More Progressive Than USA – South Korea Restricts Junk Food Ads for Kids

January 21,2010

Telegraph

By an AFP reporter in Seoul

Advertising of food high in fat, sugar and salt will be banned from all TV from 5pm to 7pm, the health ministry said, and will also be prohibited during children’s programmes shown at any time.

The restrictions will apply to hamburgers, pizzas, instant noodles, chocolate and other candies and ice cream.
“The ban, to be enforced this month or in early February, applies to high-calorie, low-nutrient food, snacks and sweets,” a ministry official in charge of food safety said.

Official data showed more than one-third of ads aired during children’s TV programmes were for food, mostly for sweets, instant noodles and soft drinks.

Consumer groups have called for stricter measures to protect children from junk food, saying one out of five children in South Korea is overweight.

In March last year, the ministry banned the sale of junk food and drinks in schools and their neighbourhoods in a bid to tackle the growing problem of child obesity.

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Many Overweight Americans Uninterested in Healthy Lifestyle

January 21,2010

Mail Online

By Daily Mail Reporter

Television chef Jamie Oliver was reduced to tears during his latest efforts to convert an Amercian community to healthy eating.

The usually upbeat good food crusader broke down after he met serious resistance while shooting scenes for his new series, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

More than half the residents of the country’s fattest city, Huntington, West Virginia, are obese but most were blatantly uninterested in the chef’s advice.

He sobbed as he said: ‘They don’t understand me. They don’t know why I’m here.
He felt so alone and thought at times of packing the whole thing in.’

Some members of the local press warned him to steer clear of their community.

One radio presenter blasted: ‘We don’t want to sit around and eat lettuce all day.

A production source told the Sun: ‘His tears was the lowest we’ve ever seen Jamie.

‘He is normally so upbeat but the scale of this challenge got to him. Everywhere he turned, he was face with obstacles.

‘People were outwardly hostile to some of the ideas he put forward.

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Air France to Charge Obese Passengers for 2 Seats

January 21,2010

TELEGRAPH

Obese passengers who are unable to squeeze into a single seat on an airliner are to be charged double to fly with Air France.

From next month seriously overweight flyers will be asked to pay for two seats, or not be allowed on board for “safety reasons”, the airline announced yesterday.

“People who arrive at the check-in desk and are deemed too large to fit into a single seat will be asked to pay for and use a second seat,” said Monique Matze, an Air France spokesman.

“They will be charged 75 per cent of the cost of the second seat, which is the full price excluding tax and surcharges, on top of the full price for the first.

“The decision has been made for safety reasons. We have to make sure that the backrest can move freely up and down and that all passengers are securely fastened with a seatbelt.”

She added: “People who cannot fit into a single seat will then be fastened by slotting the belt tip of one seat into the plug of the next, stretching over both seats.

“However the charge will only apply on flights that are full booked. They will get their money back on flights where spaces are available.”

Two years ago Air France was ordered to pay £5,000 in damages to a 27-stone passenger who had his stomach measured at an airport check-in desk before being told to buy two seats.

British Airways has no weight limits for passengers, but advises overweight people to buy a second seat for their own comfort and safety if necessary.

Last year a picture, posted the aviation news website, Flightglobal, reignited the debate about obese passengers on aeroplanes.

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“FOOD, INC.” – The Movie

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults. Click here for more information and to view the trailer of Food, Inc.

Plus, don’t forget to click here and help ensure that the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act assures healthy food choices in schools by signing their petition.