Wednesday's Notes:

Here's a summary of the things we discussed during Wednesday's class.

We discussed the underlying narrative of "Sneaky Veggies". Some of the things we mentioned were:
- sneaking healthy foods into meals doesn't show kids that these foods are nutritious and tasty; rather it perpetuates the idea that kids don't like fruits and vegetables and we have to cater to their likes in order to get them to eat
- people won't grow an appreciate for healthy foods if they don't know they're eating them
-on a similar note, it'll take people longer to get used to these foods if they don't know that they're eating them
- the effects of sneaking vegetables is a short term one, rather than long term, as explained by the previous point
- just as forced consumption can make people avoid certain foods, so can finding out that something was put into your food without your knowledge. A few people in class spoke about their own personal experiences with family members who would become angry if they found out something was put into their food, or even avoid someone's cooking all together if they found out things they didn't like were being put into the food
- if forced consumption and sneaking foods into meals doesn't work, but we also believe that children naturally don't like fruits and vegetables, how are we supposed to get them to eat healthy?

We also talked about branding and these were the main points made:
- Branding (in terms of marketing to children) often associates the food with cartoons to get kids to associate foods with something fun, familiar and silly (for example, the Trix Rabbit, the Coco Puffs bird, etc.)
- Watching TV while eating makes us consume more because we become less aware of when we're full, as well as expose us to more advertisements for unhealthy snacks. It also takes away the social aspect of eating, which is a problem that's the result of our society's emphasis on independence
- the commercials we saw for Frosted Flakes heavily connected the cereal with happiness, friends, family, and sports. Often in media, fruits and vegetables and associated with feelings of disgust and being told what to do by strict parents. Could simply changing the way we portray these foods make it more appealing, especially to children?
- Ads could hypothetically work on selling and promoting healthy foods to the public, but who would fund this? Is there are market for healthy foods, and how would we pitch that to the public?
- Should we rely on big brand name companies to start pushing for healthier food options (such as McDonald's, Burger King, etc.) or is it up to us to resist all the ads for junk food that we're exposed to all the time?