There’s a lot of excitement these days about the new legislation (of which I know embarrassingly little about) that has fast food chains posting nutritional information alongside menu items. I’m not sure if this happens at all in Canada (yet), but I’ve seen plenty of it across the US of late. And while the public posting of nutritional information makes for remarkably engaging reading material while waiting around at the airport, I can’t help but wonder: will this really help any in attending to the pervasive growth of preventable nutrition-related illnesses?
Now, I’m not looking to be a negative nancy about all of this, really, I’m just wondering whether posting nutritional info in this way is really likely to accomplish all that much. Personally I love ready access to such information. I find it fascinating. Who knew they could smash so many empty calories into "normal" size items: like fitting a whole day's worth of calories into a hamburger, or a muffin; a muffin?! Frankly, it's like a game for me, reading all this "nutritional" information, it enthralls me, it fascinates me, and it kinda frightens me. But I realize that I am an anomaly not the norm. I love reading labels, I have a vested interest in what I put in my body, and I am an inquisitive person by nature. For those people who don't share said peculiarities of personality, do you really think that posting nutritional information on signs will make a difference to their daily food choices?
Do people even understand what the information means? Moreover, do they care?
Really now, what is the average level of nutrition literacy these days? (My guess would be that it’s disturbingly low, but that’s not rooted in any research.) So, if people aren’t taught how to interpret nutritional information, then what exactly is the point in posting it right, left, and centre (aside from fascination for some). Is the idea that increased visibility will increase a curiosity for more knowledge, or contribute to some sort of passive increase in literacy?
I confess, I’m being difficult. I do feel that there can be some incremental gains from shoving this sort of horrific information in your face. Indeed one could argue that by making the information more public more people might be compelled to start improving their nutritional literacy. This may not prompt someone to walk out of their already selected lunch location, but it may well deter them from coming back … so soon. However, with that said, we can’t deny that nutritional labelling has been in effect for years now, and clearly that hasn’t resolved the lack of personal education or interest people have in what they consume.
Perhaps it's a deeper problem? People don't respect themselves, their bodies, and the simple delicacy of human life, so why bother caring about what we do to ourselves. That would be sad. But if that is the reality, then should we not be targeting the prevention of nutrition and health related illnesses (obesity, diabetes, etc. ) at a more fundamental level: Teaching people at a young age to respect themselves, their bodies, and heck, life in general. Seems like that might be a useful little kernel of knowledge to impart on all those young minds.
I don’t know, maybe its just me on this one, but while seeing the 1000 calorie burgers available for purchase succeeded in turning me off my own healthy lunch, not to mention ever consuming at the chain in question, it didn’t seem to deter the plethora of overweight and obese people crowding the line for a quick bite. So maybe the unfortunate reality here is that this nutritional information is targeting the wrong crowd, and simply serving to reinforce the pre-existing divide between those with and those without nutritional literacy.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Something to be proud of?
So, here’s how it all began. My friend and I, and our respective partners, went out for a drink. We got to talking about how you spend so many young adult years trying to figure out what you want to do with your life, and neither of us thought that as we near the end of our twenties we would still be trying to answer that same question. At some point in this conversation I mentioned that I was only now starting to incorporate “raising your children” as a legitimate career option, a legitimate path for at least one part of your life. I had always thought that child rearing was just something that you did in addition to whatever else you do with your time—which is not to say that I ever, even for a fleeting second, thought that being a stay at home parent was not work, or not hard, or not desirable, I just never thought that it was a legitimate and/or respected career path. (Perhaps I was right on at least one of those points). As soon as I said this my friend jumped, and said “see, I disagree, I don’t think that raising your kids is anything to be overly proud of. People do it all the time, and we don't need to be giving out gold stars for that”
(Now before you go getting all cranky with my friend, you should note that we were talking over drinks, among friends, very good friends, and we’re the forthright variety of friends.)
So, on followed an interesting but prematurely digressing discussion on whether being a stay-at-home mom was actually a career option, and/or whether it should be. Before too long, our conversation had shifted to other loosely related topics and we let this one go, but the idea itself has lingered in my mind, and in order to set those final thoughts free I share them with you here:
Supervising a child, ensuring that he or she doesn’t maim or kill him/herself or anyone else before late adolescence may not be anything to be overly chuffed about. Sure, millions of people do that every day, all over the world. But, I suspect that raising a child is a task in another category.
Let me explain what I mean by “raising.” I mean nurturing growth, fostering critical thought and intellectual development, enabling and guiding a young person to (to borrow the army's slogan here) be all they can be. And yes, also to supervise the meeting of their most basic physical and mental needs through late adolescence. To do all of that, I believe, is a very different job than the basic supervision that happens all too often. And indeed, I believe it is something to be mighty chuffed about.
