Pester power of kids driving junk food??

Could the "pester power" of kids be a significant factor behind junk food consumption? Are time poor parents simply caving in to the demands of kids too often?

Kids drive 97% of cereal purchase.

And where are these kids learning to "want" junk food? 

Marketing to kids is huge business - "pester power" is well documented as a sales tactic, and websites like this one show the statistics from studies into how powerful kids can be when it comes to influencing a purchase.

For example it's no surprise that 98% of the time kids have an influence on which restaurant is chosen when the family eats out. Advertisers that succeed in winning over kids can generate a massive amount of money.

And it's not just TV advertising - marketing of junk to kids on the web has now become even more invasive.

This study monitored the food advertising on four popular children's websites for a period of one year. Here is a summary of what they found:

• A total of 3.4 billion food advertisements appeared on the four websites over the one year period.
• Breakfast cereals and fast food were advertised most often (64% of ads).
• 84% advertised products that were high in fat, sugar and/or sodium (salt).
• Most ads (74%) promoted brands approved by companies for child-directed advertising.
• Even the "healthy" food choices featured in ads were unlikely to meet independent nutrition standards.

So what can we learn from this? I guess two things come to mind:

1. Adults need to talk with kids about healthy food choices, and educate them. We don't want our kids to be "food obsessed" but we also don't want our kids learning about healthy eating from advertisements.
2. Next time the government or regulators talk about putting rules in place to reduce junk food advertising directed at kids, you might consider supporting it.

Reference:

Ustjanauskas, A. E., Harris, J. L. and Schwartz, M. B. (2014), Food and beverage advertising on children's web sites. Pediatric Obesity, 9: 362–372. doi: 10.1111/j.2047-6310.2013.00185.x

Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/design-dog/9730712923
Photo stream: https://www.flickr.com/photos/design-dog/

Top 6 reasons for unhealthy snacking

Keeping clients on track with healthy eating can be incredibly challenging, but it helps if you can "get inside the head" of the client and understand the triggers behind unhealthy snacking.

If you can understand the trigger, it's possible to offer the client a strategy or a mindset that might help them overcome unhealthy habits and adhere to healthier eating. Remember that small changes add up over time and snacking in between meals is often a stack of calories added to the daily intake.

A recent study identified the top six reasons for unhealthy snacking:

1. To enjoy a special occasion - Let's celebrate by eating a massive meal and a bottle of wine!

2. Opportunity induced eating - Someone puts a plate full of donuts in front of you at morning tea.

3. To gain energy - I feel flat, somebody give me a candy bar!

4. To reward oneself - I've eaten healthy all week, let's celebrate at KFC!

5. Because of social pressure - It's a BBQ, everyone else is drinking beer so perhaps I should have a few.

6. To cope with negative emotions - I'm feeling a bit down, a family size bar of chocolate will make me feel better. 

As a personal trainer, being able to offer clients different ways to deal with each of the above situations will help them avoid the trap of unhealthy snacking.

Graphic sourced from www.suppversity.com.

Reference:

Verhoeven, Aukje AC, et al. "It's my party and I eat if I want to. Reasons for unhealthy snacking." Appetite (2014).

Brazil creates epic guidelines for healthy eating

In Australia, despite the obesity epidemic our Government can't even agree on simple rules for food labels because powerful food industry groups seem to control the rules. 

The food industry does things like donating large sums of money to political parties to ensure they get a seat at the table when our healthy eating guidelines are drawn up. Did you know the food & beverage industry donates about the same amount of money as the mining industry?

The Fast Food industry was locked out.

Recently I became very interested in eating guidelines out of Brazil - you can view a full summary of the ten guidelines here, but what really spiked my interest was that these guidelines were designed by food, nutrition & health experts whilst the food industry (and commercial interests) were deliberately locked out of the room.

This is big news, and I've never heard of it happening anywhere else in the world. The guidelines contained the usual great advice to eat fresh foods, reduce fats, salt and sugars... 

