My thoughts on media and how it may lead to unhealthy eating habits
Although there were many interesting topics to choose from this week’s readings such as obesity, anorexia, and the article that was posted, in my little blog i primarily talked about how the media may have an influence on unhealthy eating habits. I related it to my childhood and elaborated a little on that.
So!
This week’s readings were very interesting due to the nostalgic memories they brought me. In chapter 8, Sternheimer talks about popular culture and if it contributes to anorexia and obesity. Additionally, she mentioned how television, food advertisements and video games are always the entity being blamed for these problems. Moreover, I can definitely see and agree with the individuals who blame popular culture media and television. Now a days, young individuals are glued to the television set more than their homework, which is probably not a good thing for their brain development. By viewing an abundance of television may lead to the young individual to pick up habits that may not be good for them. For example, young females are probably watching something that is geared towards them, and is probably showed on a popular music channel. MTV, VH1 are music channels that young female viewers may be hooked on. Moreover, these channels definitely stress the importance of image, new trends that are occurring, and may display famous actors and their eating habits. Additionally, these images may stick to a young female or male, and may create unhealthy habits.
Additionally, the article “The Relationship between Television Viewing and Unhealthy Eating,” made me ponder about this topic and relate it to my childhood. For example, when i was growing up, i would always watch Rocket Power, but i never really payed attention to the media and try to figure out what message was being relayed. I would always pay attention to the actual television show and figure out what’s going on in the episode. Come to think of it, during commercial breaks, i do remember seeing an array of unhealthy name brand foods being displayed, which i can see young individuals being brainwashed into liking and wanting these products. In addition, the article discusses how an individuals food preference plays a major role in one’s diet, and how food preferences are developed through learning processes. That was interesting and made sense to me because young viewers brains are still developing. Additionally, due to their brain developing, by watching all these unhealthy commercials may imbed these unhealthy messages at a young age, which may lead to their unhealthy eating habits.
Lastly, there were a lot of interesting points Sternheimer brought up through out the chapter. For example, she mentioned between the years “1980 through 2000, the number of children classified as overweight doubled for those aged two through eleven and tripled for adolescents twelve to nineteen” (Sternheimer, 2013). That’s intense, and i can definitely see why there was such a dramatic increase. You have different corporations competing with each other trying to sell their products on television, which probably leads to the young individual telling their parents to buy them the product. If the product is good, the young individual may generate an addiction and may want more of the product which leads to unhealthy eating.
