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Is This Why We’re So Fat?

June 6th, 2010 Leave a comment Go to comments
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The current edition of the  Journal of the American Dietetic Association includes an interesting study reviewing food commercials on TV. Over a 4 week time period, researchers taped food advertisements during 84 hours of prime time TV and 12 on Saturday mornings. In 3000 ads, 800 food items were promoted. The conclusions shouldn’t shock anybody who has a television set at home:

Results suggest that a diet consisting of observed food items would provide

  • 2,560% of the recommended daily servings for sugars,
  • 2,080% of the recommended daily servings for fat,

But only:

  • 40% of the recommended daily servings for vegetables,
  • 32% of the recommended daily servings for dairy, and
  • 27% of the recommended daily servings for fruits

Got it? 25 times more sugar than we should consume, and 20 times more fat then we require. PER DAY.

Now before our blood glucose goes into orbit, let’s remember that obviously we don’t eat burgers, pancakes, and pizza every meal. Nor do we chug down 20 oz. milkshakes or Colas. But being bombarded with so many mental nudges – and then encountering vending machines, fast food joints, and other calorie ingestion opportunities every which way we turn – is taking its toll on our weight and our health.

Three observations:

1. Is there anyone willing to advertise apples, kale, and broccoli 800 times a month?

2. Some of the heaviest junk food advertisers on TV are also ADA sponsors.

3. Here’s another reason to invest in a TiVO / DVR solution…

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  • Monica

    People should get off the couch and cook their own meals. and if they do eat out every once in a while don’t over eat. If im out with friends and we go to eat fast food i just order a big burger without a side of fries and water instead of soda. Sometimes we might think we we will need a lot of food but the burger might be enough to feel satisfied.

  • http://www.pstucson.com Juliette

    I was driving around with my two children the other day, and we were totally starving….Subway? Nope there is HFCS in the bread, MCanything NO way!
    So I thought, I think it is way easier to drive 10 miles to home than to even remotely consider going to any restaurant.
    a) the kids menu only consists of fried, dry lifeless food, the adult menu is not much better
    b) of the 100+ place to eat here, I’d say 80% of them have the same basic menu.
    c) even tho they could, most don’t use fresh ingredients…

    Yeah, so the choices are always better at home. Plus we sit and chat, instead of order wrong and get fat.

  • http://www.pstucson.com Juliette

    PS – AS if she’d be eating at Carls Jr! That she is selling fast food drives me crazy. Hello – you were a judge on a cooking show!!

  • bill

    No guy is looking at the burger in her hand.

  • melissa

    I WAS A STUDENT MEMBER OF THE ADA UNTIL I REALIZED THEY R PARTNERED WITH ARAMARK, The Coca-Cola Company, National Dairy Council and PepsiCo!!!!! EVERY DAY I RECEIVE EMAIL ALERTS FROM THE ADA AND AT THE BOTTOM IT CLEARLY STATES THEY ARE SPONSORED BY JUNK FOOD?!??!

  • http://the50besthealthblogs.blogspot.com/ The 50 Best Health Blogs

    But I don’t have a TV, so I don’t see food commercials.

    So why am I fat?

    Fifty years ago, when I was in my mid-teens, I would rush home to listen to the Lone Ranger and other radio shows, and I would eat a bowl of the cereal being advertised.

    And I was very thin then.

    Maybe radio makes people thin?

    Jim Purdy

  • http://www.livingitupcornfree.com kc

    Isn’t it ironic that eating that burger once a week would probably disqualify the model from getting the commercial. Her income level also looks way too high to be eating fast food. Everyone knows that income is the number one determining factor of obesity and fast food and obesity go hand in hand.

  • http://www.rochesternutrition.com Carol Plotkin

    The implication is if you eat what the model eats, you will be sexy like her or you might get the chance to meet someone sexy at the fast food joint. So, it’s not really food that is being sold, but sex. It would be great to see a more realistic ad of who you will become by eating fast food or who you will meet at the fast food place. Instead of cleavage, we’ll be looking at muffin tops and butt cracks!

  • joe weber

    It may also imply that it is okay to continue eating like this and you can still be thin and beautiful. As if the model regularly eats giant burgers. The reality of course is very different.

  • http://www.feedyourheaddiet.com Ken Leebow

    This is why we are fat … http://bit.ly/cFNVHX

  • Tracey

    If you are out and about and need to eat you can always go to a grocery store! Novel idea I know! Healthy food & lots of choices: fruits, veggies, lunch meat and much cheaper than a fast food restaurant.

  • http://www.emergingmarketsoutlook.com Charles Krakoff

    That “model” is Padma Lakshmi, the former Lady (Salman) Rushdie and the host of the Bravo TV show “Top Chef.” Not to say she wouldn’t be caught dead eating a burger, but it’s more likely to be a wagyu beef burger topped with artisanal cheese from Vermont, home-smoked wild boar bacon, and organic mesclun greens. And probably not more than 3-4 times a year. But so what? She is gorgeous and probably sells a lot of burgers. Anyone dumb enough to think that chowing down on super-size fast food burgers (I don’t recognize the brand) is going to make them look like Padma or become impossibly attractive to the likes of Padma deserves whatever shape they ultimately acquire.

  • Carole

    Take a look through all of the womens’ magazines on the market and see how many food ads there are. There are ads for restaurants and food products and recipes on almost every page. If a woman wants to get away from thinking about food, magazines are not the way to go! No wonder we get fat! Let’s stop talking and reading about food!