Forum Topic

Sainsbury's and obesity - a public health fail

If you go into Sainsbury's  today you will see right in front of you a very large rack of large Cadbury's chocolate bars at £1 each in front of you.When you go to pay you will see even more racks of large chocolate bars all around the tills advertised at a knockdown £1 each.If you look at the chocolate bar you will find -  albeit hidden under the packaging fold in a perfectly legal but highly misleading way - a calorie count. Once you have done the maths you will find that each bar has 600 calories in it - or about a third of a female recommended daily calorie intake.Sainsbury's of course will say  that they are a responsible retailer, that they care about health, that they sponsor Jamie Oliver, that eating is about individual choice and you don't have to buy it, and that they have healthy eating and school sports programmes and all the rest of it etc.But in the end all that is guff. The truth is that they (and all the other major food retailers and manufacturers) just want to make as much profit as they can.Consequently, they heavily market sugary products which are incredibly cheap to manufacture and very popular - not least with children.And to hell with the consequences - be it diabetes, heart disease, shortened lives, cancer and everything else that goes along with obesity.Will major food retailers ever stop hiding behind false protestations of innocence and take responsibility for the impact their marketing etc is having on public health?Or will they just carry on in their health-destroying race to the bottom?Rant over.

Richard Grange ● 4821d23 Comments

It's the same in every supermarket. Nothing healthy is on offer. Just all the junk. Not exactly rocket science. It annoys the hell out of me that it's cheaper to buy 4 packs of biscuits than it is to buy a bag of apples.

Apple Leiper ● 4821d

I wonder how often people just say "No".  We're very self-indulgent nowadays.  For years I successfully avoided the aisles with tempting things in them but by putting them at the till I can't avoid them.  I can (and do) say "No".I remember a friend complaining about the things in reach of the buggy and loudly refusing to pay for anything taken by her child while in that last part of the queue to pay.  I was rather shocked.  I'm now older and wiser to the wily marketing that goes on.Don't ever "just pop in" to a supermarket for anything.Don't go shopping when you are hungry!There's usually cheap chocolate at the till in W H Smiths which can take you unawares.It can be quite difficult to buy a small amount - there are so often multipacks and large bars and special deals.    Sugar is addictive.Parents with children at the till are often tired and don't want to have to argue and say "No".  The sooner you explain the cynical world of marketing the better.

Philippa Bond ● 4821d

Well ranted, Richard.The sugar lobby is powerful and always quick to come out with its weasel words that total daily calorie intake is what matters, not where the calories come from, which is bullsh*t.

Susan Kelly ● 4821d

A preservative called corn syrup is a large part of the problem with raised sugar levels in many foods.It is almost hidden in products to prolong their shelf life.

Keith Iddon ● 4821d

Just back from Morrisons and the same - faced with a huge display of chocolate bars as you go into the store, all at 4 for £1.

Chris Hurley ● 4821d

And very cheap strawberries to be fair!

Sara Nathan ● 4821d

Ok – having got the rant out of my system  I want to inject a bit of fairness and balance back into the debate.I don’t actually think anyone at Sainsbury’s or any of the other retailers deliberately sets out to create an obesity epidemic. Nor do I think that the money they spend on health campaigning or their messaging is as cynical as I implied.  Nor does what I have seen in one branch of Sainsbury’s damn an entire chain / industry.But I do think we have got ourselves into a crazy situation as a society where we have surrounded ourselves with high-sugar and high fat products that confront us at every point.I was in Debenhams buying an iron not that long ago  – and as I approached the till, I was guided past a load of racks all selling sweets – in a  household items store! Its just bonkers.Ultimately – I think that this may be the “price” of free markets. (And obesity and its impact on health is a very high price)You create an environment whereby retailers are locked in a hyper-competitive spiral.  In that environment anyone who “blinks” and stops selling certain products – risks going out of business.  So everyone carries on – even though deep down everyone would probably  like to be liberated from the very race they are caught up in.Here endeth my sermon for the day.

Richard Grange ● 4821d

How about W H Smith, endlessly pushing their chocolate oranges at the till. Maybe they think they're one of our five a day?

Susan Kelly ● 4820d

Luckily, WH Smith always seem to push the least appealing sortsof chocolate: galaxy and chocolate orange. Nothing easier for me to resist - except Ferrer Rocher!

Sara Nathan ● 4820d

I am quite partial to a chocolate orange.

Susan Kelly ● 4820d

Me too.  Though I have discovered that chocolate is much nicer if you only eat it occasionally and not too much at a time.I now know to expect it at W H Smiths.  So I am prepared to say "No thank you".

Philippa Bond ● 4820d

I mostly buy my chocolate at Tesco Metro, which has its own brand 85% cocoa-solid. Makes Cadbury's or Mars taste like repulsively sweet goo.

Susan Kelly ● 4819d

Sorry to support Sainsbury in this anti Sainsbury thread but their own brand of dark and milk chocolate in the smart black card board packaging with blue or red lacy pattern is excellent. It was recommended by my Belgian friend who no longer has to travel to Belgium for her fix. ( Available in the Churchfield store)

Kim Rugg ● 4819d

On the subject of pushing goods onto young consumers, I hate the practise of toy manufacturers of including a mini catalogue inside a toy box. As soon as the wrapper is off, the child is looking at the next toy they want instead of enjoying the one they have just got. I make sure I remove them before wrapping a present and giving it.

Kim Rugg ● 4819d

Another problem is that food is sweeter in the UK than the same brands abroad, to appeal to the local taste.  Cereals, chocolates, etc. are all sweeter than the equivalent brands in say Canada or the US.  Being sweeter, they make the consumer crave more sweet things.  Sticking to dark chocolate is one way to minimise the problem, but very difficult to find healthy cereals.

Kim Bobsin ● 4818d

And even sweeter in the USA - where the native chocolate - Hersheys is wholly disgusting - and even Cadbury's make a sweeter and revolting version - or did when I lived there.

Sara Nathan ● 4818d

I seem to remember a book called Pure White and Deadly about sugar...We never had Coca Cola and Fanta or Lemonade etc to drink unless we were out for a treat.  Sweets and chocolate were also a treat. Definitely not an everyday or every week thing.  Yet I hear of people not drinking water at home or with meals..

Philippa Bond ● 4817d

Sorry, but I LOVE Hersheys! Must be my misspent youth (aged 3-6) living in the US giving me a taste for it. The only place that allows me to indulge this dreadful habit is Asda...

Lorna Dodd ● 4817d

I remember Pure, White & Deadly, which was by the late Professor John Yudkin, published forty years or more ago but recently reissued.I have been convinced ever since that sugar and not fat is the real enemy of good health and the medical profession finally seems to be coming (very slowly) round to this view.

Susan Kelly ● 4817d

Gosh - there's a name from the past. I met him, bizarrely when the Californian rabbi I worked for visited. He'd done the conversion for the Yudkin daughter-in-law...and was much rated therefore.Connections etc(I know, irrelevant to the issue at hand)

Sara Nathan ● 4817d

This practice of pushing this addictive substance continues from at least the last two centuries. The frenzy to create sugar plantations to feed the demand in the West, sadly led to the British "justifying" the free labour that could be got from slaves... a dangerous addiction indeed.

Ros Guthrie ● 4817d

If only it didn't taste so nice!!!Meet at the cupcake shop everyone.

Susan Kelly ● 4817d

Yes, it tastes better in small amounts!

Philippa Bond ● 4817d