A Rant about... Wheatabix

[sparkindarkness]

Most people think Wheatabix to be pretty non-objectionable – they’re crisp biscuits of wheat that you cover in milk then eat as a breakfast cereal. They are healthy, have lots of fibre and lack salt, sugar, fat and all the other demonic evils of the breakfast table.




But they are also agents of deception that try to sway the masses with their insidious evil! Why? Because they taste of bird’s nests marinated in sawdust. So what does your diet freak do when he or she (let’s face it, she) gets them home? Covers them in sugar in the vague hope that they may illicit even a minor response from a solitary taste bud – all the while they gleefully tell themselves it’s a healthy breakfast. Same with rivetas – crisp crackers that taste of… well, nothing. A lashing of cream cheese later and oooh look, healthy snack.

But you can’t blame Wheatabix for the stupidity of their consumers, I hear you cry (well, yes, you can, I can blame anyone for ANYTHING) but the crafty advertisers (cue demonic music) have realised that their cereal tastes like straw coated in carpet fluff so have started a campaign – the Wheatabix Week. Eat Wheatabix every day for a week trying out new toppings (has there ever been a product that has sold itself on the stance that it tastes so bad you have to disguise the flavour?) including HONEY AND ALMONDS! That’s right, enjoy your healthy breakfast slathered in honey.

It’s all part of the incredible amount of deception there is around ‘healthy’ eating because we’re all obsessed with losing weight – the fat want to be healthy, the chubby want to be slim, the slim want to be thinner and the thin want to be skeletal and the very thin want to be Callista Flockheart and Callista Flockheart wants to become one of the Undead. There’s gold in them thar diets! So advertisers are doing anything to convince us all that their product is healthy in so many ways.

We have the fancy science (because we’re all impressed by science stuff). This stuff as polypeptide good stuff! Flora has Polyunsaturates! Mums, are you worried about your kids getting enough Omega 3? And the consumers chant this as they plaster margarine on their bread. Do you even know what a polyunsaturated is (in a vague way I understand it means the fat molecule has double carbon bonds as opposed to lots of C-H bonds)? Do you know WHY it’s good? I don’t! But they’ve gone and let a multi-syllabic science word overcome their natural common sense that BUTTER IS FATTENING. And Omega 3? Worry about it?! Of all the many many many things that mother’s worry about I expect Omega 3 is not only last on the list but probably doesn’t even appear on the list. What is it? Oils found in oily fish? Even the scientists are divided and unsure as to its benefits!

Then we move on from the science to something which takes even less effort – after all, the advertisers (cue demonic music) have to throw a boffin a few pennies to get genuine science mumbo jumbo, but it costs nothing to plaster the word ‘light’ or ‘diet’ on the packaging. And people fall for it, women gleefully chew into their diet Sveltesse and Keloggs bars which are smothered in chocolate – it’s CHOCOLATE in no way, shape or form can it be anything LESS than fattening. That’s the whole POINT of chocolate! It’s what it DOES. It’s karma for fat people because you can look at all the skinny people and laugh “aha, that poor cow isn’t getting any chocolate!” Reduced fat? Well, yes, have you checked the SUGAR content? Ahaha, stealth calories! It’s the easiest trick in the book, take a high SUGAR product, reduce it by 0.2g of FAT then call it LIGHT and watch everyone chew away chanting “it’s healthy, it’s healthy” and pay an extra 10p for the privilege! Who needs pyramid scehemes? And ‘light’. Light? What it shines? It weighs less? It’s lighter than WHAT per se? “Oooh, it’s Flora LIGHT!” *slather another inch onto bread* “that means it’s healthy” NO It means it’s marginally less UNHEALTHY than butter. But the advertisers (cue demonic music) are onto a good thing here – slap the word diet on it and people will even convince themselves a can of coke is healthy.

