Strikes me as a good idea.
d fb
2 Likes
In the U.S., every processed food (anything that comes in a box) already has detailed nutritional labels. Carbohydrate levels are broken out into total carbs and added carbs. Fats are listed as Total fat, Saturated Fat and Trans Fat. Every ingredient is listed. This is government-mandated and the government already provides information on how to read the labels.
https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-facts-label/how-understand-and-use-nutrition-facts-label
There is a lot of controversy over whether and how much fats and carbs are harmful in a diet. The only statement that would not be controversial is, âA diet high in processed foods has been linked with more disease than a diet high in unprocessed foods.â
Do you think that would help consumers make better dietary decisions? Maybe.
Meanwhile, most people buy processed foods because they are relatively cheap, easy to use (especially if people donât have the time, knowledge or equipment to cook), easy to store and addictively hyper-palatable due to ingredients and industrial processing techniques that arenât available to home cooks.
When I was in grad school I didnât have a car. I knew how to cook and exchanged home-cooked meals for rides. Many people donât know how to cook. But they still have to eat.
Processed foods are here to stay.
Wendy
3 Likes
As China becomes more wealthy (ie: more people move up to the middle class) theyâre are also becoming fatter. BMIs are increasing, along with the ailments associated.
Maybe this is how itâs meant to be: more food and especially more processed food gives rise to poor health outcomes, which gives rise to the medical/industrial complex, which creates more wealth and more people moving into the middle class, which âŚ
Tobacco products come with warnings of DEATH from CANCER, and do not merely list nicotine and tars as ingredients. That, and high taxes, and prohibiting sales to minors, has proven somewhat effective.
Processed foods can be healthful and useful. Evidence is growing that âhighlyâ processed foods are deadly, and partly because they tap into profound human needs (FOOD!) with addictive problematic substances while impoverishing all nourishment except calories.
And as to cooking, well, I see my being taught by Mom and Dad and Grannies how to shop and cook strategically and tactically as a primary foundation of my health, success, and absurd happiness. I advocate making Home Economics teaching both the enjoyment of quality eating (as the French do) and how to buy and cook without squandering money or time into required school curricula.
Merely listing ingredients accomplishes NOTHING for most people.
d fb
3 Likes
That does not mean spoiling a meal of junk with a warning label is a bad idea.
They say in AA, âWe will ruin your drinkingâ. That is a good cause.
@flyerboys I applaud this idea! This was part of the Home Economics class I took in Junior high school.
Unfortunately, many (if not all) public schools have dropped the practical classes under budget constraints.
OK, this is a hot button issue for me!
Home economics (including food choices and cooking)
Sewing
Wood Shop
Metal working
Personal finance
Art
Music
All should be required for both boys and girls.
Wendy (head in hands)
6 Likes
We are in solid agreement regarding home/shop economics.
I find that a profoundly opaque statement. I would guess that something near to .1% tax on junk foods nationwide would allow those budget constraints to be burstâŚ
d fb
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With onshoring of factory production that tax wonât be necessary.
Demand-side economics is the cure.
Donât believe the liars who have long denounced the cure.
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It depends on the processing. Howâs it being processed? Find a better way. To be edible all grains and most beans are processed. Thatâs not bad. Itâs good. The Mediterranean diet (the real one. Not the one they keep talking about) includes fairly large quants of processed cured highly salted meats that start at a 50% fat content and go from there. Are they âprocessedâ? I can tell you not as much as âAmerican style baloney.â Then thereâs huge amounts of cheese in their diets. But donât know if theyâd match the exhortations of âwhole foodâ/Real food"/ânot processed.â
FCorelli
Yes!
I loved my telecommunting life in Spain, especially Mallorca, eating staggering hams and cheese, oil and fruits from my neighborsâ olive orchards, blood sausages, and the more spoken of mountains of minimally messed with vegetables and fish.
My doctors were horrified by my gluttonous stories but loved my blood results.
d fb
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A better idea is to not eat the crap.
The Captain
2 Likes
Yes, but we individuals, however wise or stupid, live is societies, and so we must concern ourselves with guiding the zillion idâd beast away from the most obvious dangers, whether eating crap or blasting crack.
d fb
2 Likes
I have commented before, on looking over the City of Farmington Hills high school class catalog. Nearly every class has a fee attached. Farmington Hills made the ânewsâ last year, because they dropped the fees for athletics. So, you need to pay to learn anything in school, but playing football is free. That is where the Shiny value system is.
Steve
4 Likes
hey Steve, probably about every 10-15 years someone from Farmington makes the NFL, what a payback ! #sarcasm
I think in Europe HS and college aged athletes play for clubs, not for schools. NBA players like Luka Doncic and Nicoli Jokic have been playing pro ball with adults since they were 15 years old. So this whole âamateurâ system in the USA is a load of malarkey.
âStudent athletesâ as a concept, is corrupt. corrupted by money. There was some talk on the ânewsâ recently about the âstudent athletesâ being paid. As I said before, where is that money coming from? The state isnât going to increase university funding. So, they will probably put the bite on the kids that are going there for an education, to subsidize the farm system universities run for the NFL and NBA.
Steve
2 Likes
And there is an assumption in the OP that warning labels work. How effective are they?
DB2
Even âgraphicâ warnings, alone, do not work all that well, although better than mere lists or technical words. However, graphic warnings can work quite well as part of an overall context of education via billboards and video ads designed to reinforce the emotional intensity of the graphics. Cigarette sales took a significant drop in California in the 80âs when the State starting taxing cigs to pay for graphic warning labels combined with highly targeted ads:
Pretty 15ish school girl says to friend looking at a cute guy in school corridor âOh ugh, not him! Kissing his tobacco mouth is like licking a toilet!â),
A âno nonsenseâ woman addressing people off camera: No you ARENâT smoking! Not in MY HOME, Not around MY KIDS!)
I remember vividly because the Tobacco Association went crazy, pouring big money into California political races to overturn the program, and hired at exorbitant cost one of my best lobbyist friends (a pioneer in gay rights politics in Califronia) to do their dirty work.
The crux is that mere information does almost nothing when dealing with addiction/habituation. However, accurate information keyed to strong social moral opprobrium can be very potent.
d fb
1 Like
At the same time, cigarette sales also had significant drops in other states without those graphic warning labels. If you ordered states economically, the decline roughly followed that pattern (richer states has a greater decline, poorer states had less of a decline, but all had a decline).
If they worked there would be fewer fat people around. Even if the data were perfect, and they are not, the readers would have to be well informed, which they are not. And when you go out for food, they donât have âlabelsâ on the menus.
- Deep fried in seed oil reused ten times.
- Notice: Seed oil is bad for your health
- Notice: Reheating seed oil makes it worse
- Notice: Seed oil is polyunsaturated, goes rancid fast
- Thank you for your patronage!
The Captain
5 Likes
The California example is also tied with solid and increasing taxation/price increases. Would you advocate increases in food taxation?
DB2