
Thursday, April 17, 2008
'Supersize Me'
Only 1 out of 4 dieticians, nutrionist says we only consume fast food 3 times in a year and others says we should never eat fas food.
eating too much fast food will make us lazy, depressed and suprisingly it makes us addicted just like tobacco or nicotine. If nicotine and tobacco are banned why not fast food? which is the 2nd major caused of death in this world.(obesity)
But what i learned from this movie is that we should practised balance diet, do not simply cut your carbohydrated just limit them! :)
Does government plays important role in our health? well i think they did take responsibility to our health but they dont take it seriously. They are more intersted in how much this fast food, unhealthy restaurants brings to the economy.
But there are many ways the government can do to promote health to citizens, for example make more advertisement on healthy food example sushi, raw food , veggies instead of
Mc Donald's, KFC, Ideal or ayamku advertisement.
-limits the number of fast food restaurants.
- increase the price of the fast food and make veggies and sushi cheaper.:)
-banned the extra large size of the fast food. etc
'
What have you learned from the movie "supersize me"?
Storm the Health with the Government intervention.
Figurative, it is by the action of the state to take a big step and clarify tha nation about the prospective of a prolong life if the citizen to live in a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, the actions needed to be done by the state are.
First, they have to spread health education or health programme to all the schools in the country. It would be even better when started at primary schools. this would give self aware to the children as they develop into pre-adult then they would be prepare in advance and had they own choice or more like decision making: when to eat? what to eat?
Second, all the cafeteria at the school would have to change what the meal is being serve so instead of junk it has to well balance diet food. Eventually, the children ot the tender age would be able to recognise the benefits of eating foods healthily.
In conclusion, eat healtily and you might ended up having the best of years and it all thanks to the state.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Fad Diets
An article in “Good Housekeeping,” by Maura Rhodes, called “America’s Top 6 Fad Diets,” seemed to bring up some good points about these diets. Fad diets all work on drastic calorie cutting. They deprive your body of essential nutrients and cause the body’s metabolism to slow down.
Diets such as the Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution and The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet are high protein diets. This diet requires you to eat all the protein you want, meat, fish, eggs, cheese, you just are restricted from pastas, breads, and anything with refined sugar. This low carbohydrate diet could seem good at first but according to the article by Maura Rhodes, these diets are loaded with saturated fat and cholesterol, which can increase the risk of heart disease.
Fad diets-are they effective ways to lose weight? or are they the dark side of weight loss?
Breads
Cereals
Grains
Sugars
Candy
Pasta
Rice
Anything with Flour
Non-diet soda
Juice
Fruit
Potato (potatoe if your name is Dan Quayle)
Chips
Alcohol
Beer (dammit this diet is no good!)
FAD diets -are they effective ways to lose weights? or are they the dark side of weight lose
There are differents types of fad diets. chocloate diets. chicken soup diets, metabolism diet etc. Some may find it work, some not. But most nutritionist and doctors do not encourage their patient to simply practised it And it is not a good idea to practised crash diet over a long period of time. It is unhealthy and lacking in sufficient calories and nutritions.
But does FAD diets really works? well it depends what you mean by "work." Any very-low-calorie diet will cause weight loss in most people. Since most fad diets are very low in calories they typically cause quite fast weight loss. However, quick weight loss may not be healthy and - in most cases - is not fat loss. It is usually mostly water-loss which is quickly regained when the dieter resumes normal eating.
Most fad diets are typically short-term diet plans. Not only are they low in calories but their menus are likely to be monotonous and lacking in adequate nutrition. Some fad diets are designed to last no more than a few days - as if a 2 or 3 day diet program is likely to help solve a weight problem!!
Some fad diets claim to contain special "fat-burning" or "negative calorie" diet foods. Unfortunately, there is no clinical evidence that foods have these special properties.
Fad dieting can sometimes lead to weight-cycling or yo-yo dieting - that is, weight loss, followed by regain, followed by weight loss then regain etc. New research suggests that such weight cycling may lead to obesity.
Avoid fad diets and fad dieting. Instead, eat a balanced diet that includes foods from ALL food groups. Eating a balanced calorie-controlled diet is not only more appealing but also more likely to help you develop the sort of good eating habits that lead to permanent weight loss.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Obesity: A Global Issue.

Obesity is an epidemic in the United States and in other developed countries. More than half of Americans are overweight—including at least 1 in 5 children. Nearly one third are obese. Obesity is on the rise in our society because food is abundant and physical activity is optional.
