Hello again! We had this class today and the seminar was on nutrition, very fitting for the media that I will be exploring for today.
Regarding CBC, the top news story is on the effects of chain restaurants listing the amount of calories in each item on the menus. Starting at the end of 2016, restaurants will be required to post the amount of calories for their menu items, this is a practice already done in some areas of the United States. However, there is no significant link between someone seeing the calories in something they might eat and what they actually do eat. A comparison study in the states showed no difference between a town that displayed calorie levels and a town that did not not. The article does not give any explanations to why peoples food intake does not change if they view calories however, and does not delve into how health could be properly managed other than watching your calories.
The top news story on New York Times was regarding an education convention in Orlanda, Florida. The article talks about how revisions of many social systems in the United States need to happen. It talks about how different health issues in the states are viewed, including a lot of mistrust in the industry. It discusses how there is a disconnect between the food industry and public opinion. One the areas in which the policy makers whom will be at the convention have talked about is getting more healthy food onto the retail scale, such as in grocery stores. This article was really fascinating as it talks about how to change diets and attitudes about food on a macro policy level.
The top post for Instagram was about ‘healthy’ candy, and how this treat does not have flour, sugar, or fake chemicals and favours. However, this likely is still not healthy for you and this truly shows how marketing can influence what someone thinks if healthy or good for them to eat.
The top Tumblr post was about the Atkins diet, which is a low carb diet. It is hash tagged with #lowcarb, #diet, #fitness, #atkins, and #avocado, all of which are very foodie/trendy words.
As both of the news stories cover different food trends, it is reflected as well in the social media posts that were posted for today. Between calorie intake boards, healthy treats, or the Atkins diet, it all works back to the New York Times article. The disconnect between what the public believes and what the health industry is working towards has a growing gap.
Growing up, I believed everything health wise from what I heard from magazines, and copied what celebrities ate. With the ever-increasing focus on social media and Instagram celebrities, there is even more misinformation on what is health and what food you should eat out there for people to see. We may not know exactly the intentions behind the health industry but most of us do not have a basic concept between what is presented to us and what is really true.
Till tomorrow.
-A
Works Cited
Bornstein, D. “The Art of Getting Opponents to “We””, New York Times, November 3 2015. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/the-art-of-getting-opponents-to-we/
The Associated Press. “Menus with Calorie Info may not Change long-term habits,” CBC News, November 3 2015. http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/menu-calorie-counts-1.3301442