Billy sat on the coach like he did every Saturday morning watching cartoons. As Bugs Bunny’s face faded from the screen, it was replaced by a picture of a little boy that reminded Billy of himself.
The little boy had come to the breakfast table and was beaming down at the two delicious looking Pop tarts that his mother had set before him. The little pastries were explored in a close-up shot that artfully showed the sprinkle-coated glaze of sugar spread over a thin pastry surrounding a sweet, fruity filling. Billy’s mouth began to water. “Pop tarts,” said a narrator’s voice, “are part of a complete breakfast.” Before the boy on television had taken a bite, Billy was up from the couch and waddling to the kitchen.He stood on his tiptoes to reach the Pop tart box on the pantry shelf. His fingers ripped open the flimsy cardboard top and latched onto the plastic wrapper that held two Pop tarts, replicas of the ones he had just seen on T.V. He tore off the plastic and stuffed one into his mouth while he grabbed a plate from the counter to set the other on. Munching happily, he carried his prize back to the couch, where he settled in to enjoy the next show.
Twenty minutes later, as Billy was taking his last bite, his grandfather walked in. With eyes unusually sharp for his age, he scanned the crumbs that stuck to Billy’s shirt.
“What are you eating, son?” Grandpa asked as he sat down next to Billy.
“Pop tarts,” Billy replied without taking his eyes from the television.
“Are those really the healthiest thing to eat for breakfast?”
Billy turned to face his grandfather with puzzled eyes. “What do you mean?”
“It looks to me like those things are just filled with sugar, and they don’t really have much nutrients for a growing body,” Grandpa replied.
Billy’s face relaxed. “Aw, don’t worry grandpa. The commercial said they are part of a complete breakfast, so they can’t be bad for you.”
Grandpa thought for a moment before saying, “You know, you can’t always trust what they say in the ads on TV. When I was young, we used to see commercials for cigarettes. They made them look safe so I started smoking during high school.”
“You used to smoke?” exclaimed Billy. “But everybody knows that’s bad for you!”
“We do now,” replied grandpa, “but at the time, we didn’t really understand just how bad they were. We also saw the people on television smoking so we didn’t think it would really harm us.”
“But Grandpa, Pop tarts aren’t like cigarettes.”
“You’re right, Billy. It would be silly for me to say that Pop tarts could hurt you like cigarettes do, but Pop tarts and other sugary or fatty foods can still do you harm, especially if you eat a lot of them for a long time. Because I smoked for a 20 years, I got lung cancer and had to have surgery to save my life. People with poor diets can also get sick from what they eat, and have to see the doctor about life threatening conditions like heart disease.” Grandpa paused. “Besides, just because Pop tarts are advertised on TV as being a breakfast food, doesn’t mean that they are good things to eat every morning.”
“Then how do I know what’s good or bad for me?” Billy asked.
“That’s when you should look at the food label,” Grandpa said. “Don’t always trust what commercials say. Here, I’ll show you what to look for to tell if something is good for you.”
He took Billy’s hand and the two went into the kitchen to get a better idea of what kinds of food was in their pantry, leaving the TV blinking out commercial after commercial to an audience that wasn’t there.
This scenario addresses one of the issues that are found in food advertisement. Like Billy, we are bombarded daily by media that encourages us to eat their food, often under the assumption that it’s good for you. “McDonald’s snack wraps are made with lean meat!” a billboard urges; “Try our new lowfat yogurt” a commercial implies. It is up to us to figure out just how good the advertised food actually is. Does “part of a complete breakfast” really mean something is nutritious? It’s time to take a look at the labels and see, just as Billy did, that part of the reason for our unhealthy eating comes from misleading advertisement.
So what did Billy discover when he looked at the Pop tart label? See for yourself:
Info from www.quitehealthy.com
It turns out that those two Pop tarts left him with 420 calories (a little less than 1/3 of what he should be getting daily) and over 40 grams of sugar! That's about three and a half tablespoons, and eight grams more than the daily sugar allowance for adults. And for all of that sugar, he gets a little vitamin A and iron. Not bad, but those same vitamins could be obtained from a glass of orange juice and a bowl of oatmeal.
But wait, didn't the commercial said that Pop tarts are part of a complete breakfast? Doesn't that mean they aren't just sugary junk? Not really. Almost anything can be part of a complete breakfast depending on what the other parts are. If Pop tarts are shown alongside an orange (providing fiber, vitamins and natural sugar), a glass of low fat milk (providing lean protein), and a bowl of oatmeal (providing long term energy from complex carbs), then it is technically "part of a complete breakfast". By this same reasoning, sawdust could be part of a complete breakfast so long as you eat other healthy foods with it. People need to realize that phrasing in commercials might not always mean what it implies.
So being "part of a good breakfast" doesn't really mean much in terms of nutrition. I'm sure that Pop tarts are part of a good tasting breakfast for many children, but they don't contribute much to a child's health. Especially when it comes to sugary breakfast foods, parents should always look at the label before buying breakfast foods with loads of empty calories that mostly come from sugar. A good site to start at is http://www.acaloriecounter.com/breakfast-cereal.php, which compares the nutritional value of breakfast foods.
On a larger level, this story shows that people need to take responsibility for what they put in their stomachs, and read the nutritional information instead of trusting trickily-worded commercials. It's sad that even when we try to be healthy, we can be mislead into making unhealthy choices. But in the end, you decide what you eat, not a commercial.
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