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Fast-Food Logos Burned Into Pleasure Center of Children's Brains
bbianca127 writes "A study has found that fast-food logos are branded into the minds of children at an early age, perhaps fueling the U.S.'s obesity epidemic. The study showed children 60 logos from popular food brands and 60 logos from popular non-food brands. Researchers found that, when shown images of fast-food brands, the parts of kids' brains linked with pleasure and appetite lit up. This is concerning because marketers tap into those portions of the brain long before children develop self-control, and most foods marketed to kids are high in calories, sugar, sodium, and fat."
I have always thought that exposure to fast food at an early age (perhaps due to mom and dad being perennially short of time to cook) implants a memory into kids of the taste of greasy fast food that sticks with them forever. Don't feed them this glop.
the pizza hut, the pizza hut and the kentucky fried chicken. show your children this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZI99nwv9VA
Do you really expect "appetite center" to lit up when shown logo of nappies?
Right now it is simply Pavlov's dog - sime images are associated with food, some don't. Compare logos of providers of "non-healthy" food to some healthy food - vegetables, fruits - then you'll have something to talk about, but I bet you'll find no difference.
lets blame advertisers for poor parenting.
There is good evidence that food preferences starts with the first solid food. Most infants (at least in the US) are started on white rice cereal and this has been shown to lead to a preference for high glycemic index foods (simple sugars and starches) leading to obesity. They have found that brown rice (low glycemic index) is much better.
Much better to start with low glycemic index foods (and stay with them for life).
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
long before children develop self-control
This is true, self control is something that develops slowly and isn't present in young children. This is why parents need to provide a substitute for that self control. When I was young my family ate every meal at home, from healthy home cooked food. We NEVER ate at fast food joints, and weren't exposed to fast food advertising. Surprise, now in late middle age (50) I am thinner and in better physical condition than 95% of the country. I've run up flights of steps and seen 20 year olds who can't keep up without wheezing and having to stop for breath.
A whole generation of parents seems to have dropped the ball. I see children who eat every meal at McDonalds, and are obese by age 6. I see children who badly need exercise driven around by their parents for distances easily walkable. The parents are enabling this problem through lack of parental responsibility for their own children. This is not rocket science: if you eat twice as many calories per day as you burn, you're going to get fat. How did we get so stupid as a nation that we no longer understand this? It seems like whacking one's self on the thumb with a hammer, and wondering why it hurts... over and over and over, never learning that it's our own swinging of the hammer that hurts. Not all the advertising in the world can MAKE you go to McDonalds. You have to chose to do so. You are free to choose NOT to do so, and this is the choice I've made all my life.
It's just... bewildering to see people make the opposite choice, eat several big macs per day coupled with massive high calorie sodas and large fries, and then bitch about getting fat. Stop doing that! If you're a parent, instil a sense of basic reality in your children, and don't feed them a diet of fast food when they're young enough to be dependent on you. It makes me sick to see so many parents hauling their 5 kids to fast food joints for every single meal.
Were there brands that kids would care about shown as well, or just brands that they happen to know? I don't really see FedEx lighting up the pleasure center in a kid's brain, but Toys'R'Us or Mattel might. Other listed logos from the study are the Target bulls-eye and the Energizer Bunny. I might expect the bunny to cause a little bit of pleasure, but the cuteness of bunnies is balanced with the boringness of batteries.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
When they reach puberty the logos will be replaced by other images, which they can easily find on the internet.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I always had the faint residual of an idea there is such a thing as 'parents' who come in to the picture when children are about to do something that is not good for them. That these carbon based lifeforms have a function of guiding children through early life, which includes warning them of marketing bastards and teaching them to think for themselves before they believe anything to see and hear and read. But that idea might be caused by social phenomena of the previous century...
