Fast food adverts - Destroying our future...

every website i go on or everywhere i go i see adverts it isn't just fast foods but the adverts overall.

 

I don't think you're seeing the point. I'm not saying "YES Let's 100% ban ALL fast food adverts tomorrow". It DOES come down to willpower and consumer choice I'm just stating the fact that obesity is a huge problem especially in America and Europe and it's affecting a huge number of peoples lives.

I just think the government could do something to help the situation. Yes you say the government can't run our lives but they can guide people and give them better options than are already out there.

As someone said previously it helps the economy enormously but surely there's other ways... I mean they haven't totally banned cigarretes because tax is so high on them that they simply can't ban them as the UK government , especially the NHS wouldn't survive.

I'm simply suggesting that this issue perhaps needs a bit more looking into and some people need guidance. You can't just say the government can't control our lives and people need willpower because it's not all about that. The government is a strong figure and can help tremendously. When they made the cigarrette ban in public places it was a great idea and because of that thousands more people decided to stop smoking. I'm just saying why can't something similar be implemented (IM NOT SAYING BAN) to help people out, because this is clearly an issue and is getting to the stage of it being an "addiction". Not in the sense that the brain and body requires it but the fact that it's totally acceptable for some people to have 3 fast food meals a day because it's deemed 'okay' in society now as fast food is being promoted so damn much.

 

The government shouldn't have to control everything. You are saying that us, as citizens, have to let the government come in and control advertisements because we are by an far much to weak to resist the temptations of a commercial. Which is completely insane. I believe in strong government and governmental control, but I also disavow censorship because it hurts some people's feel goods.

Fast Food and fatty foods is an addiction. I don't know where your source is but it has already been proven that in processed foods there are chemicals that your brain becomes addicted to but with any other drug it takes willpower to break that addiction.

Here are three reliable articles:
http://www.thatsfit.com/2010/03/30/fast-food-is-like-heroin-studies-find/
http://atvb.ahajournals.org/content/25/12/2451.short
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21999689


In the end the government can't be there to stop a citizen from living their life, and by taking advertisements away from television do you really think people are going to forget about fast food or even cut down on it? No. I could go to a town so small it doesn't even have stop lights and it still have a couple of fast food joints. Fast Food is an immutable part of our society that is deeply interwoven now.

 

You're just reading way too deep into my opinion...
I was just asking what other people think. And if you read my post above I did say that the government shouldn't control everyone's life, I said they can HELP with problem like this like they have already done so with other issues... There's nothing wrong with a bit of help or guidance; even if it's from the government.

And about my source? my source for what? Someone in a previous post said that fast food wasn't an addiction and they seemed clued up about it so I went with it but I said that people crave it, because the reality is they do... I'm not saying anyone's opinion is wrong at all. I'm just giving my opinion but you keep drawing to the fact of the government. I just said they can play apart in helping the situation, which they can. I didn't say to control people's lives or anything or the sort which you keep insinuating I'm talking about.

Fair enough let people live their lives as they wish. I'd want people to do that. But why should they sit there and watch 15 minutes of advertisements about the fattiest most unhealthiest foods when they could be watching advertisements for other things.

 

They can change the channel...

Attempting to blame fast food chains, and their advertisements for the problem of obesity neglects the dynamic interplay between genetic and environmental factors. In bygone times, the genetic propensity to store fat quickly from lower quantities of food was evolutionary desirable due to the periods of feast and famine. Humans typically lived in small groups, and they had to hunt for their food. Food wasn't readily available to them as it is nowadays. Thus, there were periods when they got food (successfully hunted an animal), and they had a feast. They would store the fat. Then, there were periods of famine (looking for the next animal and chasing it. Those who ate during the feast, but simply burned all the calories without storing it as fat usually died during the famine. This is an accepted hypothesis, and makes logical sense. These genes are still very much in play in modern society. What differs is that in a modern society, there are no periods of feast and famine, we eat whenever we like in the western world, and when you have a genetic propensity to store fat, and access to a constant feast, you are bound to get fat.