But what I was really impressed with was a number of eating guidelines we have never seen before from a government body, several of them aimed at the social and emotional aspect of eating. Two great examples included:

#5 - Eat in company whenever possible.
#6 - Develop, practice, share & enjoy your skills in food preparation and cooking.

Do you enjoy preparing food?

It's really interesting to see people being encouraged to enjoy the process of cooking and sharing real food, instead of being told simply what to eat (or what not to eat). 

I think these guidelines might help people eat less fast food on the fly, less rushed eating, less gulping of soda, and more planning of healthy foods. All of these things are likely to reduce consumption of empty calories and promote healthier, happier eating.

Of course, commercial interests (like the fast food lobby) do not want you to stay at home and enjoy preparing fresh whole foods with your loved ones... They want you in the drive-through ordering a burger with large fries & a massive Coca Cola to wash it all down.

Another two eating guidelines from Brazil that I have never seen before:
#9 - Avoid fast food chains.
#10 - Be critical of the commercial advertisement of food products.

Probably two of the best eating guidelines I've ever seen, but sadly we will never see guidelines like this in Australia as long as the food industry gets a seat at the table when guidelines like these are designed. 

If you like my Blog, feel free to visit my Facebook page. I use it purely to distribute meaningful information and I'll never try to sell you anything or spam you with crud.


Image acknowledgements from Flickr Creative Commons: 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/snekse/2501155494 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/esotericsean/2186109381

Get Ripped - Metabolic Resistance Training

'Metabolic Training' is one of the new buzz phrases in fitness. In a previous blog entry I outlined the type of exercise that we can do to maximise calorie burn for fat loss, not only during workouts but also maximising afterburn (EPOC) following a workout. This week I'm getting more specific and providing a sample workout (and video) to show what could be done with a beginner client.


Basically, metabolic resistance training is performing a number of resistance training exercises with little or no rest in between - it's very similar to a "circuit" style workout. It's a very intense way to train, and also very time efficient - workouts tend to be shorter because most of the rest periods are eliminated. We are trying to achieve a very high level of fatigue so we can maximise calorie burn during the workout and metabolic rate (afterburn) following the workout.

Metabolic training is for advanced clients, right? Sure, the principles of metabolic training are ideal for challenging advanced clients and reaching new heights (or depths) of fatigue using higher intensities and less rest. But like most things in the gym we can take the basic principles and modify them for the beginner client. In my experience most clients want to be challenged and they want to feel like they are being progressed to more "advanced" exercise, plus clients generally love the euphoric feeling of completing a really tough workout. The tricky part is handling your clients with enough care and using your professional judgement to get what I call the "Goldilocks" workout - not too hard, not too easy... but just right.

So... Metabolic training is all about resistance training? No. You can achieve excellent metabolic stimulus from doing the right type of cardio, especially from High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). But for today I'm only outlining a metabolic resistance training workout suitable for a beginner.

Metabolic Resistance Training - The Guidelines:

1. Use multiple resistance training exercises - for beginners I recommend 4-5 exercises in the set.
2. Complete your 4-5 exercises in a "circuit" style workout - i.e. no rest in between each exercise. When you have completed one complete set, have a restricted (timed) rest before repeating.
3. Use primarily large muscle groups, compound movements. For beginners, you might modify this by using 2-3 compound movements and 1-2 isolation exercises during the working set.

Check out my basic guidelines for progressing metabolic resistance training workouts here or click on the link below this screenshot.

Click here to view the full downloadable version

So... What does a metabolic resistance training workout for a beginner look like? Click on the video below to view a simple metabolic training set suitable for a beginner. It is intended to target primarily chest and shoulders, it combines four exercises that are suited to the client's level of skill and fitness level.

Training in this way is extremely time efficient, it allows the client to achieve a level of fatigue (i.e. overload) using 12-15 minutes of exercise that would take much longer doing a traditional resistance training program. For the personal trainer, this frees up time for some cardio or perhaps core conditioning but still able to have a short, sharp 30-40 minute session with a client rather than a longer one hour session.

If you enjoy my Blog, please follow my Facebook page I use it purely to distribute meaningful information and I'll never try to sell you anything or spam you with crud.