In the news today, the article University offers course to fight obesity [Canwest News Service, March 21, 2008] caught me off guard. 
The University of Guelph and Humber College in Toronto have a new course starting this fall to train students to work with the obese through such courses as nutrition, exercise science, anatomy and the science behind obesity-related diseases.
I'm not sure what to think. For one thing, this is "treatment education" as opposed to "preventative education"...which I guess is ok since it's already too late to prevent obesity for a lot of people but preventative is also lacking so it won't do much good for society to just fatten them up and then teach people how to deal with it. Why not just add a chapter on Obesity in fast food training manuals? But I'm just a little stunned [in a delighted way] that they are actually doing something about the obesity epidemic now.
Allow me to digress (this was one topic I covered in my University studies quite passionately):
It seems like, for years we've been bombarded with stats. "Stats Can says more than 1 in 4 children are obese or overweight"....but there was never anything preventative done on a large scale [no pun intended]. The 5-to-10-a-day program doesn't have the money to compete against the food industry so it's not that well known. And sure, we've pressured the industry to remove trans fats, start labelling products and stop marketing to kids but it's all moving along at a fat-kids pace.
Last year [better late than never], the Canadian Children’s Food & Beverage Advertising Initiative was launched and yes, it was a voluntary initiative on the part of these big foodies in
Canada: Cadbury Schweppes, Campbell Canada, Coca-Cola Ltd., General Mills Canada, Hershey Canada, Janes Family Foods, Kellogg Canada Inc., Kraft Canada Inc., McCain Foods (Canada), McDonald’s Canada, Nestlé Canada Inc., Parmalat Canada Inc., PepsiCo Canada, Unilever Canada, Weston Foods Canada.
The University of Guelph and Humber College in Toronto have a new course starting this fall to train students to work with the obese through such courses as nutrition, exercise science, anatomy and the science behind obesity-related diseases.I'm not sure what to think. For one thing, this is "treatment education" as opposed to "preventative education"...which I guess is ok since it's already too late to prevent obesity for a lot of people but preventative is also lacking so it won't do much good for society to just fatten them up and then teach people how to deal with it. Why not just add a chapter on Obesity in fast food training manuals? But I'm just a little stunned [in a delighted way] that they are actually doing something about the obesity epidemic now.
Allow me to digress (this was one topic I covered in my University studies quite passionately):It seems like, for years we've been bombarded with stats. "Stats Can says more than 1 in 4 children are obese or overweight"....but there was never anything preventative done on a large scale [no pun intended]. The 5-to-10-a-day program doesn't have the money to compete against the food industry so it's not that well known. And sure, we've pressured the industry to remove trans fats, start labelling products and stop marketing to kids but it's all moving along at a fat-kids pace.
Last year [better late than never], the Canadian Children’s Food & Beverage Advertising Initiative was launched and yes, it was a voluntary initiative on the part of these big foodies in
Canada: Cadbury Schweppes, Campbell Canada, Coca-Cola Ltd., General Mills Canada, Hershey Canada, Janes Family Foods, Kellogg Canada Inc., Kraft Canada Inc., McCain Foods (Canada), McDonald’s Canada, Nestlé Canada Inc., Parmalat Canada Inc., PepsiCo Canada, Unilever Canada, Weston Foods Canada.Congrats are in order but noooot really and here's why:
Their vision: "The food and beverage industry in Canada is committed to advertising and marketing products to Canadian children in a responsible way to help prepare them to make
wise decisions about healthy dietary choices and healthy lifestyles . We recognize that the special nature and needs of children requires particular care and diligence on the part of advertisers"
In order to achieve this, they have decided to devout 50% of all their child-targeted ads to the promotion of healthy diet and lifestyle choices. So 50% of the time they'll be telling them to eat well and exercise whereas the other 50% of the time, they'll be saying have a Big Mac and eat these Dunkaroos for fun!
