Yesterday I came across a blog post shared on Facebook…you may have seen it on my Facebook page. I’m pretty sure this post has gone viral. And so it should! It’s an eye-opener. It’s the hard truth. And sadly, It’s reality.
The post is entitled “The World Is Fucking Insane”. Great title. It was written by a guy called Nick Crocker who wrote it for the blog, Medium. Medium is a collaborative blog “designed for little stories that make your day better and manifestos that change the world”.
Nick’s post is about what he came across at his local supermarket…aisles filled with massive amounts of sodas, chips, chocolates and trashy magazines (which we all buy!) with pictures of slightly overweight celebrities in bikini’s with headings such as “Too hot to care”…making out they should be ashamed to want to strip down! And then there’s the health mags Nick took pics of such as Diabetic Living and Prevention magazine. Hmm, so basically once these consumers have bought their chips and Wonka chocolate, they should read about diabetic living and “prevention” as they’re waiting in the queue? Gotcha.
At first I thought this guy was from America; my rationale being it’s ONLY in the US where you’ll find supermarket aisles like the ones Nick took pics of. Surely.
Wrong….
This post came straight from an Australian supermarket, albeit it wasn’t one of our mainstream supermarkets such as Coles and Woolworths. But even more disturbing, it was a local, independently owned supermarket. Now I’m not into name bashing which is why I’m not going to mention the name of the supermarket on my blog; plus this supermarket and its consumers are heavily involved in several charities, which is great. But one does have to wonder why an independently owned supermarket who is supposedly passionate about “providing our customers with fresh local produce”, would have monolithic amounts of crap food. Is this particular supermarket situated in low, socio-economic suburbs? I’m not sure as I’m not from this city, however I do know there are 115 stores with plans of more opening. Eeek!
detective liz
Putting my investigator hat on, I decided to go to my local supermarket, a mainstream one, with my eyes wide open to see if it resembled the pics Nick took of his local supermarket. Usually when I go to the shops I stay on the outskirts where the fresh produce lives unless I need basic stuff like toilet paper and glad wrap. This leaves me (intentionally) unaware of the processed crap on offer.
Now every supermarket out there has their aisles dedicated to soft drinks, confectionery, cereal, fruit juices etc, so these aisles weren’t out of the ordinary. I was looking for anything that really stood out – on purpose. Strategically positioned right at the front of aisles like in Nick’s pictures. And bingo, I found one lot of soft drink stacked up pretty high right in between the soft drink and confectionery aisles. But that was all the evidence I could find. Not that alarming considering the pics Nick took of his local store.
a little bit of hard truth
Australia is now the most obese country in the world. Fact. And it’s not ground breaking news that those who live out in lower socio-economic suburbs are faced with more Maccas, Chicken Treat and supermarkets devoted to making you fatter. Even those who live in the city are obviously still faced with takeaway foods and aisles of processed food, making it very easy and tempting for the consumer to give in and buy this crap.
But seriously people, if you decide to buy this shitty food, I do not feel sorry for you getting diet induced diabetes one day or for getting fat. I don’t even feel sorry for you if your kids are getting fat. In fact it just makes me mad at you and very sad for your children. If you are reading my blog right now, that means you are part of the converted population. You just wouldn’t be reading this if health & wellness weren’t of interest to you, so what I just wrote probably doesn’t even relate to you. I hope!
And if it does? Well all I can say is WAKE UP. I do understand that you’re all busy and tired after a long day so convenience often wins. I really do get that. But it still comes down to choice. And there’s bucket loads of information out there on how to lead a healthy life. There are hundreds of blogs committed to giving you FREE recipes on living paleo, vegan, gluten-free, raw, on a budget etc etc. There’s organic shops, health food shops and farmers markets (amazing for getting incredibly fresh and cheap produce!) in every State. There’s no excuses! Not time, money or anything else you want to throw at me (or brainwash yourself with).
Just Choice
So what’s it going to be? What choice are you going to make for yours and your family’s health and future? I know what my choice is.