No, not even close. The highest possible level of excitement your nieces/nephews are ever going to have is the excitement of adventure, accomplishment, creation and invention, over coming a great challenge, seeking a great treasure and earning the right to hold it. Junk food doesn't even contain the most important thing that any meal should have and that is a sense of family, bonding, eating, loving, nourishing bodies and souls. That's why food is love. That's why fast food is predigested feces. If you aren't enjoying what you eat with people that you love, you are missing 98% of the point of putting food in your face. We need to bring back civilization, and dining is one of the oldest and most important civil expressions, the culinary arts are unique to each culture, and yet the same pattern abound. It is critically human to eat well, and share the experience with others. By the way, conversation about obesity are so twisted up in this culture. Our sense of what is beautiful is so messed up its disgusting. Here's a great revelation. Bon Appetit.
And no amount of advertising can force you to buy something. It can let you know that thing exists, but you still get to make your own choice. Humans are not mindless drones.
Advertizing influences us. We are social creatures who evolved to fit in with others. I garanty you - without any doubt whatsoever - that there are things you purchased that you would never have purchased without the advertizing. And if I asked you about it, you would have some sort of "reason" why you purchase that item - parroting much of the advertizer's "message".
People make most of their decisions based on emotion. Very rarely do folks sit down and do a cost/benefit analysis, pros and cons, etc ... about a purchase - it takes too long. It's easier and more gratifying for that quick indulgence.
The women who buy very large SUVs "because they have children and they need the space" - they have only 2. My parents got 3 kids around in a Chevy Vega. But these days people need gigantic light trucks for their TWO kids. Gee, I wonder what gave them that idea? Or let's look at the Mini in the States. When it first came out the advertizers had two very masculine men doing crazy shit with them. Why? They were afraid that the Mini would be considered a chick car like the Volkswagen Bug and the Porsche Boxster.
And there's religion - the most manipulative thing ever created by man.
No sir, we may not be mindless, but we sure are easily manipulated.
Being triggered by conditioning through experience has nothing to do with free will. Do not confuse impulse with free will.
Second, your idea would lead to high rates of children suicides, as these logos are everywhere. Especially large cities would be uninhabited (if parents are included) or at least the kids would be all gone and the US would die out in one generation. I guess there are some people in the Middle East who find that idea quite tempting.
The best thing would be a restriction on advertising. And the truth about the food. Also the conditioning for fast food happens already at the time of breast feeding, when mothers eat fast food, it ends up in the milk and therefor in the baby. So if mothers eat wrong the kids eat wrong. The trigger with the logo is added to that later.
That I rooted my android devices to install an ad-blocker. Works perfectly, ad-free.
That I don't watch TV, or rather not broadcast TV. I download the TV-series I want, from torrent sites where I block the ads.
I have multiple layers of web ad-blocking, priv-proxy, ad-blocker, ghostery and finally opera's own rather good content blocker.
I use a government friend who has access to digests created from newspapers for polticians, ad free newspapers.
I don't buy DVD's because of their forced ads.
I don't use streaming services that display ads. Youtube is very easily manipulated to show zero ads.
I have my groceries delivered so I don't have to go to the supermarket and deal with the visual bombardment created to get me to buy stuff I don't want.
I do my tech shopping from pricewatch lists and real user reviews, so I don't have to deal with advertising on product sites and "pro" reviews sites whose product is paid for reviews.
THAT is how effective advertisers have become. I didn't used to mind ads but over the last decade they have managed to stimulate my brain into a rabid hatred of even the tiniest exposure to advertising.
And I am not alone. If advertising really worked, they wouldn't have to force it on us. The low point apparently happening in New York were kids were forced to watch commercials in exchange for school. It was a VPRO documentary so it probably was true (they are left-wing but to serious to make stuff up).
Why do you think you can't skip the commercials on DVD's? Because the advertisers are confident you enjoy watching them and want the information? No, because advertisers know all their tricks are useless in persuading people to watch something they don't want to.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
We didn't have TV at my house until I was in my teens.
And well... I am the result.