Each year, Americans spend billions of dollars on dieting, diet foods, diet books, diet pills, and the like. Another $45 billion is spent on treating the diseases associated with obesity. Furthermore, businesses suffer an estimated $20 billion loss in productivity each year from absence due to illness caused by obesity.
Obesity is no longer an exclusively Western problem. Researchers say weight problems also pose a serious health threat to people in developing nations, particularly children. Until recently, famine and infectious diseases have been the biggest threats to the health of poor people in developing countries. Now, rapid shifts in urbanisation, technology, food processing and even leisure time in developing countries are causing a rise in obesity levels.
More than 1.2 billion people in the world are now officially classified as overweight, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since the publication in the British Medical Journal of new standards for evaluating children's weight, health officials around the world have begun estimating their childhood obesity rates. The Chinese government calculates that 1 in 10 city-dwelling children are now obese. In Japan, obesity in nine-year-old children has tripled. The WHO reports that approximately 20 per cent of Australian children and adolescents are overweight or obese.
Paradoxically, childhood malnutrition and stunted growth may be found hand-in-hand with adult obesity in many places. The phenomenon means countries that still face problems of under-nutrition also need to pay attention to the prevention of obesity-related illnesses, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Those who faced obesity are usually lacked of confidence. People usually teased and called their by names. This can affects them physically and mentally. So obese people are usually sensitive.
There are many causes of obesity. Common cause would be high assumption of food with high sugar level or carbohydrate. (ie unbalanced diet) meaning less intake of vegetables, vitamins or fruits. People tend to eat fatty food or fast food which is high in cholestrol, this is the major caused of obesity.
Obesity tends to run in families. Some people have a genetic tendency to gain weight more easily than others because they burn calories more slowly. During times when food was scarce, this was a real advantage. But now that food is available 24/7 in most industrialized countries, an efficient metabolism that once ensured our survival now works to our disadvantage.
Although genes strongly influence body type and size, the environment also plays a role. People today may be gaining weight because of unhealthy food choices (like fast food) and family habits (like eating in front of the television instead of around a table). High-calorie, low-nutrient snacks and beverages, bigger portions of food, and less-active lifestyles are all contributing to the obesity epidemic.
Sometimes people turn to food for emotional reasons, such as when they feel upset, anxious, sad, stressed out, or even bored. When this happens, they often eat more than they need.
Obesity is bad news for both body and mind. Not only can it make a person feel tired and uncomfortable, carrying extra weight puts added stress on the body, especially the bones and joints of the legs. As they get older, kids and teens who are overweight are more likely to develop diabetes and heart disease.
There are2 types of diabetes.Type 2 diabetes and obese children. And there are many consequences of diabetes type 2, this include some cancers, sleep disorder. asthma and gall bladders problem.
obese chidren tend to get bowed less and flat feet, early puberty,physical maturation acne depresion and low self esteem.
Luckily, it's never too late to make changes that can effectively control weight and the health problems it causes. Those changes don't have to be big. For a start, make a plan to cut back on sugary beverages, pass up on seconds, and get more exercise, even if it's just 5–10 minutes a day. Build your way up to big changes by making a series of small ones. And don't be afraid to ask for help!
Obesity: A global Issue
Obesity:A Global Issue
The topic or issues regarding obesity seems to be the hunger point of people who wanted to consume this huge chunk of article:'Obesity'. Wherever you go, you are in the circle of humanity: you would feel people or something analysed you from a distant. They judged you and articulate whether or not you are part of this speciment that might give the special intention ot those that seek for the information of obesity-whether you are fat or not?
Literally, my directions of words seem to confused in a great deal of waste amounts if ever were that's the case. in order to avoid misconcept of the definition of obesity then I shall list the issues regarding obesity therefore here are the lists.
Number of People With Obesity Rivals World’s Hungry
In the poverty section primarily, but also in other parts of this web site, much has been written about the causes of hunger in the face of abundant food production due to things like land use, political and economic causes, etc. However, there is another side to this emerging as well. That is growing obesity. The World Watch Institute is worth quoting at length:
For the first time in human history, the number of overweight people rivals the number of underweight people.… While the world’s underfed population has declined slightly since 1980 to 1.1 billion, the number of overweight people has surged to 1.1 billion.
