We Are What We Eat free essay sample

The article discusses the long-term negative impact of watching television on the diet of American adults and provides advice on encouraging teenagers to eat healthy. This article is relevant to my project on proposing ways to combat obesity in Singapore as it highlights an important but possibly neglected causal factor for unhealthy eating habits – TV-watching. As young Singaporeans are exposed to television shows and media sources just as American teenagers are, findings on their negative influence should be seriously considered for my project. As the article was published recently on Jan 30 2009, the information is up-to-date. The author uses interview excerpts from professionals – Frederick J. Zimmerman from the Child Health Institute and Kimberly M. Thompson from the Harvard School of Public Health. Both institutes are highly reputable and influential in American health matters. Thus, they have the responsibility of presenting accurate information to the public. In the article, Zimmerman states that heavy TV viewing, especially of food advertising makes a difference to children’s diets. We will write a custom essay sample on We Are What We Eat or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I agree, as advertisements have the cumulative effect of portraying unhealthy food as desirable and this undermines efforts to encourage a healthy lifestyle. This potentially explains the result in a recent study by a Canadian medical publication where physical fitness programmes in schools do not appear to combat obesity . Such advertising promotes food that goes against recommended dietary requirements and in the case of Singapore, the negative trend presents an obstacle to the success of Health Education, Trim and Fit and other comprehensive wellness programmes in school. Furthermore, a report from UK’s Sustain, an alliance of campaigners for better food and farming, suggests that up to 90% of food advertisements shown during children’s commercial TV programming are products high in fat, sugar or salt. It is apparent that junk food advertisements are largely targeted at children . Thus for my group to propose an effective public education campaign or strategic school programme, there is a need to be aware of the types and frequency of such advertisements on TV channels in Singapore. The article focused on the negative impact of television food advertising on eating habits. It states that when the young spend long hours watching television without parental guidance, they would be enticed to eat unhealthily but neglected to mention the catalysts or other reasons for people specifically being attracted to junk or fast food. One reason is that modern life is extremely fast-paced as revealed by the rising number of working hours from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) . As a result, many people do not have time to enjoy a proper meal. I believe factors such as the expectation for quick service and demand for calorie-laden snacks to combat stress or reward the self for a hard day’s work contribute to unhealthy eating habits. My group thus proposes to introduce healthy easy-to-prepare recipes to prevent time wastage in preparing food for the family. The article highlights the role of parents in watching their children’s diets My group agrees that parents play an important role and as many Singaporean parents are busy, our proposal to teach easy-to-prepare recipes to families will be useful, for both working adults and children.