I think the actual grit of raising children, the stuff that changes the job from a part-time affair to a full time affair—the fostering of intellectual growth, teaching awareness and intention, self-control and personally guided self-growth—these sorts of things are so undervalued and unexplained to the average person in North America (I can't speak for the rest of the world) that most people don't even realizing what’s being missed, or briskly glossed over, in the rearing of their children. The result: millions of people never challenged to meet their personal capacity, not engaged in their own lives or the world that surrounds them. In short, not living up to their potential.
The job of raising children appears to be punted around in our society, from parents, to nannies, to teachers, to extra curric providers, and so forth. And although all of these people may well play critical roles in child rearing and development (personally I happen to feel that everyone plays a role in children’s growth), I think the glitch in our current societal approach is that instead of all of these people feeling that they play a key role, nobody thinks that they are responsible. Everyone is under the impression that it is someone else's job to cover the basics of human development. The end result, lost potential.
So I guess if I were to finish the conversation that my friend and I started I would say yeah, I think that raising children is a big job. And I think doing it in the fullest sense of the job description is definitely something to cheer about. And yup, I say it is absolutely a legitimate use of ones time, and further I would argue that it is also a legitimate career path (for those for whom it is financially viable, which is a whole other discussion unto itself). And while supervising a child through physical development may not be anything to give out gold stars for (although it may be, that too could be a whole other discussion), raising a child is something that really could change the world. Not in grand Nobel-prize-winning sweeping strokes, but in solid strides forward.
My vote goes for solid strides.
(Now before you go getting all cranky with my friend, you should note that we were talking over drinks, among friends, very good friends, and we’re the forthright variety of friends.)
So, on followed an interesting but prematurely digressing discussion on whether being a stay-at-home mom was actually a career option, and/or whether it should be. Before too long, our conversation had shifted to other loosely related topics and we let this one go, but the idea itself has lingered in my mind, and in order to set those final thoughts free I share them with you here:
Supervising a child, ensuring that he or she doesn’t maim or kill him/herself or anyone else before late adolescence may not be anything to be overly chuffed about. Sure, millions of people do that every day, all over the world. But, I suspect that raising a child is a task in another category.
Let me explain what I mean by “raising.” I mean nurturing growth, fostering critical thought and intellectual development, enabling and guiding a young person to (to borrow the army's slogan here) be all they can be. And yes, also to supervise the meeting of their most basic physical and mental needs through late adolescence. To do all of that, I believe, is a very different job than the basic supervision that happens all too often. And indeed, I believe it is something to be mighty chuffed about.
I think the actual grit of raising children, the stuff that changes the job from a part-time affair to a full time affair—the fostering of intellectual growth, teaching awareness and intention, self-control and personally guided self-growth—these sorts of things are so undervalued and unexplained to the average person in North America (I can't speak for the rest of the world) that most people don't even realizing what’s being missed, or briskly glossed over, in the rearing of their children. The result: millions of people never challenged to meet their personal capacity, not engaged in their own lives or the world that surrounds them. In short, not living up to their potential.
The job of raising children appears to be punted around in our society, from parents, to nannies, to teachers, to extra curric providers, and so forth. And although all of these people may well play critical roles in child rearing and development (personally I happen to feel that everyone plays a role in children’s growth), I think the glitch in our current societal approach is that instead of all of these people feeling that they play a key role, nobody thinks that they are responsible. Everyone is under the impression that it is someone else's job to cover the basics of human development. The end result, lost potential.
So I guess if I were to finish the conversation that my friend and I started I would say yeah, I think that raising children is a big job. And I think doing it in the fullest sense of the job description is definitely something to cheer about. And yup, I say it is absolutely a legitimate use of ones time, and further I would argue that it is also a legitimate career path (for those for whom it is financially viable, which is a whole other discussion unto itself). And while supervising a child through physical development may not be anything to give out gold stars for (although it may be, that too could be a whole other discussion), raising a child is something that really could change the world. Not in grand Nobel-prize-winning sweeping strokes, but in solid strides forward.
My vote goes for solid strides.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Going Public
I am an introvert. Some people may not believe that, but it's true. I like to be behind the scenes, I like to sit in quiet spaces, I like to observe and reflect. I share this information to contextualize this blog. It's a project you see. I am trying to grow, taking my words and my thoughts a little more public. So here we go, come along for the ride, come along for the words, I hope what you read here makes you smile, or think, or grow, or perhaps it will inspire you to live bold, or it may even facilitate some fabulous experience in your own life. Here's to that. Happy days.
xo the author
xo the author
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