… the population of overweight people has expanded rapidly in recent decades, more than offsetting the health gains from the modest decline in hunger. In the United States, 55 percent of adults are overweight by international standards. A whopping 23 percent of American adults are considered obese. And the trend is spreading to children as well, with one in five American kids now classified as overweight.… [O]besity cost the United States 12 percent of the national health care budget in the late 1990s, $118 billion, more than double the $47 billion attributable to smoking.
… Overweight and obesity are advancing rapidly in the developing world as well … [while] 80 percent of the world’s hungry children live in countries with food surpluses.
… technofixes like liposuction or olestra attract more attention than the behavioral patterns like poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyles that underlie obesity. Liposuction is now the leading form of cosmetic surgery in the United States, for example, at 400,000 operations per year. While billions are spent on gimmicky diets and food advertising, far too little money is spent on nutrition education.
Chronic Hunger and Obesity Epidemic; Eroding Global Progress, World Watch Institute, March 4, 2000 (Emphasis added)
In the above, note also how many resources are “wasted” or diverted to either deal with the ramifications (such as health costs), or to deal with the symptoms (via techniques such as liposuction). Of course, that is not to say that resources should not be spent on these things at all, but that it is far more cost effective and more desirable to treat the root causes, as treating symptoms only leaves underlying causes in tact.
This is an example of “hidden” costs of consumption on top of the “visible” costs. The World Watch Institute article, quoted above, goes on to further show that comparatively less expensive measures that deal with causes have been very effective at reducing obesity problems, such as teaching nutritional literacy in schools.
The BBC revealed that food wastage is enormous. In the United Kingdom, some astonishing 30-40% of all food is never eaten, while in the US, some 40-50% of all food ready for harvest never gets eaten. UK alone sees some £20 billion ($38 billion US dollars) worth of food thrown away each year. Furthermore, the additional rotting food creates methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Obesity Affects Poor as well as Rich
Obesity also affects the poor as well, due to things like marketing of unhealthy foods as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) highlights. “Restrictions in access to food determine two simultaneous phenomena that are two sides of the same coin: poor people are malnourished because they do not have enough to feed themselves, and they are obese because they eat poorly, with an important energy imbalance… The food they can afford is often cheap, industrialized, mass produced, and inexpensive.”
Award-winning journalist Michael Pollan, commenting in an interview on the problem for America’s poor, notes that basic crops such as corn and soybeans are used to such an extent that many unhealthy and processed foods are created from them, at a subsidized rate, thus contributing to the problem:
Because we subsidize those calories, we end up with a supermarket in which the least healthy calories are the cheapest. And the most healthy calories are the most expensive. That, in the simplest terms, is the root of the obesity epidemic for the poor—because the obesity epidemic is really a class-based problem. It’s not an epidemic, really. The biggest prediction of obesity is income.
— Blair Golson, America’s Eating Disorder, Alternet.org, April 19, 2006
Health impacts
In Britain for example, a Centre for Food Policy and Thames Valley University report, titled Why health is the key for the future of farming and food (January 2002) says that far more people are affected by diet-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and nutritional deficiencies than diarrhoeal diseases (salmonella, campylobacter, etc) — some 35% compared to 0.2%.
As the report says bluntly, “food safety may scandalise the country and attract political attention, but it is the routine premature death by degenerative disease that extracts the greater ill-health toll” (p.15).
This phenomena is seen in many rich nations, though Britain comes out worse than most on many such indicators (p.16).
The report further highlights that the costs of coronary heart disease alone are around £10 billion a year (approximately 14 billion in U.S. dollars). These costs are made up of
£1.6 billion in direct costs (primarily to the tax payer through the costs of treatment by the British National Health Service) and
£8.4 billion in indirect costs (to industry and to society as a whole, though loss of productivity due to death and disability). (p. 38)
In addition, this does not include costs from other diseases, or effects of wider industrial agricultural policies that have given rise to BSE, Foot and Mouth disease, or the cost to the environment, etc.
Other issues and problems they point out include:
Encouraging/advertising unhealthy diets and foods (especially to children);
Generally putting low priority on health;
Industry-dominated food policy at the expense of local grocery stores;
Deteriorating health of children in poverty;
and so on.
Experts believe that obesity is responsible for more ill health even than smoking, the BBC has noted, which ties in with the World Watch quotation above about health costs for obesity in the U.S. exceeding those associated with smoking.
Various causes of obesity
Taking a more global view, the prestigious British Medical Journal (BMJ) looks at various attempts to tackle obesity and notes that obesity is caused by a complex and multitude of inter-related causes, “fuelled by economic and psychosocial factors as well as increased availability of energy dense food and reduced physical activity.”
