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It is more or less common knowledge that ingesting junk food increases one's weight abnormally.
But is it a fact?
There is some light thrown into the matter now.
And which are the companies that have come up as the biggest peddlers of junk food?
Hold your breath, they are Coca Cola and McDonald's besides a host of others who are big time advertisers on television.
It simply doesn't matter that our film stars (read Aamir Khan) have been bombarding us with tidbits of information on the soft drink major saying that it goes through 400 types of testing and is completely safe.
"Drink it every time and enjoy it," he announces as he takes a swig from the bottle.
Health activists have been fighting a lone battle with the multinational for quite sometime for polluting the environs in India and also on the issue of presence of a high level of pesticides in the drink.
Apologists of the company (some of them are in very high positions in major IT companies who ought to know what they are talking about) keep saying that our ground water itself has been polluted with pesticides for such a long time that their presence in the soft drink is but natural.
But that is not the point here.
Now, a newspaper in Australia has said that despite its claims of not attempting to market the fizzy drink to kids, it is doing exactly that.
How?
The soft drink giant has publicly identified itself as the main sponsor of the annual Australian Scouts Jamboree — a 12-day event for 12,000 youngsters mostly aged between 11 and 15.
The sum being coughed up by Coca-Cola is huge – 11 million Australian Dollars. The event will take place in January.
Leaving no stone unturned in its quest for publicity, the sponsors have ensured that the main sports stadium for the event will be named Coca-Cola Arena.
Yet, Coca-Cola says that it is not aiming to sell its products to underage children.
But is anyone buying this three dollar bill?
Australia's Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott has gone on record accusing Coca-Cola of adding fuel to the island's childhood obesity crisis.
"Gaining a prominent presence at a major even such as this is a typical tactic for multinational companies," said Kathy Chapman from the Parents Jury, a self help group that is concerned about the influence of soft drink and junk food marketing.
"Kids are just not discerning enough to realise they're being manipulated," she said.
But one can always be sure that those who will defend the multinational will not be far behind when such comments are made.
Sure enough, the chief director of the 21st Australian Jamboree, Peter Mentiplay, obviously under some pressure from the multinationals opined that without Coca-Cola Nestle, Uncle Tobys, Kellogg's and SPC, the event could fall on its face.
What he said further makes interesting reading.
To wit, he said, "for 12,000 Scouts this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. There will be non-stop physical activity and fun for 12 days. Obviously they need healthy meals and lots of water. I don't think parents will worry too much if their children enjoy the occasional soft drink or ice-cream."
Yeah?
A spokesperson for Coca-Cola said bang on cue, "a wide range of products including water, juice, coffee and carbonated soft drinks were chosen by Scouts Australia."
But the unnamed spokesperson made something else clear. "The company's presence at the jamboree was consistent with our policy not to market to children under 12."
There were further clarifications.
"This is an event for secondary school-aged young people, the great majority of whom are over 12 years of age. Our agreement with Scouts Jamboree is not a marketing initiative, it is a product supply agreement."
Those who wish to deduce the difference between marketing junk food between 11 year olds and the magical number of twelve (is it too big a difference anyway?) can take heart from this comment.
But there was more misfortune on the way for Coca-Cola in this endeavour.
"The food and beverage industry is running scared," said food marketing expert Gawen Rudder.
"They are crying poor!" remarked Dr Tim Gill, from Sydney University's Centre for Public Health and Nutrition. while commenting on the junk food industry as a whole.
His further comments are more illuminating.
"For years they laughed at anyone suggesting they should be doing something (about obesity). Now that everyone's turning against them they're crying victimisation and it's hard to have any sympathy," Gill added.
That brings us to our own backyard where the multinationals have polluted groundwater by releasing their sludge without proper treatment.
It is easy to tell people here that our groundwater was polluted for a long time because of pesticides. Was it the same case in the land of Ricky Ponting as well?
And what is more, who is responsible for the soft drink giants' contribution to our young ones' (and for that matter older people as well) ill health in terms of overweight problems?
But then, similar to the comments of other apologists in Australia like Mentiplay, there will be a thousand Aamir Khans. But if we don't watch out ourselves, we only have ourselves to blame for swallowing liquid manure!
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