The Food Standards Agency has decided that the nation is too fat, and has suggested several policies aimed at persuading us to eat more healthily. The measures include stopping the likes of McDonald’s and Walkers crisps from sponsoring sports events and banning junk-food ads during children’s television programmes. One does not have to walk far down a high street to agree with the FSA’s assessment that a lot of children eat too much. But its suggested measures smack less of a fight against obesity than one against global capitalism. A ban on sponsorship by large food companies might possibly reduce the intake of McDonald’s revolting burgers, but it would do nothing to wean children off more traditional, less advertised but arguably even more unhealthy food such as fish and chips, fried breakfasts and gobstoppers.
However much one may detest branded junk food, the fact is that it has become easier to eat healthily during the era of global capitalism than it was a generation ago.
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