Dangerous Pathogens
A pathogen? Sounds scarily serious. Pathogens are dread diseases, infections that can become deadly.
And that, precisely, is what some medical specialists consider junk food, evidently, to represent. A disease of addiction to substances posing as food but so heavily adulterated by chemicals, with salt, sugar and saturated fats that their common and constant consumption represents a dire health threat.
Most people wouldn't consider viewing junk food quite to that degree of danger. Presumably enough doctors have seen enough patients in enough poor health attributed to a lifetime of consuming junk food that they feel reasonably secure in using that kind of language. And blaming the producers of that junk food of something akin to terrorism.
Mass killing, in any event. A new article just published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, the work of a cardiologist and two public health professors, don't mince their words. "It's really just a nomenclature to attract attention to the fact we have a problem here and something needs to be done about it", explained Dr. Norm Campbell of Calgary.
"It will hopefully ... result in an evolution of our food so it's again a source of health, not a source of disease." Doubt it. You know that old adage ... you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink? Well, it's something like that. All the education and prodding and instruction in the world won't make people change their eating habits, if they don't feel inclined to.
People know that what they're consuming isn't considered to be nutritionally sound. The warnings have been around for long enough. But weigh those interfering do-gooding attempts to make people more aware and concerned about their own responsibility to good health outcomes, against the convenience and 'good' taste of altered foods and the appetite will win out over rationality every time.
Yes, bad food that gives the consumer too much of a bad thing does create ill health, but it does so stealthily, over a period of time, and people barely notice. Meanwhile, the appetite is stimulated by advertising and public relations campaigns, and the proliferation of fast-food eateries everywhere one looks - it is a free enterprise system, after all.
"Why regulate crime? 'Oh, it's a murder, they shouldn't be allowed a second chance.' Well, the food industry kills many thousands more than that murderer ever had a hope of doing", says the report's lead author. It's a situation that frustrates many, usually not the people who cling to bad food menus because they also cling to a sedentary lifestyle and that seems to suit them well.
But the incidence of obesity within the general public, impacting on all age groups, is a worrisome trend, and a costly one to society. One study in the journal Lancet last year estimated that 40% of premature deaths are related to diet. Another published in the American Medical Association last year opined that some obese children should be taken into custody, away from their parents for their own preservation.
Just recently one set of medical practitioners wrote in Nature suggesting that those under 16 years of age not be allowed to purchase soft drinks. It's estimated that salt in food alone contributes to 14,000 deaths and 40,000 hospitalizations yearly in Canada. Junk food contributes to heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.
The paper published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology recommends that ingredients like saturated and trans fats, sodium and simple sugars be labelled as pathogens when their volume of content exceeds what the human body needs and can safely deal with. The better to ignore them by those bored with all the fuss.
"The actors that encourage consumption of these foods in the population are somewhat insidious and very powerful", noted one doctor.
Give that man an apple.
And that, precisely, is what some medical specialists consider junk food, evidently, to represent. A disease of addiction to substances posing as food but so heavily adulterated by chemicals, with salt, sugar and saturated fats that their common and constant consumption represents a dire health threat.
Most people wouldn't consider viewing junk food quite to that degree of danger. Presumably enough doctors have seen enough patients in enough poor health attributed to a lifetime of consuming junk food that they feel reasonably secure in using that kind of language. And blaming the producers of that junk food of something akin to terrorism.
Mass killing, in any event. A new article just published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, the work of a cardiologist and two public health professors, don't mince their words. "It's really just a nomenclature to attract attention to the fact we have a problem here and something needs to be done about it", explained Dr. Norm Campbell of Calgary.
"It will hopefully ... result in an evolution of our food so it's again a source of health, not a source of disease." Doubt it. You know that old adage ... you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink? Well, it's something like that. All the education and prodding and instruction in the world won't make people change their eating habits, if they don't feel inclined to.
People know that what they're consuming isn't considered to be nutritionally sound. The warnings have been around for long enough. But weigh those interfering do-gooding attempts to make people more aware and concerned about their own responsibility to good health outcomes, against the convenience and 'good' taste of altered foods and the appetite will win out over rationality every time.
Yes, bad food that gives the consumer too much of a bad thing does create ill health, but it does so stealthily, over a period of time, and people barely notice. Meanwhile, the appetite is stimulated by advertising and public relations campaigns, and the proliferation of fast-food eateries everywhere one looks - it is a free enterprise system, after all.
"Why regulate crime? 'Oh, it's a murder, they shouldn't be allowed a second chance.' Well, the food industry kills many thousands more than that murderer ever had a hope of doing", says the report's lead author. It's a situation that frustrates many, usually not the people who cling to bad food menus because they also cling to a sedentary lifestyle and that seems to suit them well.
But the incidence of obesity within the general public, impacting on all age groups, is a worrisome trend, and a costly one to society. One study in the journal Lancet last year estimated that 40% of premature deaths are related to diet. Another published in the American Medical Association last year opined that some obese children should be taken into custody, away from their parents for their own preservation.
Just recently one set of medical practitioners wrote in Nature suggesting that those under 16 years of age not be allowed to purchase soft drinks. It's estimated that salt in food alone contributes to 14,000 deaths and 40,000 hospitalizations yearly in Canada. Junk food contributes to heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.
The paper published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology recommends that ingredients like saturated and trans fats, sodium and simple sugars be labelled as pathogens when their volume of content exceeds what the human body needs and can safely deal with. The better to ignore them by those bored with all the fuss.
"The actors that encourage consumption of these foods in the population are somewhat insidious and very powerful", noted one doctor.
Give that man an apple.
Labels: Education, Family, Health, societal failures
posted by Pieface @ 8:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home