Dave Riley
"Hi, I'm Guy Russo, CEO and managing director of McDonald's in Australia. I'm pretty sure by now you will have heard of 'That Movie'."
Worldwide, McDonald's is reeling from the impact of the new film Supersize Me, in which the main character eats only McDonald's for a month, to the great detriment of his health.
In a letter to McDonald's customers, Russo discusses the film's "irresponsibility" and claims that "McDonald's has made, and will continue to make, a greater contribution to the health and well-being of our customers and the Australian public than any film will ever achieve".
Relating to widespread concerns about health and nutrition — especially when it comes to young people — is not just an issue for those seeking to maximise their profits in the fast-food industry. The debate has also entered the federal electoral arena.
Children may not be able to vote but they sure make for great headlines — especially with an election looming. Mums and dads are being directed to a whole swathe of election promises that are designed to give families a helping hand fulfilling their core "parental responsibilities". At this election that's sure to be the mantra and we'll be getting it in one form or another from both sides of federal parliament.
Amid such intense competition, federal Labor leader Mark Latham seemed to have alighted on a winner when he called for a ban on junk-food advertising during children's television programs. With an epidemic of overweight kids out there among all those voter households, blaming McDonald's or Chuppa Chups seemed a great way to score a handy electoral point. In fact, Australia has a higher number of food advertisements than any other country during children's programming times — and 75% of those foods advertised are considered non-nutritious or unhealthy.
The way Latham tells it, the 23% of Australian children who are overweight or obese are passive victims of advertising copy. Unfortunately, the question of childhood obesity is much more complex than that. Even McDonald's, under much pressure, has reduced its advertising during children's television by 40% this year.
But childhood obesity had been steadily rising for some time before Latham turned it to his advantage. In the decade up to 1995 the prevalence of overweight children almost doubled in Australia and these children have a very high probability of progressing to adult obesity. Type 2 diabetes, (formerly termed "late-onset" diabetes) has now begun to appear among Australian adolescents and is being diagnosed in increasing numbers.
Along with a concurrent tripling of obesity rates within the population overall, the rise in these figures among children suggests that a major trend is developing.
Fast foods are becoming more dense, serves are larger and people, especially children, are eating more of them. A standard cheeseburger 20 years ago contained 333 calories; today it registers 590. This shift to energy-dense diets at the behest of the marketing skills of Ronald McDonald and Colonel Saunders obscures a simple fact that is not normally taken into account: Energy-dense diets are also cheaper. Diets composed of refined grains, added sugar and added fat, are substantially cheaper than diets composed of energy-dilute fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, lean meat and fresh fish.
This applies not only to what you pay for your pizza or Big Mac but also to those foods you purchase at the supermarket for home consumption. If you are on a limited budget you are restricted in what you can afford regardless of any dietary guidelines. Since spending on children is fairly uniform across all income groups, the poorer your family is, the larger the proportion of its income that is spent on supplying its children with food.
As Harvard nutritionist Adam Drewnowski told ABC Radio's Health Report last year: "I think here we have been persuaded that all foods cost the same, they are all equally inexpensive, and it is really a matter of making the right choice. And what I am saying is that no, they don't all cost the same, the rich or the more advantaged have many more choices when it comes to diet and physical activity. And for some people, at the bottom of the social scale, there is no choice."
Such an assessment is born out by research conducted among Indigenous Australians — who experience unemployment rates three times the national average. The typical Aboriginal diet today is high in calories, low in nutritional value, and high in fats and sugar. Surveys show that urban-dwelling Indigenous people eat more fast food than non-Indigenous people. Living in remote outback communities reduces the range of foods available, particularly fresh fruit and vegetables.
Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory consume more sugar, white flour and carbonated soft drinks than the Australian average. Consequently around six out of 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are either overweight or obese and it is thought that between 10% and 30% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have Type 2 diabetes.
Regardless of how often this election will be drawn to the topic of fat kids, people with limited financial resources — either due to low wages or unemployment — will still try to save money on their diet by eating foods which contain added oils and fats, added sugars, and refined grains. They will continue to do that, not because they're ignorant or because they don't get the message, but because that is what they can afford.
[Dave Riley is a member of the Socialist Alliance.]
From Green Left Weekly, June 30, 2004.
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