to think that the amounymt of junk food in the supermarkets is f*cking RIDICULOUS

[sallyseton]

whole AISLES dedicated to sweets, chocolate, crisps, cakes, biscuits etc!!! is sthere something wrong here or is it just me?

no wonder half the country's fat if every time we go shopping we're bombarded with all this. packaging is often designed to be most appealing to children, too.

there's an argument that supermarkets promote this food as unlike say, a potato, these foods do not go off quickly. so it is more profitable for them.

i am not a food nazi, i like chocolate etc as much as anyone else, i just think the choice on display is ridiculous and we all as a country probably eat too much of it.

there's a very good argument that says that if you want cake or something, you should make it yourself. that way you can see what goes into it (and no additives or preservatives) but because of the hassle involved it really will be a treat. i might try it.

oh, and nefore anyone flames me over using the word "junk" food, yes i do believe that the kind of preservative filled crisps etc you find at the supermarket are junk food, almost no nutritional value, unlikely to fill even the smallest
child up, abd the packaging will be thrown away and fester away in the earth, certainly not biodegradable.

i do feed my child crisps btw, but the
slightly healthier "baked" ones, and i am certainly not
judging anyone, feed your child anything you damn well please i just dont think we should have such a surfeit of crap in the supermarket!

ps i bought some light mayonnaise yesterday, it had a little sticker on it saying it was a good source of omega 3 and 6. MAYONNAISE!!! you have to be f*cking kidding me. these food companies are all damn immoral liars.

Ocado here as well.

I am kind of 50/50 on this.

Obviously supermarkets can stock whatever they please/sells

But I also believe that advertising is very clever, food labelling is often misleading, and food of the sort that makes our animal brains go "happy happy happy" is terribly plentiful and cheap.

If producers aren't going to act in the interests of the people consuming their goods (which they never will), then I believe that external forces need to make them act at least reasonably responsibly.

Agree with those who say YABU.

No-one forces anyone to either buy crap food, or use supermarkets.

(and before anyone waxes lyrical about The Meditteranean Diet I was on the beach yesterday with 4 Italian families, came home and said to dp, "I can't believe what shite these people feed themselves and their children" It was all meal-planning conversations revolving around things in breadcrumbs and deep-fried and frankfurter "sausages" )

FWIW re low fat etc stuff, I buy full fat everything because I prefer to have the stuff how it was originally intended to be, and just maybe have a small amount of it, and not the chemically-enhanced-replaced-substituted-with-something-to-pad-it-out twangy tasting low fat variety.

It has always struck me, when holidaying in Europe, how much rubbish we have in our food aisles compared to France or Portugal. At home I do cook from scratch but when staying in an apartment with a two ring cooker and a microwave. I probably would have preferred to have a bigger choice of convenience foods.
Would also have preferred if the girl in the bakery in France wasn't quite so snooty when she told my poor Mum "Ce n'est pas une baguette, c'est un pain!"

i get the personal responsibility advert. i do. but look at america, a country founded on personal rebloodysponsibility, and what do you see? obese people running around shooting each other. not all of them, not even the majority, but the highest percentage in the world.

people cant make good choices if they are bombarded with crap ALL the time.advertising, fast food places, bloody cake next to carrots.

i just think supermarkets should be a place free from all that, where nutritious food could be bought. not even completely free from junk, just less of the ridiculous amounts they have at the moment!

so no, i dont buy the personal resposlnsibility argument when the country is so relentlessly manipulated by
manufacturers.

*ARGUMENT!

Ocado here too, and agree about full-fat everything. My children have sweets and crisps when we're out but we never have them in the house, and unlike many of their classmates they don't get a packet as soon as they get out of school.

YABU but I sympathise. I've recently been dieting to lose the baby weight and have really noticed the space in our local shop which is given to rubbish.

2 aisles of junk food (half on special offer), 2 aisles of alcohol and 1/2 aisle of pasta/ rice etc and ingredients. I know it is all about personal responsibility but boy does it make it harder.

Yes, America is full of obese people shooting each other.

"no wonder half the country's fat if every time we go shopping we're bombarded with all this. "

No you're fat if you pick it up buy it, eat it and then do no fucking exercise.
Junk food being on a shelf never added a calorie to anyones diet.

And people can very easily make good choices. Regardless of advertising, most people know which things are healthy and which are not. If people want to buy unhealthy foods, why should the supermarkets stop them?

Of course the solution is to have scales insatlled at the checkouts - then people deemed too heavy would not be served any fattening products.

Until then it is down to personal responsibility - you have a choice about what type of food you eat. If the supermarket doesn't stock it find it else where or ask the maanger why they won't stock certain products.

