Eye Opener 5: Photo Voice Essay

What is it with the disconnect between the natural environment and the man-made environment?  Think about it: as children we are told exactly how to talk, act, and even eat due to the man-made environment which includes media (advertising), buildings, roads, etc. We rarely learn from the natural environment. 

While I was in Colorado, one of the ritziest malls in the state, Cherry Creek Shopping Center located in Denver has a brand new play-land for children.  What is the play-land made out of? Breakfast foods.  But not fruits, vegetables and whole grain breads for breakfast; just some fat, oil, meat, produce and sugar... Are these young children learning to eat from the natural enviornment, or from the man-made environment?

Right next to the play-land is an advertising kiosk for HealthONE related to heart health for adults.  Below is a picture of the display within the kiosk.  Once again, if children see this, how do they learn with such a disconnect? Is heart disease just as fun as that play-land 20 feet away?

Advertising and food--another huge problem.  Kids these days see other children their age all of the time advertising foods.  What sorts of foods are their peers advertising? Artichokes or Kraft Mac and Cheese? Which one looks like more fun to you if you're a four year old?

What about bananas or Pop-Tarts?  One is natural, one is man-made.  Are children learning how to differentiate between the two, or are they only being given one side of the story?

In class when we  discussed how hard it would be to give up our "normal diets" of meat, cheese, eggs, dairy etc. after learning from reliable sources not to consume such foods, we established that we partially eat the way we do because we grew up knowing nothing else.  Why would it be so hard to phase our "normal" diet out?  Because we enjoy the food so much, or because as children we played in breakfastland and saw kids just like us all over TV and the magazines having fun with man-made foods?? I would have to say before any of us were even educated about what the environment can give to us nutritionally, we were taught to abuse it.  We supported the petrochemical industry, the breaking down of the ozone layer, global warming and the over full land-fills looooong before we even knew what we were doing.  

So, once again with the disconnect. Evaluate yourself, why do you eat the way you do?  Do you have enough time to maybe start over and learn about the natural environment before you feast off of the man-made one?