In the UK there is a new campaign called Change4Life that is attempting to address childhood obesity and tooth decay. I agree that education is needed to help parents understand some of the nutritional needs of their children and education to help children develop a healthy relationship with food and physical activity.
THIS IS NOT IT!!!!!!
Their TV and radio commercials contain a catchy slogan “Look for 100 calorie snacks, 2 a day max.” Their position is that all children should only get two, 100 calorie snacks a day – not including fruits and vegetables. There is so much wrong with this!!!!!
When I first watched the commercial on YouTube – where they had these simple characters make all foods unravel to expose sugar cubes inside, talking about how they’d lead to fat build up and tooth decay, then playing their catchy tune, and it finishing with a mom and son checking the back of a snack box before deciding it was okay – I thought about how that one slogan is going to cause so much hurt to so many people and it honestly made me a little emotional. I know what’s it like to stand in the grocery aisle having to compare the nutrition labels, with a voice saying I need to get the healthy option, whether I actually like it or not. I know what it’s like to have your self-worth measured by the number of calories consumed. (Click Here to watch the ad. *Update: The video is now private.)
Let’s break this down.
1. Eating disorders are real, they are an illness, and they are deadly. We cannot ignore an entire illness when designing a campaign to treat another health concern. Teaching young children to calorie count and to classify foods as “good” or “bad” is teaching them the very disordered food rules that can become all consuming to someone predisposed to an eating disorder.
2. Children may require fewer calories than an adult to meet their energy needs, but the variety of bodies that those children have cannot be serviced with one catch-all slogan. A child’s gender, height, weight, activity level, and growth period are all things that will impact their energy needs.
3. By focusing on calorie counting they are teaching parents and children that the lower calorie food is “healthier” than another. This can cause them to avoid eating higher calorie foods that contain the nutrients they need to have the energy to grow, learn, and live their life.
4. By telling kids they only get to have two, 100 calorie snacks a day, they are being taught not to trust their body’s hunger cues and cravings. This can lead to them not eating enough and in turn lead to binge eating with the restrict-binge cycle; exactly what happens when adults diet.
I can tell you right now that I’m not alone in saying that if I was presented with this campaign my eating disorder would have had a field day! The very food rules that Ed imposed on me, and so many others, are exactly what is now being taught in the schools. Ed should not be teaching children!
If this wasn’t enough, they have created an app where kids can scan the barcodes of their food items and see how much sugar is in it, whether it’s “healthy” or not, and also reach achievements for scanning items. They’ve made a child-friendly MyFitnessPal….
Because third times the charm, they’ve also shared a video on Instagram where they mixed cakes, donuts, chocolate, fruit juice, ice cream, and other “bad” foods into a disgusting looking mess, accompanied by sloshing sounds and finished off with a burp. Along with a message to find “healthier snacking tips” on their website.
You’d think Ed was the creative director for this entire ad campaign!
I’m three years into recovery, and I’m 23 years old, so I can see these ads and recognize how disordered they are without it impacting me. Imagine you’re inpatient on an adolescent eating disorders unit and you’re scrolling through social media and see these ads. Ads that support the 100 calorie food rule your ED imposed on you that, just a few hours ago, a staff member had to sit with you, one-on-one, as you cried over having to break that rule and have a cookies and a juice. Or you see that video on Instagram after you just had your first doughnut in years, and it’s the perfect representation of the thoughts that have been going through her head non-stop ever since you finished it telling you how gross you are and how guilty you should feel over not eating a “healthier” food.
Now take a young child, they don’t have an eating disorder, they’re pretty good at listening to their body’s needs, and the day before was their sibling’s birthday. They show up to school and they’re looking forward to recess because they have leftover birthday cake for snack. When they take it out though, all their friends start commenting about how it’s “unhealthy” and must be more than 100 calories, so they throw the cake away. The next time they’re out getting groceries their parent says they can get their favourite cookies for snack, they say they don’t like them anymore. Then they pick out an item that they got a coupon for at school when they were taught about “healthy snacking” options.
Whether a child has an eating disorder or not, this campaign is harmful. It is teaching them to have an unhealthy relationship with food, to give food a moral value, and is opening up the door for judgement and comments from their classmates about their food choices.
All of the things that dieticians have been saying are unhelpful about the diet culture for adults, is exactly what is being presented and taught to young, impressionable children in their schools and homes.
Click Here to sign the petition started by @meg_ellison7 (*Update: the petition is now closed with 6,512 signatures) and here’s a video that was made in response to this campaign to give a voice to those who want it to be reconsidered.