And that leads us nicely to the next category that the advertisers (cue demonic music) have truly cleaned up on. HEALTH FOOD. Oh this is pay dirt! You get to combine everything – you have your vague science (friendly bacteria, anyone?) you get top plaster your packaging with lots of buzz words (healthy, light) and wrap it in fresh green wrappers and what do you get? Dasani! Bottled tap water for £1! (Shame about the Benzene). Benecol and Flora pro-active (HOW much are you paying for a tiny pot of yoghurt?) yoghurt drinks. People are paying 50% more for MILK with Omega 3 in it! And treble that for anything with soya in its name - you don't even KNOW why soya's supposed to be healthy, but damn it, you're told it is and those damn vegans are hiding something. Olive Oil! People spend a fortune on extra virgin olive oil, pour lashings of it everywhere, exclaiming how healthy it is all the while ignoring that it’s STILL COOKING FAT! You don’t even have to try and pretend for flavour any more, you can almost sell it as medicine.

And you know what’s so depressing about all of this? Anyone with half an ounce of sense can see through all this. These are people who wouldn’t accept that they’ve won the Reader’s Digest prize if the pope himself handed them the money in crisp 20s, all authenticated by the head of the Bank of England – but they’ll believe that chocolate is healthy because it has the word ‘light’ written on the wrapper? People SO want to believe it that they’re deceiving themselves *sigh*



And that is why I hate Wheatabix.

Comments

[being-here.livejournal.com]

Good grief!

This is a really great argument, and one I agree with.

I think if people learned to actually enjoy food and didn't let themselves be dictated to by advertising then the world would be a better place. But then I believe that the food you eat and the way you eat it is the biggest political action you make in your day to day life.

(on the other hand, wheetabix and warm milk tastes like childhood to me, especially with a tiny bit of honey.. not with yogurt though. That's just wrong)

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

It's sad really, these people KNOW how to eat healthily, if they will trust their instincts. They know that butter is bad and chocolate unhealthy. They know to use moderation. But people don't have teh time/energy/inclination to sort it out now so rely on these adverts to do it for them - and they're deceptive. SO not only are they not eating healthily but they're NOT eating what they want and they're not enjoying it and they're still stressing over it.

Because I know what I'm eating, I will eat lard and full fat butter and real sugar and real cream - because I can balance it and besides I WANT to eat it. You're right in that the world seems to be telling us how to eat now.


I've never been a cereal person, not even as a child :)

[being-here.livejournal.com]

We don't trust our bodies and our instincts to know what's best for us - in fact there seems to be a process of learning to distrust ourselves. So you want to buy the face cream, mask your smell, hide who you are.

You'd think from ads that we should be enjoying things - but we don't and we aren't encouraged to, because to enjoy something properly you have to savour it, take your time with it and if you do that then you tend not to consume on automatic pilot, past the point of satiation. These aren't things that the advertising industry want to encourage. It's much easier to demonise things (like butter, cream, whatever) and then push substitutes that can be consumed in bulk.

I'd prefer to enjoy more of the real things in life, even if I have less of them.

[meridae.livejournal.com]

Mum's have already worried about their kids getting enough Omega 3 - they just didn't know that's the name of what they were worrying about - and that's why generations of children have been forced to take cod liver oil, and why I'm taking salmon oil capsules.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

You aren't allowed to be the voice of reason. This is a rant :)

But that's another thing - dietary supplements. Some people are educated and informed and know that they're body/diet has some deficiencies so they need to top it up (for example, we know the oil's good for arthritis - good old wives' talk folk knowledge).

And others have seen the damn adverts and decided they NEED to pay £3.50 for a box of multivitamins regardless of their normal diet or how easy changing their diet sensibly would work far better.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree.

If you eat a varied diet and don't have any particular health issues, you don't need supplements. At most, take a multivitamin.

Of course, that begs the 'what is a varied diet' question. My own rule of thumb is 'use every part of the plant'.

Eat some roots (carrots, potatos, yams, etc)
Some seeds (grains, nuts, legumes)
Some stems (celery, asparagus, etc)
Some leaves (pretty obvious)
Some flowers (cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus tips..)
Some fruits (fruit, tomatos, etc)
Some fungi (YUM!)

With animal-based food again a range is good. Some diary/eggs, some meat. Some land meats, some sea meats. Some muscle, some offal. Some vertebrate, some invertebrate. However you want to categorise it, just maintain a variety.

And if you can think of a category you don't use, due to allergies, ethics, or just plain distaste, find out what it provides and ensure that the rest of your diet balances it.


... and I'm preaching to the choir, I know.

