“How do you deal with the political propaganda?”

That's the question I asked one of my classmates from China when I was in grad school at Berkeley.  You know, the huge, pervasive portraits of Chairman Mao and other political leaders over the years… just popping up everywhere I understood.

She smiled and said, "Well, probably the same way you deal with the commercial propaganda here in the United States".  Good answer!  Quite insightful.

As a card carrying capitalist I know the purpose of marketing is to ask the customer what they want and communicate to them that you are going to give it to them.  But "sales" sometimes deviates from true marketing and ventures into persuasion and dare I say it, manipulation.  

We are bombarded daily with high budget advertising campaigns by fast food restaurants, beverage vendors, cereal manufacturers, etc who are trying to get us to purchase their product.  They typically emphasize fun and fashion rather than healthy lifestyles and better living.  THAT is the job of the health department.  

But the health departments in most states, including California, are GROSSLY underfunded to do their job in providing a rational voice in the midst of the amazing pervasiveness and effectiveness of the commercial approach to luring customers to less healthy food and drink.  

Effective because we drink more soda than ever.  Effective because our kids are fatter than ever.  And that is not just an association, that's cause and effect.  Kids today are three times more likely to be obese than 30 years ago and we had to change the name of a disease ("Adult onset diabetes") because so many kids were getting it at unheard of young ages.

So, I was gratified to see this article in the Enterprise about some legislation being considered in the California Legislature to make healthy beverages the first option for kids dining with their families in restaurants.  It is NOT the only option, it is merely the first option.  This is a relatively low budget way to provide ample opportunities for better choices, more nutritional choices.  And it is scientifically sound…. when the human body is thirsty, the beverage it is looking for is WATER…. everything else is a substitute.  (Don't worry, I know milk is good and important as well, especially for kids.  The legislation actually calls for water or milk as the default beverages for kids).

Here's the link to the article about this pending legislation:  https://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/state-government/out-with-the-soda-in-with-the-milk/

Seems like a smart thing to do.

John

PS  Didn't the City of Davis pass some "milk or water first" legislation a couple of years ago?