The authors broke down the causes into the following areas:
Food systems causes of obesity
The main problem has been the increased availability of high energy food, because of:
Liberalized international food markets
Food subsidies that “have arguably distorted the food supply in favour of less healthy foodstuffs”
“Transnational food companies [that] have flooded the global market with cheap to produce, energy dense, nutrient empty foods”
“Supermarkets and food service chains [that are] encouraging bulk purchases, convenience foods, and supersized portions”
Healthy eating often being more expensive than less healthy options, (despite global food prices having dropped on average).
Marketing, especially “food advertising through television [which] aims to persuade individuals—particularly children—that they desire foods high in saturated fats, sugars, and salt.”
The local environment and obesity
How people live, what factors make them active or sedentary are also a factor. For exapmle,
“Research, mainly in high income countries, indicates that local urban planning and design can influence weight in several ways.”
For example, levels of physical activity are affected by
Connected streets and the ability to walk from place to place
Provision of and access to local public facilities and spaces for recreation and play
The increasing reliance on cars leads to physical inactivity, and while a long-time problem in rich countries, is a growing problem in developing countries.
Social conditions and obesity
Examples of issues the BMJ noted here include
“Working and living conditions, such as having enough money for a healthy standard of living, underpin compliance with national health guidelines”
“Increasingly less job control, security, flexibility of working hours, and access to paid family leave … undermining the material and psychosocial resources necessary for empowering individuals and communities to make healthy living choices.”
Inequality, which can lead to different groups being disadvantaged and having less access to needed resources and healthier foods
Addressing Obesity Globally, Nationally, Locally, Individually
Given the complex, inter-related causes of obesity, addressing it also requires a mult-pronged approach:
Dealing with inequalities in obesity requires a different policy agenda from the one currently being promoted. Action is needed that is grounded in principles of health equity.
…
Missing in most obesity prevention strategies is the recognition that obesity—and its unequal distribution—is the consequence of a complex system that is shaped by how society organises its affairs. Action must tackle the inequities in this system, aiming to ensure an equitable distribution of ample and nutritious global and national food supplies; built environments that lend themselves to easy access and uptake of healthier options by all; and living and working conditions that produce more equal material and psychosocial resources between and within social groups. This will require action at global, national, and local levels.
— Sharon Friel, Mickey Chopra, David Satcher, Unequal weight: equity oriented policy responses to the global obesity epidemic, British Medical Journal, Volume 335, December 15, 2007, pp. 1241-1243
The BMJ criticizes traditional methods to address obesity as typically trying to change individual’s behavior. While important, on its own, they feel it is not sufficient; there is “limited evidence for sustainability [of this direct approach] and transferability to other settings,” for example.
Furthermore, “the recent UK Foresight Report makes clear the complexity of drivers that produce obesity; it highlights that most are societal issues and therefore require societal responses.”
The BMJ therefore describes some examples of initiatives at these various levels:
Addressing obesity at the global level
This involves international institutions, agreements, trade and other policies. For example,
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a key institution at this level. It’s global strategy in this area focuses on developing food and agricultural policies that are aligned to promoting public health and multisectorial policies that promote physical activity, as well as generally being an information provider.
A joint program of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization, the experience of the Codex Alimentarius Commission highlights the challenges at international level. The Commission was set up to help governments protect the health of consumers and ensure fair trade practices in the food trade.
But challenges and obstacles persist. For example, “industry representatives hugely outnumber representatives from public interest groups, resulting in an imbalance between the goals of trade and consumer protection.”
In addition,
“Ensuring that global food marketing does not target vulnerable societies” the BMJ feels there needs to be “binding international codes of practice related to production and marketing of healthy food, supported at the national level by policy and regulation.”
This is preferred over voluntary guidelines, typical of the industry’s response to threats of regulation, because such responses “may result in differential uptake by better-off individuals or institutions and provides little opportunity for public and private sector accountability.” (Emphasis added)
For example, “regulating television advertising of foods high in fat or sugar to children is a highly cost effective upstream intervention.” (This is also discussed in more detail on this site’s section on Children as Consumers.)
Addressing obesity at the national level
National policies typically aimed at healthier food production include targeted and appropriate domestic subsidies. For example,
“Norway successfully reversed the population shift towards high fat, energy dense diets by using a combination of food subsidies, price manipulation, retail regulations, clear nutrition labelling, and public education focused on individuals.”
