High on my list of Truly Ridiculous Things is the event chronicled in today's NYT - the opening of Pop-Tarts World in Times Square. Really? REALLY? An entire store devoted to selling POP TARTS?? Uhhhh, do we actually need that? At a time when obesity is at an all time high, especially in children? When sugar is already available in every form, every shape and color, in such vast quantities at every meal, that "Obesity Rates Keep Rising, Troubling Health Officials" (to quote a headline from the August 3rd NYT edition).
Really?
Today's article goes on to say that"The menu includes the Fluffer Butter, marshmallow spread sandwiched between two Pop-Tarts frosted fudge pastries; the Sticky Cinna Munchies...and then there's the Pop-Tarts Sushi, three kinds of Pop-Tarts minced and then wrapped in a fruit roll up." I almost fell into a sugar coma reading the article.
The part that got me was this quote from Mr. Etienne Patout, senior brand director at Pop Tarts (a Kellogg's brand): "Our long-term hope is to strengthen the bonding between the brand and the consumer, and that has great benefits for the brand". (italics mine). Well, yeah, Mr. Patout. Huge benefits for the brand, not so great for the consumer. Especially the kids.
Pop Tarts have been around since 1964. I used to eat them (the strawberry kind, without icing) after school. I would put a slice of cheddar cheese on top, and pretend that it was pie. Once in a while, not every day. My mom kept a few of those snack type things around, along with real apples, yogurt, and grapes. Nowadays, snack foods are the rule, rather than the exception. So much so that they merit their own 3200 square foot shop in Times Square. Not a good thing.
I am surprised that a Frenchman doesn't get this. (I am assuming that Mr. Patout is French). After all, one of his country women landed on our best seller list not long ago with a little book entitled "French Women Don't Get Fat". Maybe not, but French children might, and American children definitely do, and are, in alarming rates.
So, Mr. Patout, and Kelloggs, perhaps you could think of better things to do with 3200 square feet of real estate, and with Kellogg's money. Or maybe not, which is part of the problem.
And folks, next time you find yourself in Times Square, do yourselves and your kids a favor. In the words of the immortal Burt Bacharach, etched for all times on our collective hearts and eardrums by the equally immortal Dionne Warwick, WALK ON BY...!!
Monday, August 9, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Take It Back
As Wendy Williams says, "How YOU doin'??" I am doin' well, thank you; so well, in fact, that I have not posted a thing since June. Busy with kids, no kids, husband, theater, salsa, and just chillin out! ( I am actually addicted to "America's Got Talent", and I do hope those little dancing kids from Long Island get to Hollywood. They are amazing).
But an article in today's NYT slapped me back into full blog mode, fast. Entitled "Obesity Rates Keep Rising, Troubling Health Officials", it talks about how fat we are, as a nation. Particularly women of color. And since we women are the keepers of the home, the shoppers, the cooks, the teachers, the mothers, the nurturers, and the hands that rock the cradle, it is we who control, for the most part, what our children and husbands eat. Sisters control what many of us put in our mouths. And Sisters, we are in trouble. BIG trouble. (According to the article, "Non-Hispanic black women had the highest obesity rate, 41.9 percent." I did not make that up.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/health/nutrition/04fat.html?pagewanted=print
Let me not imply, however, that our obesity is our fault. Not at all. We are merely victims of a society, of a culture, that is severely schizophrenic about a number of things. Money. Sex. Food.
We drown in debt on the one hand, and wallow in rampant consumerism on the other. We allow the media to objectify and sexualize our daughters, at the same time that we bemoan their promiscuity. We eat as if there is no tomorrow, and then we wake up fat and scream about it.
How does that happen, and why?
The "how" part is somewhat obvious. (The "why" is a harder question, and I will probably blog about that too, later.) There is alot of money to be made by food corporations, book sellers, TV producers, health and beauty companies, and others; anyone who has a diet product to sell. This vast diet industry, not unlike the fashion industry, exists because we are unhappy with ourselves, and are constantly seeking to improve ourselves, better to fit some glossy, unattainable image of what the perfect body should look like.
At the same time, the processed and packaged food industries play upon our need for fast, quick, cheap, convenient food, coupled with our insatiable insistence for instant gratification, along with an economy that necessitates low-cost meal solutions for many, and the result is - nutritional disaster for a sigmificant number of us.
We diet as we stuff ourselves with crap. The food companies know that we are in a trap, and that we cannot easily extricate ourselves from the webs that they have woven for us. They profit from our ignorance, and from our desperation.