There goes your theory eh?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Cauliflower and turnips taste mediocre, even for adults, because they are routinely murdered in the kitchen. Learn to cook, guys.
May I present cauliflower lifted to an acceptable culinary level?
Break it into small parts, get rid of large stems. Blanch quickly, cool in ice water. I still needs to have crunch, not some evil mushy texture. There you got your basics for good cauliflower.Now we go on.
1) simple and healthy: Toss with some spring onions and a light vinaigrette. Serve cold. Tasty salad.
2) Decadent and not so healthy: Put them in small portion sized baking dishes. Mix creme fraiche, cream, egg yolk, roquefort. Season with salt, a dash of lemon juice, a pinch of cayenne pepper. Pour the mixture on the cauliflower. Bake until browned over. Cauliflower fit to be served in a truly upscale restaurant.
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
But this doesn't coincide with the introduction of white rice, does it?
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
I will also add that the BBC showed an interesting documentary a short while ago about the cause(s) and effects on the "Thin-Fat Indian".
This document by Prof C.S. Yajnik MD, FRCP is very detailed in its analysis of the genetics differences between Indians and European ethnic people:
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/india/CYajnik.pdf
No, it doesn't exactly, if you see my second post, it goes into detail about the possible causes for why and how Indians and other Asians differ from European ethnic populations.
I'm no expert in this field I do however remember the recent BBC documentary on the subject which I believe discussed the fact that the typical diet was in fact leading to similar health problems without the outward appearance of obesity. How this relates to rice I'm not certain I can remember. There were not only dietary, but also genetic differences (see below).
If I remember correctly a lot of Indian children were in fact born underweight at birth, but also so-called "thin-fat", without the outward appearance of such problems. They don't appear to be obese on the outside, but their insides were remarkably similar to Western diabetes sufferers. The dietary conditions later in life leads to weight increase and stronger symptoms of the disease/condition.
See the document I linked to for more information:
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/india/CYajnik.pdf
Yes, it's very interesting, I only have a laymans understanding of the subject(s) involved. My degrees are all in other areas.
What I have understood however is that the genetic component may be far more important than the diet itself for individuals. The Mediterranean diet may only work well for people with [that or] similar genetic makeup and/or environmental conditions (climate, eating patterns, etc). Consuming butter heavy, low carb diets (Ketogenic) has recently become a fad here in Scandinavia. It even lead to a butter "shortage" before Christmas due to our agricultural policy (protectionist/self-sufficiency).
From what I have read and seen a lot of industrial food products in the US may have everything from trans-fats, [traces of] anti-biotics and growth hormones and frequently contains High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). The variation of products with corn derivatives is incredible, from beer to dry-wall! We know long-term consumption of HFCS leads to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats (triglycerides).
That's why I'm thankful that HFCS is not common in food products here in Scandinavia, even our [non-light] sodas use real sugar. It may be part of the obesity problem, in addition to the lack of exercise.
I remember reading one particularly interesting [American] study on the effects of poor nutrition, lack of healthy alternative food sources and polluted natural environments on the urban poor, and how it effectively locked them in poverty, poor health, low education, unemployment and crime. A cycle that is very hard to break. Think of all the money save and problems we could avoid in health care, welfare and crime prevention!
While I wouldn't call McDonald's "high quality" food anywhere, I do notice distinct quality difference in different countries.
Their burgers in Australia and New Zealand tend to both be quite high quality, with good meat; fresh lettuce / salad parts; and fries that are recognisably made from potato. Here in Germany, the standard is somewhat lower; but still not so bad. France seems somewhat lower than here in Germany - bordering on "I'm not sure I want to eat that". And the UK is even lower at "I'm quite sure I don't want to eat that".