YANBU. I don't blame the supermarkets as such, they are just serving the needs of the customers, but people are so stooopid. It is healthier and cheaper and tastier to prepare your own food.

My 3 year old was watching something on cbeebies (some really odd program about three toy pandas and the host was acting as if they were real) and they were cooking something with beetroot, only the beetroot was in a jar! Jarred beetroot. And they were buying something called potato powder, I was wondering what the hell that was, turns out that's how they made mashed potato.

Supermarkets and advertisers bear absolutely no responsibility whatsoever. They are private sector organisations operating perfectly legally in a free market economy.

If you wanted to absolve some personal responsibilty I suppose you could argue that the state has a responsibility through its schools and public health bodies to promote healthy eating and to educate people as to the dangers of too much junk food, and the importance of healthy eating and exercise to a person's diet and general good health.

But surely they already do all that? Most of us know that too much junk food, especially coupled with lack of exercise, is bad for us. if, like me, you still eat too much crap and don't exercise enough, there's no point blaming the advertisers who promote the stuff, or the shop that sold me it. No one put a gun to my head and made me buy it or eat it.

News flash. Supermarkets are not here to do us a favour or a public service. They are privately run companies looking for profit.

Just avoid the junk food aisles. Choose your menu for the week, go food shopping with a list and only buy what is on the list. Want a treat? Make yourself a cake or some biscuits. Much nicer and much healthier.

Nobody is forced to buy any of it! Nobody is even forced to go to the supermarket.

People should take responsibility for themselves

I just wrote a long post but actually can't be arsed.

The manufacturing and advertising industries are adept at misleading consumers. Of course the clever people will read every single label on everything they buy, and thus be able to avoid things with excessive added sugar and so on. Not everyone has the nous/time/energy to do that, and thus the manufacturing industry needs to be kept in line in terms of not misleading the consumer, or adding too many random things in places that you wouldn't expect to find them (bread with loads of unexpected added sugar for eg).

Supermarkets and advertisers bear absolutely no responsibility whatsoever. They are private sector organisations operating perfectly legally in a free market economy

there's a little thing called morals, dear. this is exactly why we're in a recession, due to unregulated (financial) markets. until people accept that, if given complete free reign, companies will screw over the consumer and the environment for as long as and as many times as they are allowed to continue doing so.

Am I missing something? Didn't the OP herself say it was better to make cakes and biscuits ourselves rather than buy them?

This is a weird thread - lots of people seem to now think it's an 'it's not my fault I'm fat' type of thread but I think it started off as more of an 'obesity as a social problem, surely the role of the supermarkets is not helping' thread. And it isn't helping, that stands to reason. If you were planning a society in which obesity was less likely, there is no way you would put aisles and aisles of junk food in supermarkets in it. We can't get rid of them but it would be ridiculous to just say they don't matter, it's irrelevant, personal responsibility is the only thing that matters blah blah...

Saying that supermarkets full of junk food contribute to obesity isn't giving people a get out of jail free card to say 'it's not my fault I'm fat', even though it's true that all those aisles of junk food contribute to the problem. We don't have to absolve the supermarkets of any role or responsibility just because we're afraid it might make people not take personal responsibility. Both factors are relevatn.

And relevant, too.

i'm just flabbergasted that so many people think that supermarkets, the main source of food for most men, women and children in this country should have absolutely no moral or ethical qualms about what they put on their shelves. shocking.

At least supermarkets sell healthy food as well - anyone tried to buy something other than cakes, crisps, chocolate, sweets etc from a garage?

thank you greenandsilverstars, you put it better than i did!

Yes we could get rid of them if no-one bought the products! Ok - accept this is not going to happen but if no-one consumes a product then there is no money to be made.

Its a free market economy - if you don't like it then do something about it. If supermarket X is not meeting your needs find a local supplier that is.

What next a new law that says supermarkets can only stock X amount of 'crap' products? More interference from govt then?

It does to back to education and making people aware and giving them the skills or interest to do it for themselves. The schools curriculum needs to be more broadly based to give more life skills.

"there's a little thing called morals, dear. "

But offering certain foods for sale to people who want to buy them and do in fact buy them is not a moral issue. There's no ethical or moral dilemma there.

Also wrote a long reply but can't be arsed either.

Supermarkets sell what people want. They wouldn't waste shelf space on things that didn't sell. They are a business whose aim is to sell their stock. End of story and YABU to think otherwise. The only person responsible for what you put in your mouth is you. And I say that as a lard arse, it's my fault not Tescos.