The problem is, it's been proven that kids around the age of 6 and under can't distinguish the
difference between commercials or persuasive marketing and real life. They think if Tony the Tiger said so, it must be true! Why would Tony lie?! Well they don't get that Tony just works for a big company that wants them to be accustomed to his cereal and become a lifetime consumer of Kellogg's products. And on top of that, it's not just the ads themselves that convince kids, it's the packaging, its the gimmicks and the free toys they pack in as well. Does that count?! Probably not because it's part of marketing but it's not an advertisement, these are just incentives.
According to the Quebec Consumer Protection Act, all advertising to children under the age of 13 is prohibited in the province of Quebec. So why not just go all the way like Quebec and ban advertising to children all together?! Well, the industry wouldn't like that because in 2005, the Consumer Union report said that kids influence about $680 billion per year of household spending. That's a direct result of what is called "pester power" where kids beg parents to buy this or that and parents give in to shut them up. That's a lot of power.
Back to the school:
I'd like to know more about the program they're offering at Guelph and Humber but something tells me they're on the right track as seen here in this quote:
"Sharma [president of the Canadian Obesity Network] cautioned that the answer to the obesity epidemic, does not end at advising people to exercise more and eat less, which he likened to telling a depressed person 'to cheer up and take happy pills'. There are '100 different reasons' why people are obese and any treatment must focus on the long term and deal with underlying causes, he said."
At least it doesn't sound like they intend to blame people for eating too much because as we know it's the quality of food, our lifestyles, our lack of education and pressure to diet that keeps us yo-yo'ing and getting bigger.
I would love to see some of the material they teach and who's teaching the courses. And do they have courses on eating disorders and media literacy?! I wonder.........
Their vision: "The food and beverage industry in Canada is committed to advertising and marketing products to Canadian children in a responsible way to help prepare them to make
wise decisions about healthy dietary choices and healthy lifestyles . We recognize that the special nature and needs of children requires particular care and diligence on the part of advertisers"
In order to achieve this, they have decided to devout 50% of all their child-targeted ads to the promotion of healthy diet and lifestyle choices. So 50% of the time they'll be telling them to eat well and exercise whereas the other 50% of the time, they'll be saying have a Big Mac and eat these Dunkaroos for fun!
The problem is, it's been proven that kids around the age of 6 and under can't distinguish the
difference between commercials or persuasive marketing and real life. They think if Tony the Tiger said so, it must be true! Why would Tony lie?! Well they don't get that Tony just works for a big company that wants them to be accustomed to his cereal and become a lifetime consumer of Kellogg's products. And on top of that, it's not just the ads themselves that convince kids, it's the packaging, its the gimmicks and the free toys they pack in as well. Does that count?! Probably not because it's part of marketing but it's not an advertisement, these are just incentives.According to the Quebec Consumer Protection Act, all advertising to children under the age of 13 is prohibited in the province of Quebec. So why not just go all the way like Quebec and ban advertising to children all together?! Well, the industry wouldn't like that because in 2005, the Consumer Union report said that kids influence about $680 billion per year of household spending. That's a direct result of what is called "pester power" where kids beg parents to buy this or that and parents give in to shut them up. That's a lot of power.
Back to the school:
I'd like to know more about the program they're offering at Guelph and Humber but something tells me they're on the right track as seen here in this quote:
"Sharma [president of the Canadian Obesity Network] cautioned that the answer to the obesity epidemic, does not end at advising people to exercise more and eat less, which he likened to telling a depressed person 'to cheer up and take happy pills'. There are '100 different reasons' why people are obese and any treatment must focus on the long term and deal with underlying causes, he said."
At least it doesn't sound like they intend to blame people for eating too much because as we know it's the quality of food, our lifestyles, our lack of education and pressure to diet that keeps us yo-yo'ing and getting bigger.
I would love to see some of the material they teach and who's teaching the courses. And do they have courses on eating disorders and media literacy?! I wonder.........
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