Television does weird things to people. Add in Gillian McKeith's acerbic style and it becomes difficult to discern the difference made by the new food and exercise regime from the Hawthorn and Pygmalion effects of being observed, and of having expectations about what will happen.
The people selected for the programme are extreme. They typically eat fewer than 5 portions of fruit and vegetables per week (few people meet the 5 a day target, but the majority do manage 2-3 a day). Most of them live on takeaways, processed food and vast amounts of confectionery and are extreme in the sheer volume that they consume.
However, there is an uneasy feeling that if a number of parents ever had to do the infamous "week's actual consumption spread out on the table" exercise with their children, they would be horrified. Like the parents in the BBC's Honey, We're Killing The Kids! are usually shocked at the amount of sugar, fat etc. that the children are eating and how little wholefood.
So, asked about their children's food consumption, a number of parents would use conventions to describe it. Normal. What every kid eats. But a visual exercise like the infamous 'week of food' actually converts it into a narrative and makes the story explicit.
Food is important. But so is our environment, sleep and stress. It's back to considering our allostasis again.
tonyplant
April 26, 2006 - 11:14Television does weird things to people. Add in Gillian McKeith's acerbic style and it becomes difficult to discern the difference made by the new food and exercise regime from the Hawthorn and Pygmalion effects of being observed, and of having expectations about what will happen.
The people selected for the programme are extreme. They typically eat fewer than 5 portions of fruit and vegetables per week (few people meet the 5 a day target, but the majority do manage 2-3 a day). Most of them live on takeaways, processed food and vast amounts of confectionery and are extreme in the sheer volume that they consume.
However, there is an uneasy feeling that if a number of parents ever had to do the infamous "week's actual consumption spread out on the table" exercise with their children, they would be horrified. Like the parents in the BBC's Honey, We're Killing The Kids! are usually shocked at the amount of sugar, fat etc. that the children are eating and how little wholefood.
So, asked about their children's food consumption, a number of parents would use conventions to describe it. Normal. What every kid eats. But a visual exercise like the infamous 'week of food' actually converts it into a narrative and makes the story explicit.
Food is important. But so is our environment, sleep and stress. It's back to considering our allostasis again.
Take Care - Tony
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