[meridae.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, I have to admit that the only reason I'm taking the fish oil capsules is because a consultant nephrologist told me too - it's good for cardiovascular health as well as joints, which will contribute to healthy kidneys and decrease the increased risk that I, as an extremely badly behaved diabetic, has of heart disease and heart attacks and all that good stuffs. Improves cholesterol too I think.

[elrohana.livejournal.com]

Food is good. I love it.

Which is why Sunday's dinner consisted of locally reared beef steak, locally grown new potatoes steamed with a splodge of unsalted butter added on the plate, fresh locally grown steamed carrots, and strawberries with cream for afters. Yum

Last night's was cheese omelette, and tonight is homemade veggie curry.

I love food, even the bad stuff. I adore chocolate and red wine. Despite this I am a healthy weight for my height even though I carry a lot of muscle mass. I just don't overdo it. And I do eat Weetabix. I actually like it, and I don't have sugar or honey on it. I struggle a bit with Shredded Wheat though!

Frankly, people don't need advertisements to deceive them, they deceive themselves without any help. I include those people in my 'stupid people' category.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Yep. I don't eat health food but I do eat healthily. I also get lots of exercise (the gym is a necessary evil)

You like weetabix? *shudder*. Shredded Wheat? I Have NEVER understood Shredded Wheat. Why don't people just eat the box it comes in?

[elrohana.livejournal.com]

I am wondering that myself. My Beloved likes the stuff, and it does have less salt than weetabix, but I think I may have to give up on it as a lost cause. Yuk. As you say, cardboard would be tastier.

[tinimaus.livejournal.com]

Erm, you do have to be careful not to fall into the trap of "all fat bad". You do need a minimum of fat in your diet (at least about 70g a day). A lot of your hormones are metabolized from fatty acids, and omega-3 fatty acids are one of the building blocks of brain tissue. Also, eating fat is not what makes you fat. That is a common misconception. Your body makes its own fat that gets stored in your fat cells via the liver, and that only happens if you put out insulin, and insulin only gets put out if you eat too many carbohydrates (especially refined ones) or don't oppose them with protein and/or healthy fat. You can make yourself fantastically overweight with a low-fat, high-carb, calorie reduced diet because you completely bugger up your metabolism.


I'm with you on the Weetabix, though.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

True, but very few people are going to achieve a fatless diet. These days it's almost impossible :)

But that's the thing again, people are pandered to by adverts - lots of low fat and I'll be ok etc!

Argh but don't get me started on the Atkins cult of low-carbers. Gods, I've seen Jehovas' Witnesses with less fervour!

[ladydyani.livejournal.com]

I can't decide if I need to figure out a new diet, or if I should just say "Screw it!" and enjoy being fat. Is a roast beef sandwich and a banana ok for lunch?

Even worse than all of the things pointed out in your rant? My eight year old daughter is now looking at packages in the grocery store. She wants to buy "light" items.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Personally I don't calorie count or anything, but I've never been other than BMI correct (I tend towards the low side of it) metabolism's pretty good.

Still, I'd avoid fad diets, they're not healthy and the minute you STOP them, the weight comes back

[(Anonymous)]

I have a metabolic disorder that makes me tend to put on mass, but even with that, this works for me:

* the varied diet (or carefully chosen supplements) from my previous 'anonymous' posts.
* learning how to eat only as much as my body actually wants.(1)
* making sure I move my body. This does not mean 'exercise' in the odious sense, it means move. Do housework, garden, play frisbee in the park, walk the dog, have enthusiastic sex. Just move.

My body is gradually settling into the form it needs to be to support the movement I do. Basically, the lesson I've learned is: if you want a dancer's body, dance. If you want an athlete's body, be athletic.
The body I've decided to go with is the one that belongs to a healthy, semi-sedentary person who loves gardening and playing frisbee. And it's looking very good, thank you. :)


1: Eat less than you think you want. If you're hungry half an hour or an hour later, eat a small amount more. Continue until you can consistently eat to the point where you're a little-bit-peckish an hour or so later, but not actually hungry until it's time for another meal.
If you consistently get hungry shortly after a meal, try studying the 'glycaemic index'. It's a scale which measures how quickly the body processes certain foods. Combine foods you want to eat anyway, in a way that lowers the glycaemic index of your meals, and you will probably find hunger tends to ease without you actually changing your overall diet.

