The other day, I was reading a national news magazine’s article on the “Obesity Epidemic”. I know that the mass media are high on hyperbole but “Epidemic” isn’t far from the truth. If obesity truly is an epidemic why isn’t something drastic being done? Where is the action?

Sure, Big Business and Big Government pay lip service to the alarming trend but don’t really sink their teeth into the matter, pardon the pun.

Big Business serves you last week’s lettuce with a few soggy croutons and it “may contain actual chicken”, call it “healthy choices”, charge you $6.95 and wonder why everybody’s buying the Super Sized Full Meal Deal for only $4.95. What would you buy?

Big Government is so busy running their next election campaign that no one has the time to run the government. Governments are more interested in getting votes than willing to stick their necks out to make significant policy changes.

Smokes and booze were a no brainer. Sin taxes drove the prices up so the users were penalized for their unhealthy choices. Obesity presents a uniquely different problem. How would you tax that? Not a tax, per se, but a pricing system that would make it affordable to eat healthy.

One only has to look closely at the food prices at a grocery store near you to see that something is definitely wrong. On my last grocery shopping trip I took careful note of some of the prices on, what I would call, healthy or unhealthy choices. 1kg of chicken breast was $12.99 while a 1kg package of pork breakfast sausage, fat included, was priced at $3.95. The only cereal I could find that had cholesterol fighting psyllium fibre was a 500g box of All Bran Buds at $6.29. Mmmmmmm, yummy! 625g box of Frosted Flakes……. $3.99. Again, what would you buy?

Two of the main culprits in the obesity situation, I am told, are refined sugars and refined white flour. Soda pop is filled with sugar and mass produced white bread, buns and pastries are loaded with white flour. Again, the healthier choices are more expensive. How about 2L of Cola at .88c/bottle as opposed to 2L of 2% Milk at $2.79. The list goes on and on. Check for yourself.

Now, if I was in a CSI episode I could click my computer mouse a couple of times, peck a few keys on the keyboard and find a web page listing all of the statistics that would show the correlation between lower income families and obesity. We all know that that’s not how the internet works. I’m not in a CSI episode and I didn’t have the three and a half hours that are required to find the actual website. So, I’ll just go out on a limb and use a bit of common sense and surmise that you buy what you can afford and that doesn’t always mean you will, or can buy healthy foods.

I’m not sure who sets the prices or if a government should, or could, pressure the food industry to review their practices but it seems like it’s time for someone to try.

“Eating everything you want is not that much fun. When you live a life with no boundaries, there’s less joy. If you can eat anything you want to, what’s the fun in eating anything you want to?”-Tom Hanks (1956-)

PERRY HUBBARD
Guest Columnist