Another large factor is eating habits. Studies have shown that eating habits between kids is incredibly different. Some kids, despite admitting to being full, will still continue to indulge in snacks such as chocolate! Other kids, admitting their full, do not opt to eat such snacks; some adults actually feel like throwing up if they eat when they're full. This again is down to genetics. This however has very serious ramifications. Statistically, kids who are obese when they are young become obese when they are older. The reason is very simple, they have (a) the now evolutionist disadvantage of being able to store fat easily, (b) bad eating habits due to their genetics. The most important one however, (c) fat cell hyperplasia is most prevalent in kids. Obese kids will have many more fat cells than their skinny counterparts, and this has severe consequences in the future as you cannot reduce the quantity of fat cells (short of physically removing them through liposuction), so obese adults find it incredibly difficult to lose weight as they have more fat cells from which to lose weight from, combined with their genetic disadvantages.

This information is incredibly important when we consider the issue whether to ban fast food adverts. It isn't likely to be very effective because food is still around, and although fast foods are calorie dense, so you can eat more of them without feeling full, again, people still grave food after they're full. Banning fast foods is like dealing with the effect of a problem; if you don't deal with the cause, the problem will never be solved. Now, we obviously can't change our genes, but we can change the environment, and it starts at a young age. It starts with educating people about their eating habits, teaching people self-control. Self-control over eating is easy for skinny people, their brain isn't sending them messages to eat, but it's harder for naturally fatter people. This doesn't mean we can't intervene, by simply educating kids on eating habits, they will likely modify their behaviour, even slightly. This will reduce fat cell hyperplasia, which makes fat loss much easier in their adult life should they need it.

While it is true fast food adverts appeal to kids, not teaching them good eating habits does not solve the problem, there are many substitute goods such as chocolate (which I think is even more calorie dense than fast foods), which will satisfy their desire for food.

 

Nobody is going to change the channel every time a fast food advert comes on TV. Mostly because there are so many of them on so many channels; secondly if people are watching their favourite TV show they're not going to skip to another channel in fear of missing when their TV show comes back on.

Nobody, certainly not me insinuated that we ban Fast foods. Businesses are businesses and there are many fast food businesses. I don't disagree with fast food businesses at all because as many have already said it's down to people's own minds at to whether they want to go out and buy fast food or not I'm just saying that adverts could be limited in terms of how frequent they're played. I'm not sure how it works in the USA but in England they're shown an awful lot; mostly KFC, McDonalds and Burger King. All foods which are very unhealthy, they don't even show their healthy menu's which is a part of the problem too.

Now this is something I very much agree with. Thing is, nobody is doing anything about this. Okay, maybe I started my argument wrong with titling is "fast food adverts are destroying out future", as the quote above is basically my point. We need to change people's attitudes about fast food and all these adverts seem to be doing is enforcing into people's brains more that eating fast foods is a normal thing, which it shouldn't be.

I do agree with most of what you said as you've bought up some very good points and are on the same wave length as me (for the most part). I sometimes have trouble wording my arguments as many people have 'laid into me' for my mistakes. But what I said I agree with is the main point I'm trying to portray ^_^

 

You are assuming that the US and UK have not made efforts to stop obesity. This is just not the correct method, you can not ban a certain product from being advertised unless it is againt one of the 3 rules I stated in my post aboe: 1. If the commercial is promoting a substance that directly harms a person's body (Alcohol) 2. If the commercial is promoting a product that can directly effect other in public (Being Drunk, Second Hand Smoke) 3. If the product has an age limit or something of that nature (Alcohol, Buying Cigs, etc.)

Even witht these 3 main rules, Alcohol commercials are still being shown on certain networks (as long as "Please drink responsibly" is included). Alcohol is obviously more dangerous than fast food and if you can't completely ban advertisment of Alcohol, it is not justified to ban or limit fast food commercials.

As for your assumption that no efforts have been made to prevent obesity. Currently in the US, if your food contains a certain amount on calories and is distributed widely, you must show the calories of that food. (At mcdonalds' there is usually a calories poster somewhere in the resturant, most likely in a non-noticable place, but it exists.) As for kids, many schools have been transfering to healthier food for school made lunches. Michelle Obama has also made many programs involving child hood obesity.