[chesh.livejournal.com]

Personal opinion from random girl off teh intarwebs: it depends on what you mean by "fat." If you're carrying a few extra pounds (10-15% of "ideal" bodyweight extra), screw it! Physically active overweight people are actually healthier than inactive skinny people -- studies have shown this! Just make sure you've got a somewhat varied diet and walk instead of drive/take the stairs instead of the elevator when you can, and you'll be just peachy. If you're more overweight than that, follow the advice of anon down there and you'll probably shed some of the excess weight.

In the end, all that matters is being happy with who you are. It's good not to be too too overweight because that starts to reduce your likely lifespan and cut into your ability to do certain things, but as long as you're healthy and happy, screw that "ideal weight" noise.

[sapphybelle.livejournal.com]

Teehee, this rant made me giggle repeatedly. It's all so true :-D

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

thank you :) I need a rant now and then

[girl-working.livejournal.com]

I love your writing, Spark. :)

So true.

I'll just eat what I like, drink water (er squash) mainly... I /have/ cut out a lot of coke/caffine... And be happy as me...

Anyway, last I heard men prefered girls with an arse and that don't look like they'll snap from a hug... :P Or that's what my fiance thinks... :)

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Thank you.


I need my caffein *hugs coffee cup*


That's the thing, study after study shows that guys prefer women with CURVES. So why do all the magazines et al push for women who are bony?

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Amen!

Though my current gripe with low-fat, and low-carb (AUGH, HATE HATE HATE HATE THE LOW CARB THING! Putting a burger on lettuce instead of on a bun doesn't make it good for you!) *ahem* is that my parents, with whom I must reside for an additional two weeks, and then I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Free, free, free!

Um, where was I? Oh yes. They're on a low-fat, low-carb diet, and I an most definitely NOT on any such thing. If anything, I need to gain weight, I'm a stick, and when I'm stressed I don't eat, so every time something goes wrong in life, I get skinnier, and let's just say that life has been very stressful for me of late. And then I realize I need to have some food, and I look in the fridge, and it's fat-free this, and skim that, and low-fat the other and freaking "carb choice" yougurt. Yougurt should involve whole milk, and it should be thick enought to stand your spoon in, and it should have NOTHING to do with gelatin, and it should be flavored with FRUIT and SUGAR instead of CHEMICALS, AUGH!

*ahem* Yeah, sorry about that. But needless to say, I don't like the diet thing much.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, the people who order side salads to their saturated fat and thinks that makes it better. Or order salad and then make it DRIP with salad dressing

I've always ahd the metabolism of DOOM. I'm thin, not skinny, but because I'm short I don't weigh much. Anyone who knows how much I weigh suddenly feels the need to try and force chips on me. I completely understand forgetting to eat when you're busy, but I have people around me to stop that

Nope, i don't understand 'fake food' either. yuck

[chesh.livejournal.com]

Out of sheer desperation for proper yogurt, I've taken to buying plain yogurt at the local store and picking up bags of frozen fruit whenever I'm at the grocery store (or freezing fruit from the farmer's market once it comes into season -- hurry up, dammit!) and mixing the two together. It takes a little while for the berries to get thawed enough to eat, but it's absolutely loverly. Though I'm not so sure about that package of cranberries I accidentally bought. That will be an interesting experiment.

[only-playing.livejournal.com]

Yay, a chance to show of the fabulous college education I can barely pay for! As per my chem/physics class, we learned that butter is actually better for you than margarine, cause while margarine has less total fat, it has hydrogenated fats, which are smaller and actually can pass through the stomach/ intestinal wall and into the blood stream easier than the fats found in butter can.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

LOL, see, this is part of what I'm saying. In it's own way butter is better for us - or no real difference for us than margerine but advertising has convinced us that we're being healthy because we eat margerine!

And it seems that health issues come and go - look at veggies. First we were told to hardly cook them to preserve the vitamins and minerals then some boffins pointed out that if you don't cook veggies well and destroy the cell walls they will just go right through a person now we're leaning back to steamed, barely cooked veg.