July 30 2011; annoyed
I can't help but to be annoyed when I see so many students (& kids) drinking powerdrinks here in New Zealand. I wrote an essay on obesity last semester and it made me realise that obesity is a major healthproblem here in NZ. They got alot of fast-food places and the advertisement of junk products is by far exceeding the amount of advertisement for healthy products.Yesterday I saw a chubby (obese) kid walking around with a Monster (powerdrink brand) T-shirt and cap, sharing with his friends a 1,5 (or even 2) litres of Sprite. What the f*ck? The kid is clearly obese and still he's walking around drinking coffeine & sugar-bombed drinks like that. It annoys me, a lot. I guess it all comes down to how you've been brought up. I had the priviledge of growing up in a family where junkfood was not an option (atleast not on a regular basis).
But isn't that kind of sad? What is wrong with our society today. Eating healthy is not hard. However, it is not often you see discounts on healthy food in the supermarkets. And the advertisement of unhealthy beverages and food is unavoidable.
I lived at the studentvillage of my university the other semester. Wednesdays was the "free-bread" day, we basically got delivered free bread straight to the studentvillage for everyone to consume. I thought that was a great way to help out students, in a healthy way! However, a couple of days per semester Red Bull company shows up with teenage staff to hand out free red bull cans to everyone. I personally do not drink that shit so I let it slip, but the majority of the students ofcourse accepted the temptation and took a few red bulls.
I might sound like a health freak or whatever, but honestly; how can it be accepted - in a century where obesity is continously rising - for junk food/drink companies to have that much exposure to kids, teenagers and families? It annoys me, I much rather see discounts on fruits, low fat chicken and such, than on chips, coca cola, fried stuff and so on.
Addiction is a flaw in human nature that will never stop haunting us. Preventative methods to decrease its power should be a common goal for everyone. But I guess that's too much to ask for....
Alberto Seveso (C)
