Village on a diet?
Today people are just so obsessed with health. What to eat, where to eat, when to eat, what to do, what not to do! So many rules about how we should live our lives so that we don’t get sick and ultimately, don’t end up dead!
The media has been promoting healthy living in so many ways that even TV shows have been created based on this concept. Some of these shows gained much popularity such as The Biggest Loser, yet others, not so much, like the show Village on a diet which has been discussed in almost all my classes this semester several times. But I wonder do these shows actually promote health? How effective are they in motivating people to get up and exercise, or to swap a can of pop for milk? How effective are all the ads we come across every day, and are they even worth being displayed?
You may find it strange that I’m a nutrition student and that I’m saying this but I feel like everywhere I look I’m bombarded with internet ads, radio ads, billboards, posters, etc, all promoting healthy living. Well maybe not everyone wants to live this “healthy” lifestyle and is happy with the current lifestyle they are living. Why does everyone have to have fibre and eat lots of leafy vegetables and cut back on foods they like like pizza and be miserable when they can eat what they want and be happy and enjoy life? For example, the people in Village on a diet, are they actually happy? I mean yeah, maybe they are losing weight and are happy about that but do they still have a joy for life?
It may seem like I’m against being “healthy” but that’s not true at all. I think everyone should live the way they truly want and be happy about who they are and what they do. For some people this may be by eating healthy and living a healthy lifestyle, and for others this may be by eating foods that they enjoy and doing others things they enjoy, so, stop with the ads about how everyone should live a healthy lifestyle. I completely support the ads that are targeted for people who want to adopt healthy lifestyles, yet when the media tells everyone they have to lose 20lbs, hum... not so much! There are ways of trying to educate the population about taking care of their health, like promoting personal hygiene, or educating about the consequences of high risk behaviours, yet telling everyone to lose weight or eat a certain way maybe asking too much of an entire population.
