Supersized fast-food fury?

This week McDonald's was found in breach of industry standards over a website which was seen to be marketing to children. Personally I do not mind most of the marketing they do. The marketing person inside of me finds it interesting, the charity worker inside of me worries a little about those who are weak to these messages, but in the end, I truly believe that it is up to the parents to teach their kids about what they eat and why they eat it, because those lessons will be with them for life.

The SMH reported:

The Advertising Standards Bureau upheld the Cancer Council's complaint about the Happy Meal website, finding that it had breached several clauses of the voluntary code for advertising to children, including promoting unhealthy food choices by using characters and online interactive games aimed at children.

You can read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/maccas-website-breached-ad-rules-20120708-21pjv.html#ixzz207DA9QXB

Even having worked for charities targeting this behaviour in the past, I have started to rethink why this causes so much passion from so many. I am struggling to understand how cute characters on a game, on a website are encouraging children to eat bad food. I do understand pester power. I have studied it at university and I most certainly have seen the impact of it on marketing campaigns I have worked on.  

I also have a 6 yr. old and a 3 yr. old. So far, I control what goes into my children’s mouths – to a large degree. They love having McDonald’s. They have probably had it 3 times in the last year, and their meals are chosen by me (apple bag, no chips, water instead of soft drinks). I know exactly what it does to their little bodies overnight too. My 3 year old has type 1 diabetes; I test her blood glucose every few hours during the night. On a McDonald’s night she usually needs extra insulin and her levels continue to get higher and higher overnight. McDonald’s is a treat and my kids understand this.

I would like to eat bad food every day. I love chocolate. I love ice-cream.  I know what happens if I eat too much – and it is not just about gaining weight. I don’t think as clearly, I get tired and generally my health suffers. Over the past few years I have discussed the impact of our diet with my children. Mostly, they don’t nag me for “sometimes” foods. 

So would it be easier for parents if there were no lollies and foods targeting kids? I guess so. There would be fewer arguments and maybe less children eating as many “sometimes” foods. But what happens when the kids are old enough to buy their own food? What happens when they get to make their own choices? Clearly the concern is that we have an obesity epidemic growing in Australia with unhealthy parents unable to educate their children, which is leading to overweight or unhealthy children.

This week is National Diabetes Week. This week the focus is all about type 2 diabetes and how to prevent it. Type 2 diabetes is largely preventable through diet and exercise; unlike type 1 diabetes which is an auto-immune disease (and cannot be prevented). I think we need to start teaching our children from a very young age about good food choices. I think we need to help them understand why good foods can make them feel good for longer and why “sometimes” food, whilst yummy, are only for just that – for sometimes. I believe that the challenge for us is how we get parents to understand food labels – not just fast food, but all food. We need to understand the impact of the ingredients of what we eat and what it means to our bodies. The healthy canteens campaigns for schools within Australia are a great start.

What do you think? Would it be easier to just ban junk food advertising of all kids and remove cartoon packaging and kids’ toys with purchases? What else can we do to help parents?

“Mummy, please fix my pancreas”

For the first time today my little 3 year old begged me to remove her “diabetes”. She asked that her pancreas not be broken – over and over again.

In so many ways my daughter is so much older than her 3 years. We can have conversations about what it means to be high or low. She understands what her blood glucose levels should be and can read them on her monitor. She is starting to test herself and discuss the carbohydrate content of the foods she eats. We also discuss fats, sugar and protein. We talk about exercise and why it is important and also how it will impact her blood glucose levels. Before today my daughter had always soldered on. Very occasionally she would cry at a needle, but almost always she would take her 5 plus needles each day and 2 – 3 hourly blood tests in her stride.

She was a little high this afternoon and I was tired and in a cranky mood too – so maybe that instigated her self analysis. “Why do I have diabetes? Did you have diabetes when to were 3? Why do some people have type 2 diabetes? Why can they get better and I can’t?” She hit me with question after question. Most I couldn’t answer with anything better than, I just don’t know. When she asked me if one day her pancreas would get better it just broke my heart. In all honestly, I just don’t have enough faith in a cure. Not enough money is spent on type 1 diabetes. Not enough people understand what it means to have type 1 diabetes. Kids and adults with type 1 have an invisible disease to a large degree. Most of the time no-one knows they have type 1 diabetes.

I have shared with you a day in our lives before, my fears when my daughter is sleeping (that she won’t wake up), the constant monitoring of food, blood testing and needles and the common questions about why she has diabetes (“Did you feed her lots of lollies when she was a baby?” or my favourite “Don’t you wish you breast fed her?”). As time goes on I am getting better with the questions. At least people are interested enough to ask and this gives me a chance to explain type 1 to one more person – and maybe that one person will share with someone else.

If I believed in God I would pray for a cure, but all I can do is ask those who have a spare few dollars to donate to the JDRF (www.jdrf.org.au). If not today, next week, next month, next year or even 10 years from now. I would love for there to be a cure one day. In the meantime, small technological advances make life easier for those with type 1. And technology is something I do offer my daughter for hope – that and my 100% support. There are promising medical devices overseas that hopefully will reach Australia and be funded by our government.

We take it one day at a time – but today was a tough day emotionally for all of us.

The weight of the matter...

I know that it is not “cool” to admit – but I really love watching the Biggest Loser. Years ago, when my darling son (DS) was a baby, I used to sit on a static bike each night watching BL (after eating an ENORMOUS dinner) and ride slowly so that I didn’t get too puffed and miss something. Now that I have for the most part, got my exercise and eating priorities sorted, I record it (it is usually on during our kids bed time) and watch it later that night.

My husband simply cannot understand it. And I have tried to work out what it is for me that is so compelling. Like a lot of the losers, I was once fat and unfit, having previously been very athletic. So I do like to see the transformations, to see the positive shine through from the depression and negativity that had existed and of course to see that the losers are only human and have set backs and breakdowns just like those of us not inside the fitness fishbowl.

I think it is great that BL’s kids will be exposed to a healthier lifestyle once they get home, and that will hopefully realise that sometimes foods are certainly not everyday foods , that takeaway is not normal eating and that vegetables and fruit are essential to all bodies. I am reminded of these behaviours not being a part of a lot of peoples every day when I attend a weight-loss group, now to support a friend, but previously for myself. There are so many women (and sometimes a man or two) who need to be reminded that what you put in needs to be less than what you put out if you want to lose weight. And that the quality of what you put into your body makes a huge difference to your physical and mental well being. I know that I simply could not get up to test my daughters blood during the night, exercise, look after the kids, work part time and keep the house in some sense of order if I had not lost weight and starting looking after myself.

Back to the Biggest Loser, of course, what they are doing is completely unrealistic... they get sad when they lose “only 2 or 3kg” and sob when they lose 1kg. Recently one loser was reprimanded for eating 2 pieces of bread (instead of the one that was allocated in his diet) and this week one of the trainers was excited that one of his team had immunity as it meant that they would actually be able to eat more carbs and protein, which would help their body recover and mean they would be stronger and better able to lose weight in the lead up to the finale. So as I write this, I am reminded why I should not like the show and why it is such a bad example of diet and lifestyle for those who want and need to lose significant amounts of weight.

But I am still planning to watch it tonight...