Interesting news today that schoolkids may be fed Omega 3 and 6 fish oils at school, to "help improve their brain power and concentration".
Utterly useless however, if the schools continue to spend less per head on school meals, than what we spend on our prisoners and Police dogs.
There are lots of young kids in the cul de sac where I live. And it sees that from the minute they wake up they are hyperactive. You can tell when they've been filled full of sugar-crammed cereal, as the screaming hysteria in each back garden reaches a crescendo. Then they walk to school sucking on a can of Coke and eating a bag of crisps. Then no doubt after Turkey Twizzlers for lunch, or chips and burgers, they are TOTALLY ready to settle down and concentrate on lessons. Not.
Home again, and mum fills them full of more chips and microwave crap, then they sit and do their homework with the radio or the telly on in their bedroom.
A survey by the National Farmers Union found that nearly half of children thought margarine came from cows; a third believed oranges grew in Britain; and nearly a quarter did not know the main ingredient in bread was flour.
Around one in five did not know that ham came from pigs — as opposed to a tin or a packet — and they offered colourful suggestions for its origins such as cows, chicken, sheep and even deer.
Do they inherit this ignorance from their parents, who would rather spend 30 minutes watching EastEnders, than preparing a fresh home-cooked meal?
A voice of reason has arisen in this whole debate though, some Professor dude said of the Omega 3 idea: "It is only a sticking plaster, however. The much better alternative is eating a good mix of foods, coupled with teaching children and the general population about nutrition and diet." Hear hear. Send the PARENTS as well as the kids to basic nutrition classes, and knock some sense into them.
I was out and about at a show on Sunday and witnessed parents feeding their kids burgers that were as big as the kids head....and tiny toddlers with huge ice-creams dribbling down their mouths (how much sugar?!?!!), while other kids drank cans of fizzy pop. Not surprisingly, the parents were large and blobby, and even some of the little kids were developing lovely little beer bellies. Again, this collective blindness to the fact that THEIR KIDS ARE FAT.
In that film "Fast Food Nation", Morgan Spurlock visited a school for kids who had been expelled from their regular schools for unruly and disruptive behaviour. They were deemed "special needs" because of their inability to concentrate and their hyperactivity and rowdiness.
This "special" school fed the kids on a diet of organic food and freshly prepared meals with out a trace of chemicals, sugar, or artificial crap. They only allowed them to drink natural fruit juice or water. Within weeks their entire behaviour had changed, they settled down in classes, and their grades rocketed. Not a fish oil capsule in sight.
Why don't we learn from this?? Why do most pubs and cafes still offer "kids menus" that contain chicken nuggets, burgers, chips and hot dogs? Why do McDonalds continue to tempt kiddies with their Happy Meals and crappy toys, yet bluster they are improving because they offer the option of "fruit bags", knowing full well the kids will go for the burgers instead? Why do garages and service stations have banks and banks of crisps and chocolates tempting you as you queue to pay for petrol - with not a fruit selection in sight? Why do supermarkets still stack the shelves near the checkouts with sweets and kiddysize goodie bags, prompting nag-tactics from bored kids in the checkout queue? Why do cinemas stuff us full of popcorn and bags of chocolates and salty nachos and monster-sized chemical-packed soft drinks? Why don't they offer healthier stuff???? And so it goes on.
And why do the Government continue with this ridiculous "five a day" campaign, which nobody understands and therefore doesn't bother about. What the fuck is "five portions of fruit and veg", what is a "portion"? One piece of brocolli? half a spud? one apple? FFS make it a bit bloody clearer! WHere are the billboards and posters and TV ads extolling the virtues of fruit and veg, and tempting us with pics of juicy pears and crunchy apples and steaming sweet potatoes and lovely brocolli bakes? Apparently only £1.5m was spent on advertising "Five a day", against an estimation that the food industry spent in excess of £0.3 billion in 1999 promoting unhealthy food products.
If I had my way then all junk-food manufacturing companies would be closed down. But then there would be howls of derision crying "what about the jobs" and "you're killing economic growth". I''m sick of this "economic growth" crap being used asn an excuse for us to keep manufacturing food that is killing us, airports that are suffocating our air, and cars that we no longer buy.
No comments:
Post a Comment