In conclusion, if you think that the commercials should be banned/limited because of the health disadvantages you are not creating a solution to childhood obesity. Whether or not someone sees a fast food commercial on TV will not make them get up and go outside and get excersise. It merely prevents SOME of them from going out and getting McDonald's. The problem is, McDonalds advertisments don't make too much of a difference, fast food resturants are already publicly known, not airing commercials for them will not prevent anyone from eating some McNuggets. We need to actually do someting to STOP childhood obesity completely, as well as making the current generation healthier. This idea is not solving any problems involving obesity. We need to actually convince kids/citizens to be healthier, rather than shielding them from the unhealthy things.

Thanks,
Anet390/Andrew

 

I'll quote myself below on something I said in the post above,

What you just said is exactly what I'm on about. Changing people's attitudes. Also, you said that you disagree when I said the government isn't doing anything about Obesity and your argument was that they include a calorie poster in the restaurant or on the box; well that's not solving the problem either. People already know the foods are fatty and un-healthy. 90% of the people who would look at the poster (which isn't many) wouldn't even be able to understand them anyway. People need to be educated about calories and the DGA (Daily guided amount) because people clearly don't know. I know that's a generational because a lot of people obviously know about calories and what their in-take should be. But this number greatly shadows the number of people who aren't educated about it.

 

This entire thread has gone on longer then necessary. You're also exaggerating this to a mythical extent. You're attempting to promote the fabrication that fast food advertises overwhelm public viewing, rare case, you see maybe six commercials for fast food per day.

To the classic "fast food makes people fat" discussion.

Obesity is related to what a person eats and how much that person eats daily, but not to where a person eats. There is no no evidence of a causal link between restaurants and obesity, the attempted sabotage vs fast food proves nothing but anecdotal evidence that rule out any meaningful effect towards the obesity rate. Although consumers may have one fattening, calorie filled meal at a fast food restaurant, it's not the case, the gains are from the meals consumed at other locations, i.e home, work, friends houses, which in fact offset these calories at other times of day.

Although there are multiple fact stating arguments against the false claim that fast food is to blame for obesity you can always rebuttal with "you can only blame yourself for eating unhealthy and not exercising. If you are over weight without a health problem or not pregnant then you yourself are to blame. You can't blame fast food."

 

This section is for debating. So this thread can go on as long as it needs too... If a moderator thinks it's gone on for too long then he/she will close it.

And I'm not exaggerating anything at all... I'm saying what I see and I'm giving my opinion. If you disagree that's fine and you've said your point. Why should this thread be closed so others can't give theirs?

Also, I'm just simply raising the argument and asking the question for others opinions Everyone's welcome to an opinion.

 

You're exaggerating the use of advertisements among fast food corporations via the television while attempting to support your debate by claiming these commercials are the cause to obesity.

Lets break into mathematical equations for a quick moment (since you deliberately ignored my previous argument).

On average, there are approximately eight or 8-1/2 minutes of commercials per half hour of broadcast (16 commercials). Given your provider of viewing (cable or satellite) which regulates the local commercials you're given, the eight minutes of commercials are divided over the thousands of business who pay for advertisement time. Per 30 minutes of airing -8 minutes of commercial time you're generally watching possibly 36 seconds of fast food advertisement. Now, the average daily use of a television is about 3 hours (180 minutes) which is broken down to about 6 shows daily, you're watching about 48 minutes of commercials a day. If your claim is that 48 minutes of commercials, guesstimating 12 minutes of fast food advertising (which seems like a lot personally, giving you the upper advantage) is the cause to obesity, destroying our future, then you're claiming everyone who watches television is vulnerable to being brain washed.

 

It's not bad, you just have to burn off the calories. I do that without doing pretty much anything so it's all good. I don't go to a fast food place because I saw it on tv, I go anyways.

 

I agree but I would not stop there I would ban all adverts they are so annoying

 

Personally, any fast food adverts on T.V or anywhere has no practical effects on me.

I only go to the fast food when I need a reward for accomplishing something hard.

 

our little kids see them, they eat them, they toys that come with them. OH! Mommy i want the happy meal, I want it! Please!

 

This is a stickied thread, you should have known about this.

If your argument is the regulation of ads will decline the rate of (childhood)obesity then you need to post sources of that information. Furthermore, are you saying the FDA isn't appropriately doing their jobs already?

This thread is unnecessarily long.