What if we ate only what TV ads told us to eat? That's the question that was recently asked, and answered, by researchers at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Ga.The New York Times reports that the curious scientists taped 28 days of prime-time television as well as Saturday-morning
programming on the four major broadcast networks. They identified 800
foods promoted in 3,000 ads and used a nutritional software program to
analyze the content of the items, comparing the foods’ nutritional
values with the government’s food pyramid and recommended daily
intake values for various nutrients.
The researchers assumed that individuals were limiting themselves to 2,000 calories a day of the advertised foods.
The bottom line: If you ate 2,000 calories a day of foods advertised on TV, you would consume 25 times the recommended amount of sugar and 20 times the
amount of fat needed by your body, but less than half the dairy, fiber, and fruits and vegetables.
It’s great that the Food and Drug Administration of the Federal government are actively looking out for our general health and welfare and that the government in general is regualting and stopping those who would poisin consumers for mere capital gain (sarcasm).
A good many of those ads were aimed directly at children who do not know any better and who accept such ads as having come from authority figures. these children are also the ones looking at the television excessively although many adults do the same. Sitting and watching the tv and eating the processed garbage we often mislable as “food” and sell as nutritious are slowing killing those who buy the same.
It would be an interesting study to see what would happen if we eat what television tells us to eat and took the medication that we are now being told to tell our attending physiciains that we want ( regardles of whether we need them or not)…We’d probably all be dead in a week or two.
Thankfully, we don’t have cable and can’t get non-cable tv transmissions, we eat whole, unprocessed foods, locally grown and in season along with fresh fruits, whole grains, dried beans and raw nuts. we exercise daily and drink a lot of water.
namaste
Until misleading and deceptive advertising is made illegal the BS will continue. Media does little or nothing to validate the content of Ads. They just take the Billions to the bank.
One of the problems is the average education in the US is just past the 10th Grade. Our freedom loving consumers have no idea they are being deceived. The Courts operate under the “Buyer Beware” philosophy placing the responsibility for deception on the buyer not the seller. This is our system, unfortunately it ain’t gonna change anytime soon.
Wow! That is definitely an eye opener! Fast food companies market their products in a way that makes you forget about what you are actually doing to your body.