Another interesting talk from the CDPAC conference was on the idea of learning from our history with Tobacco and the Law and applying it to sugar.

There is no doubt about it that our society consumes too much refined sugar. Slowly over time it has crept more and more into our food supply in the form of fructose corn syrups, refined flours and sweeteners.

In 2004 it was calculated by Stats Canada that the average Canadian consumes about 110.0 grams of sugar a day, the equivalent of 26 teaspoons (about 21% of calories in a day). In teenagers it was found to be as high as 41 teaspoons per day!!!

So imagine for the average Canadian that they are consuming about 22 sugar cubes/day. So it shouldn't be a surprise that we have increasing rates of obesity and diabetes all across the nation.

Now this is not to say sugar is solely to blame. Certainly fast foods, low activity, high fat intake and excessive portions also play a role, but with any epidemic, it can get  complicated and we have to look at where the issues are and where we can start to make changes.

Sugary beverage consumption has dramatically increased over the past few decades partially thanks to its availability, delicious taste and low cost. My mother told me that when she was a child, they would go to the store once a week and get a 750ml bottle of pop and a family size bag of chips (about half the size of current bags) and this would be split amongst the 5 of them while they watched the Brady Bunch.

Now a 750ml bottle of pop is considered a large personal sized bottle. And this is part of the problem: our baseline of reference for what is normal has shifted. The change was so slow and subtle many of us didn't even notice the change but somewhere over the last 20 years we went from occasional treats to daily treats and now we are paying for it.

So at this conference the health professionals were talking about applying the same
concepts that took down large tobacco companies and reduced rates of smoking and applying it to sweetened beverage. Keep in mind this is not just soda: It's lattes, juices, iced teas, energy drinks....anything with refined sugars in it.

You can imagine how the Food and Beverage representatives felt.

 The Food and Beverage members argued that it was unfair to target them and
they want to collaborate on a solution but health professionals keep them out.
The companies are even offering to self regulate.

You know who else offered to self regulate?

Tobacco

Do you know what they ended up doing?

Nothing

it’s Déjà vu all over again. The trouble in this instance is that it's easy with tobacco to say "stop smoking, it will kill you", but with food you can't simply say "stop eating", because we need food.

What we don't need are foods with no nutritional value. Also, just like tobacco
  we need to recognize that even though these companies do "good will activities"
like donating to hospitals and charities, their bottom line is still profit. They are a company after all. So our health is not always in their best interest; us buying their products is. So bringing them into the collaborative circle on how to deal with the disease epidemic is not likely beneficial.

If you look at current laws on tobacco, tobacco companies are in no way involved in the decisions on legislations made about tobacco and the reason is that their interests contradict with the health and well being of the population. As more evidence mounts on the impact of poor diets from refined foods, sugars and fats, I'm sure the need to take action and regulate these companies will become obvious.

I've done a post of children's advertising before, but I feel the need to bring it up again because of a conference I recently went to. The CDPAC (Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada) had their annual conference on the issues surrounding Chronic Disease (specifically diseases that are non contagious such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease and mental illness).

There were lots of great talks, but one I sat in on that was particularly interesting was on marketing to children. The conversation got really interesting when the Food and Beverage representatives and Advertising Agency members became defensive over the idea that we might need better regulations on advertising to children because it is manipulative and children don't have the ability to understand this.

 Currently we have policies in place under the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards. This was initiated a number of years ago by actual food and beverage companies that offered to collaborate with the government on a way to control the kinds of foods advertised to children on television. The idea was that there would be a reduction the in amount of advertising towards children and more “good for you” foods would be advertised over “junk food”.The only problem is that the methods they are using to choose what foods are “good for you” foods is so lax that foods like Dunk-a-Roos and Lucky Charms still make the cut. Tell me....since when do food coloring marshmallows and icing sugar constitute “good for you” foods?

The Food and Beverage members and advertising agency representatives insist we don't give children enough credit for their ability to be informed. I argue that advertising is still, at its core, manipulative (after all they are trying to make you buy their product) and such advertising is unfair to individuals that don't have fully developed thinking processes to understand this. Take this video for instance. It gives a perfect example of how easily kids can be manipulated. These children can be convinced to pick a rock over food simply by putting stickers of their favourite cartoons on them.

People will argue that regulations take away choice, I say a lack of regulations allow companies to run rampant and create an environment where sugary cereals, sweetened beverages and processed foods are the norm and preferred over whole foods like whole grains, fruits and vegetables. We need to work towards a world where whole foods are the preferred and the norm. Living in a world where they are shadowed by larger processed food advertising makes this pretty difficult.

I've talked about how unhealthy trans fats are before, but I'm not sure people realize just how bad they are for you. Trans fats are a man made fat that has a double negative effect on your heart. Where saturated fats (found in animal products and naturally occuring) can raise your bad cholesterol if consumed in large amounts, trans fats (found mainly in packaged products and deep fried foodsman made) will raise your bad cholesterol AND lower your good cholesterol, putting you at greater risk of heart disease.

I'm hoping one day they will be banned from our food supply, but for now it's still allowed. I really enjoyed this video about trans fats when I came across it on youtube. It's nice to see someone campaigning for trans fat removal. His scientific explanation for what trans fats do isn't very accurate, but it gets the point across. Don't worry, the little gril isn't swearing, they are just bleeping out the product names. She's so cute!

Bottled water has existed for centuries; it's just taken on different forms. Back in the day it was containers of water merchants would sell from elusive springs that supposedly had mystical properties to cure illnesses. Now we sell it in plastic bottles still emphasizing its exotic locations from certain mountains, lakes or springs. But there are a few facts you need to realize about bottled water:

1) It is not as well regulated as your municipal drinking water.
Municipal drinking water is tested on a regular basis thanks to the Clean Water Act we have in Canada. Compared to bottled water companies, we test our water 4 times or more than the average water bottle company, meaning the quality of the water is much more likely.

2) Bottled water is expensive.
Even the cheapest bottle of water will cost you an arm and a leg over time. For 1000L of bottled water you are looking at about $1500. For 1000L of tap water, $1.26.

3) Bottled water is wasteful.
If you drank 3 standard personal
sized water bottles per day for a year, you would have enough empty water
bottles to lay end to end across 8 and a half basketball courts....just you.
 
4) Plastic water bottles can be bad for your health
This is especially true if you reuse them. When a water bottle is exposed to extreme temperate like cold (freezing) or hot (microwaving or washing is hot water), it can start to release some of the chemicals from the lining like Bisphenal A (BPA) which can be harmful to your health.

There are many other reasons I believe tap water and a good filter are better for your health, but it would make this post far too long. Here is a great clip from Pen and Teller's TV show Bullshit which sums a lot of it up nicely. I should warn you as always Pen has a habit of swearing.