Saturday, October 07, 2006

Today at the market....

I had an experience today that is just the epitome of why so many people are unhealthy:

I was shopping in a warehouse market where they hire people to dispense free samples of foods and other products. There was a very pleasant, friendly young fellow handing out samples of the latest in super-vitamin, just-add-water, powdered-juice products.

I tried a little cupful just to be friendly, and another woman came up beside me and tried a sample, too.

The flavor was okay, it was a little fizzy and tasted like orange. I happened to ask about color additives; the demonstrator guaranteed me there weren't any...orange was its natural color.

I glanced at the ingredients on the package. It was hard to tell what was in it unless you are a chemist. I'm not, so I put it back on the shelf.

The woman beside me, without looking at the package herself, asked the young man if the drink were safe for children. Now, keep in mind this young man was hired to demo the product and probably never saw it before this morning.... He very quickly assured her it was perfectly safe for children.

She bought it!!! Without looking at the label herself, without doing any sort of research or at least a little homework, she bought the product and intends to give it to her children. She handed the health and welfare of her children over to a young man (I don't think he was a chemist, either) being paid minimum wage to demo products in a warehouse market store.

And we wonder why people are unhealthy. Could it in part be because we hand over responsibility for our health to people who know even less about it than we do??

(I hope that woman at least gets online when she gets home and researches the product before she serves it to her family. Or, maybe her husband is a chemist! :-) )

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seems to go beyond naivete into a total absence of any sense of responsibility for one's health or even that of one's children. No wonder junk food manufacturers can create such empty snacks. Hmmph. But ... to balance with some optimism ... the Wegmans chain has a line of "Good For You" foods that avoid additives, and is carrying organic fresh and processed foods (all sorts of veggies and fruits, plus organic pasta sauces, milk, eggs, etc.). Since they're an industry leader, it bodes well for groceries' futures.

Anonymous said...

That is a depressing scenario M, but all too common. See no evil, it aint there, right!!! At least for too many people. When it affects their children, thats tragic. I wish my own parents had been more savvy to all the junk foods but they werent.