Fighting The Junk Food Battle.

References: Guardian News and Media Limited (2015) Crisps: a very british habit. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/sep/01/crisps-british (Accessed: 25th August 2015).

We know that companies selling junk food will make their products seem amazing and as though they are 100% good for you, hiding all the facts about the bad stuff, that goes without saying. But surely there are people out there who are trying to raise awareness of the truth behind the foods. Surely there are people trying to make some kind of effort to explain to children that all is not what it seems when it comes to those colourful sweet packets with their favourite characters on the front?

Thinking back to when I was in High School, I remember a poster from the British Heart Foundation about how much oil goes into crisps. 

Before I saw this poster, I didn't even think twice about eating a packet of crisps or two per day. I didn't think about what went into them, or how they affected my body, I just ate them because they tasted good and were convenient! After seeing this poster up on the school walls, however, it really made me think twice about opting for crisps over a piece of fruit on my lunch break! Posters like this which use shock tactics might seem harsh to show to children but I think that sometimes, it's the only way to get the message across.

The guardian talks about the British Heart Foundations campaign:

Four years ago, the British Heart Foundation famously warned that half of all British children were, in effect, drinking five litres of cooking oil a year by virtue of their packet-a-day habit (crisps are a staple in 69% of lunchboxes). More alarmingly, nearly a fifth of British children apparently eat two packets a day. Soaring rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes were, the foundation warned, the consequences.

People like the British Heart Foundation aren't in competition with crisp companies, they don't want to lose them business so that they can sell their own products. They are simply looking at the bigger picture of how the rates of obesity and diabetes are raising and this could be one factor which has a huge influence on it. I can't see any negatives from putting this campaign out there, it's simply showing children just how much fat is in the crisps and raising their knowledge of what goes into the foods they eat. It is also shocking parents into how much of an impact packing their children's packed-lunches with treats like crisps every day can have.