Mauritius relatively successful program includes price policy, agricultural policy, and widespread educational activity in various settings.
Ireland is an example of the also-needed multi-agency approach with their Healthy Food for All initiative seeking to promote access, availability, and affordability of healthy food for low income groups.
Addressing obesity at the local level
Examples of local level action the BMJ mentioned include
The success of the Brazilian population-wide Agita Sao Paulo physical activity program which “successfully reduced the level of physical inactivity in the general population by using a multi-strategy approach of building pathways; widening paths and removing obstacles; building walking or running tracks with shadow and hydration points; maintaining green areas and leisure spaces; having bicycle storage close to public transport stations and at entrances of schools and workplaces; and implementing private and public incentive policies for mass active transport.”
The London Development Agency plans to establish a sustainable food distribution hub to supply independent food retailers and restaurants.
However, a key challenge they note is the “lack of systematic evaluation of initiatives, particularly with an equity focus, [which] makes it difficult to generalise policy solutions in this field.”
So while there are many measures possible at many levels, a cultural shift in attitude is needed.
Another BMJ article notes in a prognosis in obesity that we need to move a little more and eat a little less:
New economic analyses help dispel the myth of people getting fatter but eating less. The first 20 years of our adult obesity epidemic, from the 1970s to 1990s, was explained mainly by declining physical activity: Americans believe they have less time to do things but in reality are spending more time watching television and being inactive. Subsequently, the obesity epidemic appears to have been fuelled by largely increased food consumption. A paradoxical increase and deregulation of appetite during inactivity has been matched by an increasing supply of food at lower real cost. Consumption of “supersize” food portions will accelerate this process, reflecting a failure of the free market that demands government intervention.
— Professor M E J Lean, Prognosis in obesity; we all need to move a little more, eat a little less, British Medical Journal, Volume 330, 11 June 2005, p.1339
Award-winning journalist Michael Pollan argues in an interview that not only is what you eat important, but how you eat, as well:
At the end of the industrial food chain, you need an industrial eater. What you eat, and how you eat are equally important issues. There is a lot of talk and interesting comparisons drawn between us and the French on the subject of food. We’re kind of mystified that they can eat such seemingly toxic substances—triple crème cheeses and foie gras, and they're actually healthier than we are.
They live a little bit longer, they have less obesity, less heart disease. What gives? Well, according to the people who study this: It’s not what they eat, it’s how they eat it. They eat smaller portions; they do not snack as a rule; they do not eat alone. When you eat alone, you tend to eat more. When you’re eating with someone there’s a conversation going on, there’s a sense of propriety; you don’t pig out when you’re eating at a table with other people.
So the French show you can eat just about whatever you want, as long as you do it in moderation. That strikes me as a liberating message. But it’s not the way we do things here. We have a food system here that is all about quantity, rather than quality. So how you eat is very, very important, and to solve the obesity and the diabetes issue in this country, we’re going to have change the way we eat, as well as what we eat.
— Blair Golson, America’s Eating Disorder, Alternet.org, April 19, 2006
Perhaps a more bizarre suggestion in UK has been by a doctor (or scientist — I heard this on the radio and did not have time to get the exact details) who suggested that McDonald’s should narrow their doors so that fat people cannot get in. Maybe this hints at how extreme the problem might be for a medical doctor to be so extreme in a possible solution, as there are problems with this type of suggestion. For example,
This sounds like an extremist and reactionary measure to deal with the issue, and raises concerns about rights of individuals to make their own choices.
Furthermore, it could lead to a form of prejudice and hostility towards certain types of people.
More effective could be to address the deeper issues discussed further above and below.
For example, the fast food industry is not effectively charged for their contribution to environmental destruction around the world, or even their indirect contribution to world hunger by making poor people grow food for export rather than to feed themselves. (See this site’s section on beef, and hunger for more on these aspects.)
These examples just touch the surface, but these all add up to hidden costs for society but savings for the fast food companies.
Pricing beef, for example, based on true cost of production would make these inefficient and unhealthy foods more expensive, and a deterrent for the majority of people, who might turn to healthier options (though this itself isn’t an automatic given).
But the underlying concern of the doctor is still important. At the end of April 2004, the British government urged the public to exercise five times a week. Levels of physical activity among the general population have fallen significantly over the past 25 years the government had also noted. Compelling scientific evidence shows that more active people are less likely to become obese and develop heart disease.
