Vegetables!

I am so fed up of seeing TV adverts for low fat food, slimmers-this, low calorie-that, carb options-this.....foods usually pumped with chemicals and artificial ingredients I won't even begin to try to spell. NOBODY EVER ADVERTISES GOOD OLD FRESH FRUIT AND VEGETABLES! Why is this? They are the BEST things you can eat if you DO want to be healthier and lose a few pounds. The Government pontificates about healthy eating and obese kids and heart disease and the strain on the NHS, yet they continue to ignore the two simplest food groups that can solve all of the aforementioned problems.

Is there some sort of Governing Body of fruit and veg that we can all lobby to promote them a bit more? Are there any organisations out there that have any power to lobby the Govt to force more public advertising of veg, and LESS advertising of chemical crap? After a trip to Google all I could find was the Food Standards Agency's page, trying to make veggies look cool for kids.

Can the FSA advertise on TV? Do they want to? Are they bothered? The only thing they've done is trumpet this "five portions a day" thing - but everyone I've spoken to is lost at this whole "portions" thing. What's that then? Could they MAKE it any more complex? Why not just say "a decent plateful of veggies every day".

Or maybe the companies that peddle the so called "healthy" convenience foods have a bit more profit to throw at Blair, ensuring that they remain top dog in the crusade for healthy eating. I'm sure they would hate to see their profits dip because more people were buying CHEAPER fresh veggies, or growing their own and saving even more money!

I'm aghast again to see that basic common sense seems lost on so many people. You want to eat healthier, cut out fat/cholesterol/whatever, so you go to the supermarket and browse the shelves....now let's see - a ready made pasta snack containing powdered God-knows-what, preservative, colours, and a claim that it is calorie-free, or a whole department of vitamin-rich sweet potatoes, broccoli, avocados, savoy cabbage and much more, all natural, all non-chemical, full flavoured and yummy to eat? Nahh let's go for the boil-in-the-bag crap, even though it is twice the price of the veg!

If I put bottles of unprounceable-name chemical preservatives, sweetners, and flavourings in front of you and said "drink these please" you'd probably all wrinkle your noses and go "ewww no way!" but that's what you DO eat every day!