What do you think? Does your local supermarket make it easy for you to buy fresh produce? Do you still find it difficult to say NO to the processed crap on offer? Leave a comment below and feel free to share this post. Let’s make a difference! 🙂
P.S. if you really do struggle with your weight and being led into temptation, feel free to email me. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve 🙂
Great work, great post and all true for sure!!
It sure is! Thanks Aaron x
Amen sister!
I buy organic. If I need something from a supermarket, I send someone else because just the VOCS emitting from the personal care/chemical cleaning aisle, make me ill. I cannot image eating much food from a place like that. List of things from there: dog food, toilet paper, tissues, foil, cling wrap–not much else.
Tell me about it! The fumes coming from those aisles you mentioned are so toxic! That’s great you’ve got someone to buy the other items you need 🙂
I am saddened by the “black and white” nature of this post. I follow your blog and your instagram for inspiration. Health and wellness are extremely important to me. I follow a clean eating diet (not always organic) and see my personal trainer once a week (my uni student budget doesn’t stretch any further).
Despite this I am a 21 year old obese female, and have struggled with obesity from the age of five years. Doctors never uncovered why I suffered from childhood obesity when everyone else in my family is fit and in a healthy weight range. I rarely ate fast food (it’s impossible when you are brought up in a town 400kms from the nearest shopping centre) and I was as active as my siblings. I entered adulthood extremely overweight. So I try to be as healthy as I can, I try to nourish my body with good food, I stay as active as possible and I am loosing weight, but it has been a much slower process than my pt and my gp expected. I don’t know why it is harder for me, it just is.
Here is my problem with your blog post, it isn’t so much about promoting self-improvement as it is about fat-shaming. Which is fine if you are so repulsed by my obese body that you don’t want me to follow your blog… but seriously if you wrote it primarily about your supermarket outrage and left your personal judgements about obese people off it would have appealed to all of your followers, not just an elite group of perfect followers. Note: fat people might actually care about health and wellness too. Shocking!
Secondly I’m offended that you insinuate that the overweight celebrities featured on the cover of the magazine mentioned are not attractive. In fact you act as though you are outraged at the suggestion that they might be attractive. I am obese and consider myself to be very attractive. I have never been short of male attention, I have had a steady boyfriend for 18 months now. I’m not trying to loose weight because I’m unhappy with my appearance. I’m doing it purely because I know it is unhealthy to be at this weight. I don’t want to get diabetes, or high blood pressure, or heart disease or any of the myriad of other illnesses that could cut my life short. But I’m so happy that I exude body confidence, because I can’t imagine not living and enjoying my life until I reach a healthy weight range. I don’t believe that I should be ashamed of my body, I don’t think it is even in the best interest of my health quest to feel ashamed.
You have a wealth of information to share, and I’m so pleased I stumbled across your blog. But please lay off the fat-shaming and the assumptions. I’d love to use your blog to inspire me in the future but I will not read unfounded judgements that are supposed to make me feel ashamed.
Hello Jay. Thank you for your comment. I appreciate your view on this, but I feel you have misinterpreted it and hence taken it personally.
When I spoke about the magazine with the “too hot to care” title, I meant that the magazine was being insulting. I’m sorry if that wasn’t clear, and have now edited it so it is clear! 🙂
I don’t believe I am “fat-shaming” and making assumptions as I have very clearly made this post about food choices. I certainly made no reference to being “repulsed”” by obese people.
The first point I was making in this post was about my outrage of the supermarket Nick took photos of, that had waaay too much crappy food and the contradiction of the magazines that were displayed at checkout, such as Diabetic Living.
My second point sweetie, is about choice. It’s about the people out there who decide to buy the heavily processed food that leads to diabetes, obesity and heart disease. These people are getting fatter because of their food choices.
This post was not about people who have hormonal issues or other factors that might contribute to obesity such as yourself. Please understand this. I would never criticise anyone who’s weight gain is beyond their control.
My hat goes off to you for doing all the right things such as hiring a PT, eating clean and exuding self-confidence…good on you!
I am going to email you privately now, as I may have some suggestions of alternative therapies you could try to get to the bottom of your obesity.
Take care and thank you for reading my blog. I hope I can continue to inspire you in the future.
Liz x