Another major determinant in people’s preferences and habits, especially in a consumer society, is marketing.
Healthy versus Unhealthy Food Marketing; Who Usually Wins?
Of course, obesity is not an easy challenge to overcome, as today’s commercial markets include a very wide variety of foods that are unhealthy, but attractively marketed to kids, as also mentioned in the children section. And many resources are deployed to support that industry. This is another example of hidden “waste”.
Soaring diabetes rates are inextricably tied to the global obesity epidemic, as Inter Press Service (IPS) notes. Yet, the political will to be able to change certain cultural habits and to take on powerful industries promoting such habits that lead to these problems, is where the challenge lies.
In theory were it not for these political and cultural challenges, the cost of addressing the problem could be quite low (regular exercise, sensible eating habits, for example). But, “There is not enough resolve to take on these monster industries and to force changes that will make our environment promote healthy rather than unhealthy choices when it comes to food and physical activity” says Dr. David Schlundt, a psychology professor at the Diabetes Center of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee state, in that IPS article.
“The WHO [World Health Organisation] is basically powerless to do anything about the problem other than draw attention to it and perhaps develop some recommendations that will be very difficult for governments to implement” Schlundt also notes.
As a small example, in November 2003, another UK government member of Parliament had suggested a bill to ban TV ads promoting food and drink high in fat, salt and sugar aimed at young children. This received a lot of support as well, as groups and other members of Parliament felt that self-governing by the industry was not working. However, the bill didn’t get anywhere due to lack of time although it is repeatedly being called for.
The BBC noted in March 2004 that “over 100 of the UK’s leading health and consumer groups have urged the government to ban junk food ads, saying they are fuelling rising rates of obesity.” Some of these groups are leading medical and related organizations in Britain. However, as the BBC also noted, a UK government minister said she was sceptical about the merits of banning junk food ads and, in concert with what the food and drink industry said, “sound science” was needed to ensure that this was indeed a major cause of health problems. Encouraging healthier living and eating would be better it was noted. Ironically, it is the food and drink industry that has the advertising muscle and clout, and, as a campaigner from one of the groups commented, “Huge profits are at stake, so we don’t believe that they will voluntarily stop promoting junk foods to kids. For the sake of children’s health, statutory controls are urgently required.”
And possibly as an example of a more bizarre sounding use of resources to get children to become more active, in Britain, a chocolate company was promoting sports equipment in return for vouchers and coupons from chocolate bars. The more you ate, the more sports equipment you would get, presumably to burn off the excesses eaten! The UK’s Food Commission called this “absurd and contradictory” and pointed out that if children consumed all the promotional chocolate bars they would eat nearly two million kilos of fat and more than 36 billion calories.
The BBC, reporting on this (April 29, 2003), commented the following, amongst other things:
One set of posts and nets for volleyball would require tokens from 5,440 bars of chocolate
This would require spending £2,000 (about $3,500) on chocolate and wolfing their way through 1.25 million calories, some 2 million kilos of fat.
A basketball would be 170 bars of chocolate, which, if it were to be burned off, a 10-year-old child would need to play for 90 hours.
While the confectionary companies suggested that children were going to eat these anyway, others raised concerns that this is promoting more unhealthy eating. The chairman of the UK government’s obesity task force, Professor Phil James, said: “This is a classic example of how the food and soft drink industry are failing to take on board that they are major contributors to obesity problems throughout the world. They always try to divert attention to physical activity.”
What is more, as most British media outlets also highlighted, then Minister for Sport, Richard Caborn, endorsed it.
But this is not the only example. For years, other companies have linked their foods to such schemes for educational or sports equipment for schools. What they get for selling this is branding and future consumers.
This has also been an example of controversial school commercialization which was unanimously condemned at a large teachers union conference in England around the same time.
Many groups are raising urgent concerns because a conservative estimate from experts suggests that over 40% of the UK population could become obese within a generation. The food and drink industry are on the defensive because of the potential loss in sales. As a result, they tend to suggest blaming the individual; it is the individual’s choice at the end of the day. However, while true, advertising is so much part of culture that it would be overly simplistic to say ads do not have an effect and that it is only through exercise and personal discipline that these issues can be overcome.
Side Note»
Oversimplifying a bit,
Were it not for advertising, how would companies including those in the food and drink industry advertise their products? (See for example, the sugar and beef sections later on this site on how luxury products were turned into almost unhealthy “necessities”.)
