As a health professional, when I go to
sleep at night, my goal is to feel that I have contributed positively to this
world. Sure there are perks associated with working in the media but in general
I see my role as a dietitian in contributing positively to the health and
well-being of my clients. Indeed, there is nothing more gratifying than to see
a client achieve their food and weight related goals in conjunction with my
guidance and I am never as happy as when I have had a successful day seeing
lots of clients who are on track health wise.
I imagine this would be the same for a
number of professionals – teachers, parents, doctors’ even most lawyers J whose focus is to not only
make money to live a comfortable life but to also put good energy, skills and
resources back into the universe.
When I consider big multinational food
companies who pump millions of sugar and fat based calories into the universe
every day, I struggle to see the positive contribution. Sure, on one hand these
groups create thousands of jobs, service a consumer want for these food types
and give back to the community via various feel good initiatives, but should these
groups still be rewarded when you argue that at least some parts of their
business are a little bit evil in terms of what they are selling, developing
and marketing?
These were the feelings I experienced when
viewing the Coca Cola advertisement highlighting their commitment to smaller
serving sizes of sugar based drinks; clearer caloric labeling and programs to
support disadvantaged children get more active. Sure, it is great to see a
company acknowledging that sugar based drinks are a contributing factor to
obesity and also their commitment to do what they can to help but is it not a
little bit hypocritical? Would those advertising dollars not be better spent on
actually helping the managing obesity, at grass roots? Is it still a good thing
when the underlying business model is to sell more and more liquid calories?
There is not one cause of obesity and
successful obesity prevention and management requires numerous strategies and
initiatives from individuals and as well as the public and private sectors. I
do wonder though, if the executives of these big food companies rest easy at
night? Whether, if they actually saw the impact of obesity at a grass roots
level, would they continue to do what they do? And do they really believe that
they are ‘doing no evil’ as they work towards plugging more and more high fat
and sugar calories into the universe? What I do know is that I couldn’t do it,
and while these groups are still around, the health professionals like me will
have plenty of work to do, hopefully funded by Coca Cola or Pepsico in the
future.
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