Look at any consumer magazine, especially women's magazines. No names, but some of them will actually run full page ads for the latest mocha-caffe-latte-frappe-full-sugar-smoothie-drink-of-the-moment (from one of those fast food giant places) on the page next to the latest diet-of-the-moment. Or pictures of bikini-clad 17 year olds next to articles about how to cook corn on the cob on your grill. Be skinny. Get fat. Get fatter. Then get skinny.
I could go on and on and on with examples, but I won't. I think my point is clear. The Diet Industry, and The Big Food Industry (not my name for it - some other food writer coined that phrase some time ago) have, essentially, conspired to keep us fat, so that they can profit from our confusion. It is that simple.
So, what do we do about it? How do we take back control, for ourselves, for our children? And it is the children that are most at risk. According to Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, "Obesity rates have doubled in adults and tripled in children in recent decades". Tripled. That is scary. Our kids are now the first generation that is projected to die before its parents. We are getting unhealthier as a species, and that is not the way it is suupposed to go down.
We, as a nation, as a community, and as a Sisterhood, need to take a look at this issue, and we need to do it now. We need to educate ourselves. Educate our children. Fight the industrial madness. Fight for our lives.
It is your body. YOUR life. TAKE IT BACK!!
But an article in today's NYT slapped me back into full blog mode, fast. Entitled "Obesity Rates Keep Rising, Troubling Health Officials", it talks about how fat we are, as a nation. Particularly women of color. And since we women are the keepers of the home, the shoppers, the cooks, the teachers, the mothers, the nurturers, and the hands that rock the cradle, it is we who control, for the most part, what our children and husbands eat. Sisters control what many of us put in our mouths. And Sisters, we are in trouble. BIG trouble. (According to the article, "Non-Hispanic black women had the highest obesity rate, 41.9 percent." I did not make that up.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/health/nutrition/04fat.html?pagewanted=print
Let me not imply, however, that our obesity is our fault. Not at all. We are merely victims of a society, of a culture, that is severely schizophrenic about a number of things. Money. Sex. Food.
We drown in debt on the one hand, and wallow in rampant consumerism on the other. We allow the media to objectify and sexualize our daughters, at the same time that we bemoan their promiscuity. We eat as if there is no tomorrow, and then we wake up fat and scream about it.
How does that happen, and why?
The "how" part is somewhat obvious. (The "why" is a harder question, and I will probably blog about that too, later.) There is alot of money to be made by food corporations, book sellers, TV producers, health and beauty companies, and others; anyone who has a diet product to sell. This vast diet industry, not unlike the fashion industry, exists because we are unhappy with ourselves, and are constantly seeking to improve ourselves, better to fit some glossy, unattainable image of what the perfect body should look like.
At the same time, the processed and packaged food industries play upon our need for fast, quick, cheap, convenient food, coupled with our insatiable insistence for instant gratification, along with an economy that necessitates low-cost meal solutions for many, and the result is - nutritional disaster for a sigmificant number of us.
We diet as we stuff ourselves with crap. The food companies know that we are in a trap, and that we cannot easily extricate ourselves from the webs that they have woven for us. They profit from our ignorance, and from our desperation.
Look at any consumer magazine, especially women's magazines. No names, but some of them will actually run full page ads for the latest mocha-caffe-latte-frappe-full-sugar-smoothie-drink-of-the-moment (from one of those fast food giant places) on the page next to the latest diet-of-the-moment. Or pictures of bikini-clad 17 year olds next to articles about how to cook corn on the cob on your grill. Be skinny. Get fat. Get fatter. Then get skinny.
I could go on and on and on with examples, but I won't. I think my point is clear. The Diet Industry, and The Big Food Industry (not my name for it - some other food writer coined that phrase some time ago) have, essentially, conspired to keep us fat, so that they can profit from our confusion. It is that simple.
So, what do we do about it? How do we take back control, for ourselves, for our children? And it is the children that are most at risk. According to Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, "Obesity rates have doubled in adults and tripled in children in recent decades". Tripled. That is scary. Our kids are now the first generation that is projected to die before its parents. We are getting unhealthier as a species, and that is not the way it is suupposed to go down.
We, as a nation, as a community, and as a Sisterhood, need to take a look at this issue, and we need to do it now. We need to educate ourselves. Educate our children. Fight the industrial madness. Fight for our lives.
It is your body. YOUR life. TAKE IT BACK!!
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