Furthermore, how would the unhealthy food and drinks become so popular when parents — the other major influence — would typically discourage excessive unhealthy eating and drinking?
But, saying that, with parents themselves having grown up with these same advertising influences, they can indirectly or directly encourage more unhealthy eating for their children.
With the health services typically under strain, the resources to counter-advertise effectively, is limited.
In that context, then, while an important aspect, blaming the individual and parents alone does not address all the issues and influences.
This site’s section on Children as Consumers also notes that towards the end of 2007, additional efforts started in the UK to understand the effect of advertising on children. It also has more details on efforts to address issues related to obesity and the challenge parents (often the ones who are blamed) when going up against marketers.
This is another example of how this can have all sorts of knock-on effects to society and to resource requirements to deal with these issues. And that results in further expenditure and use of resources which, from this perspective, can be seen as costly and wasteful.
Monday, March 17, 2008
USING ANIMALS IN RESEARCH
Is using animal in research is bad?
P.S "Life in general is full of unexpected occurance so find your way how to adopt in that situation"
opinion on using animal as experiments
Imagine, without using these animals for experiments, how are we suppose to know these drugs or specimen is working? If we do not test it before sell it to people, we might kill thousand of people as we dont know its effects.
People come up with ideas of replacing theses animals with alternatives such as computer models and cell stuctures. These are excellent avenues for reducing number of animals used. These methods are used to screen and determine toxic potential of a substance in the early stage of the investigation.The final test however, has to be done in a whole, living system.Even the most sophisticated technology cannot mimic the interactions among cell, tissiues and organ that occurs in animals and plants.
In addition, replacing animals with the adjunct method is very expensive.
Animals used in research.
A wide range of minority viewpoints exist as well. The view that animals have moral rights (animal rights) is a philosophical position proposed by Tom Regan, who argues that animals are beings with beliefs, desires and self-consciousness. Such beings are seen as having inherent value and thus possessing rights. Regan still sees clear ethical differences between killing animals and killing humans, and argues that to save human lives it is permissible to kill animals. However, some such as Bernard Rollin have taken his position further and argue that any benefits to human beings cannot outweigh animal suffering, and that human beings have no moral right to use an individual animal in ways that do not benefit that individual. Another prominent position is articulated by Peter Singer, who sees no convincing reason to include a being's species in considerations of whether their suffering is important in utilitarian moral considerations. Although these arguments have not been widely accepted, in response to these concerns some governments such as the Netherlands and New Zealand have outlawed invasive experiments on certain classes of non-human primates, particularly the Great Apes.
Thank you for smoking.
I think this movie shows that smoking is a matter of choice, it's either you want to or you don't want to. No one can or able to make that decision for you, as you are the one that are responsible for every act you choose. Therefore, there is no absolute right or wrong when an individual picks up smoking. But if that individual smokes in places which clearly states that smoking are prohibited, then it is best that this individual are given fair punishment i.e fined $100 or so. This way they would and should learn to obey regulations and to not let the innocent citizen to suffer or became a passive smoker for being presence when someone is smoking.
movie reviews- thank you for smoking
MOVIE REVIEW-Thank You For Smoking!
What I felt about the movie-'Thank you for the Smoking'
So, when I first watched this movie and well it sort of make me want to laugh more instead of to inteprate what's the message of this movie trying to deliver it's real message to me. For once, I would categorise the movie under the genre' suspense and comedy that what's it all about since I can't to be stopped at that time.
To cut long story short, this movie is about Nick Taylor who's lobbilist whose job was to talk. Yes, talk as in counter everyone's points of view whether they state it wrong or right. It doesn't matter to Mr Taylor because he has his own sense of ideal that whatever he say is always true. Thus, Nick got a lot of enemies in a 360 degree notion and watch as he try to deal all this obstacles with his incredible 'smarty' mouth.
P.S "Don't try so hard to solve problems, just be the problem and eventually the solution would appear of you"
Monday, March 3, 2008
HARMFULL EFFECTS OF TOBACCO SMOKING
NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF TOBACCO SMOKING
Tobacco contains harmfull substances, Tar, Nicotine and carcinogens.
tobacco smokes affects Our body, heart, lungs, our hormones , cancer etc
Effects on your body
In your body nicotine can increase salivation (makes you drool), increase stomach acid and motility (gives you heartburn and diarrhea), and increase heart rate and blood pressure.