For the absolute bottom of the scale though, the one time I ate McDonalds in the US, I was absolutely unable to eat more than a couple of bites due to the poor quality. The bun was literally sweet with the amount of sugar used in it; the meat was over-salted and tasted more like a beef/pork mix than pure beef (which is fine when it is really a mix, but when it is supposed to be beef, that's a bit of a concern); and the fries were more fat/oil than potato matter. Even the drink tasted syrupy and weird (I found that in bottled drinks there also though; so I'm assuming it's the difference between the HFCS based versions and the sugar-cane based versions that I'm used to)
It might not always be like that there, and indeed may vary from state to state or store to store even; but that one time (which was at LAX airport for the record) has turned me off the idea of trying it there ever again.
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From just reading the summary, my first thought was DUH. It's the parents fault for allowing their kids to be manipulated but that is the whole point. It is the same thing as when Camel cigarettes was using the cartoon camel to advertise. The target demographic is painfully obvious. It is especially bad with McDonald's though because they use the rewards system in their advertisements and products. If you eat with us, you will get a "cool toy". We have a playground for you to have fun in. Kids are raised and learn what they learn from the rewards system. If I get good grades I get rewarded. If I do something bad I get punished. To top it off, they are advertising with cartoon characters. It is still the parents fault though. If I see a guy who is obviously a pedophile, i'm not going to allow my kids to go play with him or get near him. If I did, and something happened, would it be the pedophile's fault or my own? I think it would be my own.
... a study has confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt that bad parenting is the sole cause of obesity in kids. It has been proven that many kids eat at fast food restaurants but don't get fat because their parents limit their intake and make sure they get plenty of exercise by playing outside once in awhile.
The government can now remove all regulations on school lunches since parents are able to decide what is and isn't good for their children.
It has also confirmed that making bad choices is the sole cause of obesity in adults. Bloomberg has been slapped with an injunction to shut the fuck up and leave people alone.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
Yes proper diet and exercise is the only real cure. However the problem is quite more complex than that.
Stress in peoples lives (People in poverty are in more stress) where they don't feel they have control in their lives. Causes us to take pleasure in the few areas we do have control in, what we can eat. Unfortunately the extra weight causes us to gain more weight and adds more stress, when we try to diet we are giving up our only emotional uplift, which makes dieting harder.
Culture, there are a lot of Fat people out there who goes, I want to join a Gym, however I need to lose 50 lbs first so I don't feel that out of place. Because you go to a gym to help loose weight, however you are in a place with fit people and you feel out of place, and if the people are openly critical to you, it makes it harder. Lets laugh at the Fat guy on the treadmill, that will help him come to the gym more often to get better.
Helicopter parents. Your kids need to be watched all the time, they can't go outside and play, without the parents (who sometimes need to do something else). because of fear of kids being mean to each other or the 1 and 100000 chance that a molester will be there to take the kid away.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Get some McDonald's bags and food containers. Fill them with chopped liver, onions and spinach. Then tell the kids you are bringing home some "yummy McDonald's food". Do this a couple of times and they'll scream like hell every time you slow down in front of the golden arches.
Have gnu, will travel.
Once we accept and refuse to question the low fat dietary paradigm coupled with the "energy balance" paradigm that pushes us to eat less and burn more calories, we end up with all kinds of crazy enemies.
Fast Food becomes the enemy because it's greasy, but not because most of what they serve has added sugar (the catsup is sky high in sugars) and much of the volume of a fast food meal are simple starches (big buns, french fries, sugary drinks).
Activities like video games become an enemy because you're "not burning enough calories" to use up the excess of what you've consumed.
What I find truly interesting are the cultural tie-ins to low fat/exercise. One of the core memes of Christianity is that there can be no redemption without suffering. This plays right into low fat/exercise. Redemption is weight loss. Food without fat and salt tastes terrible. There's part of your suffering. Eating less and being hungry? That's another part of your suffering. Exercise is the other part of the trinity of suffering, and it contributes to the effects of hunger and being tired, making that suffering increase.
And of course when this doesn't work, it's a failure of character. Weak morals. Lack of discipline. Gluttony. Sloth.