I really really do love Public Healh

Hello to anyone who is not also reading the Facebook page - I just wanted to explain my brief absence. Last week I was snowed under with printing and stapling my Deakin job paperwork for the coming data collection sessions, and this week I am just so flat out I haven't had a second to scratch myself, but never fear - next week I am going to be looking at SUGAR including That Sugar Film and my own supermarket investigations!

On another note, last week I received an award from La Trobe University! It was the Penfold Public Health Research Prize, awarded to the student who had the highest average mark across three specific public health subjects. I was presented this award by the very interesting and trail-blazing Dr Barbara Francis, a Virologist from Melbourne and the grand-daughter of Dr Oliver Penfold, a Bendigo GP who was passionate about preventative health. I was so honoured to receive this award and stoked to get this unexpected recognition of my hard work throughout my degree - and this brings me to a total of two degrees in the degree, alongside the SCU/Lincoln award received for academic excellence in 2013.

I feel, this week, like I am on the cusp of knocking down the doorway of a career in Public Health - let's see, shall we?

Corporate Sponsorship and our Children's Food and Exercise Habits

Hey bloggers!

How are we? As I shared on the Facebook page last week - I went for a job annnnnd didn't get it! BUGGER! My feedback was the same as the previous interview - we loved your energy and enthusiasm but in this instance, we had a more qualified applicant (5+ years). Ack, much graduate, so hard.

But, on we press! This little train that could is powering through the stations 'disheartening-ness' and 'fear of failure' and pressing on through to the stations 'success' and 'joyousness'. What helps this is that I have been awarded with the Penfold Prize for Public Health at La Trobe University for having the highest average mark for 3 Public Health units - see, I told you this girl loves Public Health!

So, for this weeks consideration, and sort of following on from last weeks post, is what place do big corporations have in our children's food and physical activity industries? (Note: I don't have a kid, just an awesome fiance and cat).

What I mean by this is two different things: First, food companies that are typically unhealthy - sponsoring kids sport, such as the McDonalds sponsorship of the Hooptime kids basketball competition, and formally of Auskick. This week I'm going to leave a lot of thinking up to you, internet, but here are some starters... what sort of message does it send to kids to associate physical activity with energy dense nutrient poor foods. Or where would these sporting organisations be without the huge corporate sponsorship they currently receive; would they disappear and would this lead to obesity as well, as there isn't enough money to run the programs?

Worth thinking about.

This is the other thing to think about. What about children's character 'endorsement' of certain foods? Characters like Mickey, Hoot, Peppa, Minions etc have a lot of influence in the lives of their key demographic. So why are the organisations behind the corporate endorsement of foods choosing foods that aren't particularly healthy? My assessment of this today in one supermarket: Minions are currently appearing on Tic Tacs, Cupcake mixes and Banana flavoured biscuits, none of which children need any help in consuming - why aren't they sponsoring actual bananas (prepacked), or healthy breakfast cereals (Oats or Wheetbix!) As an example here are more of the products Minions currently appear on.... not a lot of food kids should be encouraged to eat!

As this post is designed for you to think about, all I really want is for people to be aware of how this is all affecting our food and exercise and to think critically about it! Are these things you have noticed too? Should we be looking at who is supporting kids food and sporting competitions? Or is that just the way it is? 

Who runs the world? Girls! Who run this mutha? Oh it's actually huge multi-national countries.

In both of my current jobs, I spend a lot of time in supermarkets and shopping centres. Like many people, I check out the specials before I go shopping and it is genuinely starting to freak me out how much of it is unhealthy food, and beyond that, that many (most, even?) of the products in supermarkets are owned by some of the same half a dozen companies.

What do I mean by this? Well, sure, Nestle make baking chocolate and condensed milk but they also own the brands Maggi, Uncle Tobys, Nespresso and Purina! Then you turn over a packet of Dove soap and you see it is made by Unilever and sure sure I've seen that before but did you know Unilever also own Lipton, T2 and Bushells Tea, Omo washing powder and Ben and Jerry's. It is, in fact, increasingly difficult to support independant and local brands when shopping at a supermarket. To see more of what I am talking about, have a look at the diagram below.

I just find this super interesting. And I think it opens up a lot of questions like...
Where is my food being produced (See the Nannas berry saga to see why this is an issue!)
How far has this food travelled to make it to me and how much damage did this do to the environment to get here in terms of petrol used?
How much time has this spent in transit, and what chemicals and preservatives (and food dyes and their origins) did they use to get it here looking like this?

These are questions that you don't need to ask when you are buying from smaller, local companies - and there is believed to be a lot of health benefits from eating local in-season produce - but this is next to impossible in this day and age. And it's not all bad, some of these companies sponsor local events and fundraising... but I think it is interesting to think about. It also makes a point about why it's best to use a simple method when shopping for healthy groceries in a supermarket:

Stick to the outside of the supermarket.

This will include fresh fruit, vegetables and meat etc, whereas typically, the aisles are filled with these highly processed foods that are owned by large multi-nationals.

But I digress. the most interesting company to look at is Altria.

Who is Altria? Well, they have a generic colourful logo which gives no indication as to what they actually do. And they own a lot of companies, like the big multi-nationals I listed above. Their big ticket item is a little company called Phillip Morris who are the dead set legends* behind Marlboro cigarettes.

Let's look deeper. Altria own more than 28% of SABMiller. SABMiller own ALL of Fosters, who we know as the makers of popular brands VB, Carlton Draught, Pure Blonde, Cascade, Miller and Chill. So. This means that whenever you enjoy one of these beverages, 28% of it is owned by Altria who will be funneling that money into continuing the sale of cigarettes.

Now... its important to remember that these companies give people jobs and that is incredibly important to health. But wouldn't it be better if these companies put the amount of effort  and money they do into making us unhealthy...into making us healthier instead?

So what are my key points?

Shop local. Don't shop highly processed foods. Think about where your food comes from and what it goes through to get to you. Support smaller independent breweries! Don't bloody smoke! And remember that no one is perfect and while it's fine to say all this, it's near impossible to remain a 100% ethical human being in terms of food and drink! But it's good to know and be able to make informed decisions!

Over and out!



*Uh, not really. I have other words for them. Ask me in person. What sort of company sells a product which will kill you in a horrific way, or produces a product that the picking of can lead to illness in children in the developing countries where tobacco is grown and young children work, or what sort of company aggressively advertises their death-inducing products to developing nations with little knowledge of the health ramifications but annnywayyyyy....