Diabetes mellitus is a disease of the XNUMXst century. It is a disease of the full plate. Apart from a small percentage of diabetics, the rest have earned it. It is the price for fries, lemonade and marshmallow, for the car and for the couch in front of the TV. We are a sugar civilization.
According to data from the Central Statistical Office of Poland, in 2017 the annual sugar consumption in Poland was 44,5 kg per capita. In 1-2008, the average amount of sugar consumed by 2017 inhabitant increased by 6,1 kg, the consumption of unprocessed sugar in households decreased by 1 kg, but the consumption of sugar, which is an ingredient of other food products, increased by nearly 5,7 kg.
As part of the campaign “Sweet, sweeter … diabetes”, the National Health Fund wants to teach Poles to be a sugar investigator for their own health. As a consequence – stop buying products containing too much hidden sugar, which should prompt producers to change their recipes. We want to make Poles realize that sugar is found in most of the food products we buy – from sausages and ketchup to beans in a jar. Controlling sugar consumption requires a kind of “driving license” in reading labels and also in choosing products that do not have to contain sugar.
Obesity Marketing
Producers want customers to buy as much of what they produce, to come back for their goods, to buy new products that they bring to the market. This is how trade works. And the decisions are always made by us, the customers. It is our choice, which particular store shelf we approach, what we put in the basket or trolley and we pay for it.
However, with our instant purchasing decisions, quickly, by heart, without reading labels and without reflection, we don’t wonder: why are we eating this particular thing? Why in such an amount? Is it good for me?
It turns out that we fat ourselves at our own request, just as we harm ourselves with excessive sugar, salt and fat at our own request. We buy and eat with our eyes wide closed.
Mega packs are mega consequences
Producers offer us huge packages of chips, sweet sodas the size of an office fire extinguisher, ever larger portions of fries in fast food or gradually increase the size of chocolate bars. The standard 100-gram ones are a thing of the past, children no longer eat chocolate in cubes, but in strips. So we gradually buy larger and larger packages – family ones, more for less, 3 for the price of 2. Not realizing that the quantity conversion factor seems to be economically advantageous, but – firstly – we eat more, and secondly – we stop deciding about it, what we like because we buy what pays off.
As a result, the vast majority of us eat too much, too salty, too sweet and too fatty. This is the way to gain weight and to diet-related diseases – the Trojan horse of our civilization.
It has been proven that we always use more from a large package – be it peanuts, yoghurt or dog food. We discreetly fatten ourselves. The vast majority of large packages relate to products that we should limit, because somehow there is no millet and pickled cucumbers in one meter packages.
Packaging swells, consumers swell. I guess it’s hard to find the beginning of this mechanism. After all, if we did not want to buy more, cheaper and faster – producers would not be serving us semi-wholesale unit packages. There is a demand, there is a supply – this is the law of the market. We don’t think about it, we are ruled by habits, advertising and convenience.
If we have a family of four or six and eat a large packet of yoghurt together for breakfast – it’s OK. However, if we buy for ourselves, a large package is an incentive to overeat and snack, because such an open package of something we like makes us finish it. We will not eat large mustard or mayonnaise like yogurt, sticks or peanuts. Large packages make us learn moderation in eating, the concept of portions disappears, and packaging becomes a priority.
Made-to-measure food
When eating a meal or snacks, we should be guided by portions, i.e. a specific amount of the product, appropriate for a person at a given age, with a given weight or restrictions, appropriate at a given time of the day. If we do not know what portions and what we should eat, make friends with the portal diet.nfz.gov.pl or use the free on-line advice of the National Center for Nutrition Education.
Unfortunately, today the concept of portions has almost disappeared, because we buy and eat in packages or kilograms. For example, a ball of mozzarella cheese. We eat it without reflection, all with the toppings in the caprese salad. And that’s a lot, too much for an average woman, for example, if it’s not a lunch meal. Or a package of tofu or cottage cheese – we usually eat the contents of the package. And a 400-gram package of dumplings for one person? What about popcorn in cinemas or a 100-gram student mix? Fortunately, there are also packages “all at once”, but often their price does not differ much from a larger package.
Over the years, we’ve lost track of how much to eat. Meals and portions in fast food also swell – it is worth finding information on the Internet or YouTube on the size of a small portion of fries or a drink sweetened in fast food 30 years ago, and what it is now. Why is it so easy to catch promotional drink + gigapopcorn sets for 1/3 the price? The British conducted a study in which it was proved that eating in the cinema thoughtlessly, we usually eat until the end. We watch a movie, and with our hand we automatically reach the bucket with popcorn, eat it until the hand feels the empty bottom. The subjects were given various portions in buckets with adjustable bottoms – they ate 40 percent freely. more than they thought they had eaten. The same happens when we eat in front of the TV or at the computer. The hand reaches for as many salty peanuts or cookies as is on the plate.
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Let’s read the labels
Often times, for example, fitness pads are not really fit. The words “fitness” or “fit” have become empty terms in advertising or on packaging that we, customers, want to see because we want to believe that although I do not know what I eat, the producer knows that I want to eat healthy. Because what does “fitness” mean on the packaging of cereals? That how much sugar or salt do they have and how many whole grain flakes do they have? Let’s not believe the words of the shell, let’s read the labels.
You have to think about it once and acquire the knowledge necessary to buy what serves us and our families well. Just as we learn to drive a car, how the computer works, we learn the basics of banking and we learn makeup, let’s learn to read etiquette! Compare products lying next to each other on the shelf, check their composition, not only the price and expiry date.
Let us remember that the strongest emotion in a human being is fear. Parents are afraid for their children, for their health, development, and for their proper nutrition. So they are susceptible to numerous suggestions – both graphic and slogan. Because as parents, we want to believe that we are doing the best for our children. After all, we put a lot of time and energy into our family everyday life, we often let go when tired when it comes to eating – we take shortcuts, do not check. As a consequence, we buy sweet cheese for children, sweetened drinks pretending to be juice and chemical packaging of fatty, sweet and salty snacks.
Narratively, we are prone to describe the type of “nutritious bar”. Nutritious, or what kind? We believe that the “milk sandwich” has something to do with a sandwich, we buy sugary snacks under the influence of an advertisement in which healthy milk flows from a bucket and poured into healthy, tasty-looking nuts. With this image in our eyes, we reach the shelf, not looking at the composition of the product, not verifying the images in the advertisement with what we put in the basket in the store. Advertising does not absolve us of thought or responsibility.