The National Post recently published an article about the Ontario Medical Association’s health policy paper that suggests means of combating obesity with the same tactics used to combat smoking. A core suggestion of the policy paper is placing graphic warning labels on potato chip bags to warn consumers of the potential outcome of obesity. With this in mind, I checked out the eating options available on U of T’s St. George campus, visiting some core locations and comparing the price and value of some of the options at these food outlets.
It seems clear that some healthy options are available on campus, and yet, they seem insufficient to counter-balance the hunger for high-fructose corn syrup of both students and the population at large.
I am doubtful that a warning label on a bag of potato chips will guide a customer to the fresh produce aisle and encourage them to change their lives, lose weight and be healthy. As I investigated the local food outlets I spoke with one manager, who informed me that the outlet only recently began offering pizza, because of frequent students requests. Given the healthy options readily available at all food outlets on campus, the problem of unhealthy eating seems to lie in the social expectation of eating with nutrition in mind.
The logic of the proposed junk food warning labels is coherent: the introduction of warning labels on cigarette packages resulted in a measurable decrease in the number of smokers in the Canadian population. However, there is something fundamentally different between unhealthy eaters and smokers. You would be hard pressed to find a smoker who isn’t aware of the potential damage of their actions, or the social judgment associated with their addiction. But you could easily find someone who is overweight, who has always eaten junk food, and never been called ‘fat’ — who is unaware of or not concerned with their unhealthy lifestyle choices.
It’s a matter of social acceptability; once smoking became a highly frowned-upon activity, the number of smokers in the population dramatically decreased. If obesity follows the same social trend, it will become more feared, and vigilantly combatted, leading to it becoming less visible in the general population. Society is well on its way to moving obese people to the point of self-maintenance in the interests of their own health. Until then, chips — or on the U of T campus, pizza — ought to remain available, unmarked, and fairly priced. At the end of the day, healthy eating is a choice, one that it is up to an individual to make.
See also: Comment – As U of T grows, we need more student-run food outlets
