Last Try This Tuesday we talked about the
new Canada Food Guide, and how a lot of the changes were really positive. I
noted that I really liked the inclusion of holistic nutrition principals such
as being mindful of your eating habits – but I also like the focus on the
behavioral changes such as being aware that food marketing can influence your
food choices.
Let’s look deeper at food marketing. The
new food guide talks about the different forms that food marketing can take on,
such as: celebrity endorsements; social media posts; commercials; and product
placement in movies, magazines, TV shows, and even music videos – it’s
everywhere! But we’re not talking about promoting apples and spinach here, hehe…we’re
talking packaged food.
Clever people work tirelessly to create
hyper palatable foods and then encourage you to consume them with more clever creative
marketing schemes. They also attempt to create links between certain foods and
a particular lifestyle. It’s becoming ESSENTIAL to have the SKILL to sort
through bullshit and to be able to know if a food IS actually a good choice for
you or your family.
The food guide advises using some of these
tips to help you make a more informed choice:
*use food labels (remember that REAL FOOD
often doesn’t need a label. However, this IS a good tip overall – and keep in
mind that the more “ingredients” – the less healthy its likely to actually be)
*question why you want to purchase an item
and what form of marketing you got these ideas from (i.e. a sponsored blog post
from a gorgeous skinny woman with flawless skin?)
*lessen your exposure to ads in the first
place!
I’d like to add my own final tip here –
Support (Local) Farmers. At the end of the day, your food should come from
farmers and NOT from a factory. A good rule of thumb is to buy things that
don’t even have labels. Real food doesn’t need a label to explain what it is
and why it’s healthy because it’s just real food. The minute something goes
into packaging and has a label on it – means it’s been through some type of
processing.
The ONE THING we could all start doing in
order to make dramatic and healthier choices is to simply stop eating or
significantly reduce consumption of processed foods.
#jerf #accountabilitycoaching #coachstacyyyc
#canadafoodguide2019
No comments:
Post a Comment