It pays to be vigilant on junk food lure

Advertisers and manufacturers of sugary, salty and fatty foods have a lot to answer for when it comes to our health. They not only lace their foods with excessive amounts of sugar, fat and salt, in the name of taste, but they also make doubly sure that they market said foods to the weak and vulnerable.

Moreover, I think they are somewhat cunning about the times during which their ads are aired. Some pay extra to broadcasting companies to ensure they are on all day every day and some ensure that their foods are advertised at specific times of the day when certain people are glued to their television sets watching a particular programme. I know that the shows we watch are often paid for by advertising revenues but something about the whole business just doesn’t seem right.

Now recently the UK government decided to tackle its growing obesity problem. Apparently it has the second largest obesity problem in Europe. With waistlines increasing, adverts for foods that contain higher than the recommended daily allowance of salt, fat and sugar will now be banned from daytime television, which means any time up until 9pm. In addition, they have also issued strict guidelines to supermarkets about the way they must and must not display and advertise their goods. For example, 2-for-1 offers are no longer allowed for sugary, fatty foods, nor must they ever be at reduced price. They are no longer allowed to display these offending foods at easy to find locations like checkouts where a shopper might be waiting in a queue and picks up these items on a whim and pops them into his or her trolley.

In fact, they have been told they should make fresh fruit and vegetables more affordable and to offer them on more frequent promotions. Additionally, fresh produce must be displayed in prominent locations so that when shoppers walk into a supermarket, these are the first items with which they are greeted. I’m sure you’ve noticed that whenever you walk into a prominent supermarket in the UAE, fresh fruit and vegetables are right in front of the entrance? That’s because they are trying to promote healthy eating.

Marmite, sausage rolls and ketchup are specific items that have been placed on the UK banned from daytime advertising list. By broadly targeting sugar, fats and salt, they’ve also included things like chocolate spreads, soft drinks, ice creams, crisps and fast food because all of these are major culprits when it comes to damaging our health.

Have you noticed how every television programme is inundated with adverts for chocolates, burgers, pizzas, soft drinks and other salty, sugary and fatty snacks? They’re on air all the time. It’s like they’re on a loop even during a single commercial break.

Have you noticed how all the adverts are targeted at children or very young people? Have you noticed how much cheaper junk food items are compared to healthy foods? Have you noticed how healthy foods, like fruit and vegetables, are never advertised on television, not even on those infomercials?

During its crackdown, the UK Prime Minister has directed all processed food manufacturers to list the salt content, the fat content and sugar content of their products in a clear, prominent and understandable manner. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to determine these just by reading the label. It’s actually a struggle for the average consumer to work out how much salt, sugar or calories something contains in a single serving size. What is this ‘per 100g’ thing? Are we expected to try and recall our school algebra to work out what X is right in the middle of the cereal aisle?

Einstein once said that if you cannot explain something in simple terms to someone, you don’t understand it well enough. Well, in the case of processed food manufacturers that might well be the case. But my hunch is that are purposely trying to confuse us.