 2006 12:07:30 -0700

> I was born in 1928 and so I grew up in the depression years of
> the 1930s and then the 1940s.

Well, I was born in 1953 (getting so I don't want to admit it, but
...) and grew up in the 50s and 60s and ...

> Cooking then was commonly done with lard or solid other animal fats.

When I learned to cook it was very common to use meat products for
shortening and for seasoning. Still is, actually. :) Hey, leftover
sausages or bacon can make very tasty green beans! :) Bacon drippings
gives eggs that "down home" flavor.

People like that kind of cooking. Why? It tastes good! :)

> Hamburger places existed, fried their hamburgers and french fries in
> lard, and the hamburgers were generally bigger and greasier than you
> get today in most places frequented by children.

When I think back to my teen years, places like McDonalds, White
Castle, and Wetsons were common. They really didn't have the Big Mac
or the Whopper back then, just regular burgers, which were not really
that large, but nobody ate just one. :)

> Why were't we visited with an epidemic of obesity.

I don't know. My family is lucky I guess. I'm a few pounds over what I
weighed in my teens, but I'm certainly not obese.

When I think back, we were toally bombarded with ads for sugar cereal,
candy bars, soda (no diet yet except for Diet Rite which was NASTY)
and of course we kids just downed humongous portions of Sugar Frosted
Flakes, long before those "part of this nutritious breakfast" days.
Amazing we didn't all die from sucrose poisioning! :)

Of course the school lunch back then was based on the Basic 4, having
been demoted from the Basic 7 a while back. Main dish was always meat,
hot dogs, hamburgers (well, they had some meat in them, I guess), meat
loaf, deepfried fish, and nobody developed a heart condition in the
7th grade back then. :)

> But fast food places sell much tastier food. And, at 78, I still find
> them much better tasting than all the so-called health foods, low-fat
> foods, and trendy products.

Fast food outlets will sell what sells. Economics 101.

> I'm not sure, however, what this has to do with communications, except
> that it more or less shows that at least some advertising is not as
> effective as the advertisers would like.

I really think that the advertisers are being blamed when it's not
(totally) their fault. I also think parents are being blamed when it's
not (totally) their fault either.

Is childhood obesity really as rampant as "they" say? As I look at
kids playing in the neighborhoods, yes, there are some chunky ones,
but no more than when I was young. (I guess, though, that the real
Mouse Potatoes will not be the ones you see playing in the street,
huh?)

It's my impression that the current generation is by far healthier
than past generations. We can now prevent and treat countless
conditions that once plagued us. Obesity can be treated more
effectively than back in the 50's, like other conditions. (Diet,
exercise, are still quite effective.)

I almost cringe at thinking back at the cigarette ads that bombarded
us all, adults and kids alike, during the evening TV hours! (Not to
mention magazines!) If there's any product that WILL hurt you when
used as directed, this is it! These ads have been off the air for 30
years are so, and guess what, they now say that smoking is again on
the rise among teenagers.

Oh well ...

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