In your brain nicotine can act as a psychomotor stimulant, increase alertness, increase concentration, increase attention, and can make you less hungry. Maybe this sounds great, but wait there's more!!!
Repeated use produces tolerance and dependence (you're addicted and can't live without the stuff) .
And, there's even a withdrawal syndrome (so now it's even gonna make you sick when you try to quit). So when you're not smoking you might become irritable, have less concentration, gain some weight, and maybe some tremors. But the worst will probably be those intense cravings for another puff to get your nicotine.
LUNG DISEASES
Smoking is involved in 85% of all lung cancer deaths!(which is incurable). It cause emphysema, chrinic mucus secretion and chronic air flow blocks.An individual with chronic bronchitis (which is caused by smoking) is more likely to get a bacterial infection if he/she is a smoker.
HEART DISEASES
Cigarette smoking accounts for 30% of all heart disease deaths.
The carbon monoxide in the cigarette smoke increases the amount of cholesterol clogging the arteries. 3.Smoking causes a stiffness in the walls of the arteries which is harmful to the artery and increases the risk for the artery to rupture.
4.The nicotine in cigarettes can raise your blood pressure, heart rate, and the oxygen demand for muscles, especially the heart (the heart is a muscle).
5.A coronary spasm may occur during smoking, which may lead to chest pain, and a heart attack
blood clot.
HORMONES
*Women smokers enter menopause an average of 5 years earlier than nonsmokers.
*Smoking and nicotine can alter a number of hormones involved in the reproduction function.
*Women who smoke are at an increased risk of osteoporosis.
*In male smokers, the mobility of their sperm is reduced.
NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF SMOKING
- BLOCKAGE:The fats are deposited in your artery and thus causes a blockage that makes oxygen hard to diffuse
- WASTE OF MONEY:Nicotine may cause an addiction that you need to smoke regularly that this may cause a waste of money
- DEATH: if carbon monoxide increases by 1% in your blood, this may be lethal
- CANCER: tar which contains in the cigarette can interrupt the reproduction of cells. Thus this may cause cancer
- PASSIVE SMOKER: when the other person is inhaling the smoke from the cigarette, this will also cause cancer to this person who is not smoking
- LOSS OF WEIGHT: Smoking also cause sudden lose of weight
- LUMBAR DISK PROBLEMS
- STROKE
- HEART ATTACK
- REDUCED FERTILITY
- ASTHMA
- LEUKAEMIA
- OSTEOPOROSIS
- PNEUMONIA
- PREMATURE AGING OF THE SKIN
- GUM DISEASE
- STRESS: This may cause high blood pressure
- LOSS OF SMELL AND TASTE
- STOMACH CANCER
- LIVER CANCER
Negative impacts on smoking
- Smoking gives a higher risk of starting a fire
- Cigarette components stain the teeth
- Gum disease and bad breath
- Coughs and shortness of breath
- Colds and flu
- Mouth ulcers
- High blood pressure
- Asthma attacks
- Stroke
- Reduced vision
- Mouth and throat cancer
- Heart disease
- Lung cancer
- Stomach ulcers
- Infertility
- Bladder cancer
- smoking makes you look older
- Passive smoker becomes a victim
- Nausea
- waste a lot of money
p.s don't shorten your life just for the sake of bad influence
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Euthanasia-Merciful killing is an art of well being
People seem to support euthanasia because they believe that this method of mercy killing will end thesuffering of others : namely the patience who undergo so much pain not only the patience also their close relatives. I would only be neutral regarding euthanasia because I have 2 feelings of what I think about euthanasia. There are it's helps to end one suffering but if I were to do that to my own family then as if i was killing my own flesh and blood. Therefore, I'm 50-50 regarding euthanasia
euthanasia
Euthanasia is a controversial subject, not only because there are many different moral dilemmas associated with it, but also in what constitutes its definition. At the extreme ends of disagreement, advocates say euthanasia, also known as physician aid in dying, or physician assisted suicide, is a merciful method of death. At the other end are opponents of euthanasia, who may consider this method as a form of murder.
Well, im in between i dont 100% support euthanasia nor fully against it.There are conditions when euthanasia has to be practised.
REASONS WHY WE SUPPORT EUTHANASIA:
- To ends people suffering.
- When the person is unlikely to benefit from the discovery of a cure for that illness during what remains of her life expectancy.
- If the patience is as a direct result of the illness, either suffering intolerable pain or only has available a life that is unacceptably burdensome.
- If the person has an enduring, voluntary and competent wish to die.