In this edition of Online Insights we get a stern talking to about our dietary habits, snoop through Social Media tools being used to fight crime, marvel at the joys of data, and relive some high resolution film memories of yesteryear. Remember, your suggestions are always welcome.

Go small and save the world yourself

Chips - the supermarket chains wash their hands and say "health food aisle"

A regular contributor to Online Insights, Kay Walker, left a stirring reply to last show’s links about Palm Oil and it focussed on a snack for children that we have talked about called Kidscare Potato Stix. As it turns out, Kay is a health blogger with a blog called Health for Humans. There is a full volume post there that I want to highlight in a moment but first, her comment is worth highlighting. She investigated these potato stix because she thought “the plain version (with rice)might be a good nibbly for me as I’m allergic to wheat, corn, and egg, plus react badly to lots of MSG (and lurvvvve potatoes)”. But as she investigated further, she was infuriated that such a concoction could be firstly marketed as food, secondly marketed to children and thirdly marketed as healthy. Here is why: “There’s  less fat- but the fat is BAD and it’s PALM OIL. Grrrr. There are also zillions of other ingredients, including wheat, which make this snack a very bad choice for parents of allergic kids.” So what does she recommend: “This product needs to be taken off the market as it is just a pile of fillers with a label that suggests health. I wish our food regulators would keep environmentally doubtful stuff out of the food chain and make sure food sold is actually full of stuff humans can metabolise safely.”

She then makes a suggestion that most adults would agree with, that food advertising needs to be kept out of sight of kids because they “haven’t learnt enough about life to be given the privilege of choosing.” Mind you, she doesn’t think that is enough and argues that “we should try to get rid of the things that are no good and bugger freedom of choice- we’re just dumb animals and always choose the soothing, greasy, carby, tasty warm stuff- and then we give it to our kids!”

Now that we are warmed up, her own blog post called Go small and save the world yourself, sees her ramp up her rhetoric to greater volumes. Here is an edited taste:

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