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We love to watch The Biggest Loser. We've been watching it for like 6 years and I really miss Jillian. Bob's still there though. I've often wondered how he feels about promoting products like ground turkey (Bob Harper is a vegan, as far as I know). I probably would make that compromise too, for a job like he's got. There's no getting around conflicts like this and you have to decide for yourself where to draw the line. For all the healthy habits the show promotes, however, they accept sponsors from the dark side. For example:
-Disposable diaper manufacturers: I think it's the popular brand (name rhymes with Hampers) that shows happy babies and toddlers giggling in broad daylight because they're wearing 'sposies with "TWELVE hour protection." I think we know who's being protected for 12 hours - parents. I'm hoping at least this is for nighttime use, although from the commercials it would appear it's for allowing kids and their caretakers to be in denial of elimination for an entire day. Don't tell me someone isn't tempted to do this on a long car trip, a to skip a few bathroom/diaper changing breaks because the label says the kids should be OK for 12 hours.
-Extra sugar-free gum: It's probably fairly harmless, but healthy? Would Bob chew it?
-Cheap ground turkey: sure, it's lean meat, but as the flesh of miserable, factory-farmed mutant animals I can't call it healthy. Or wholesome. Would Bob eat it? I like this article about turkeys which is written from a diner's perspective - not a vegetarian one - and even a meat eater can be disturbed by the industry and its creepy products as well as the poor Frankenbirds.
But back to Pampers or Huggies or whatever. I hate to use the phrase "slippery slope," because all slopes are somewhat slippery, but how did so many parents come to, um, depend on these? And pullups designed to help kids as old as 5 avoid using a toilet - these will surely have serious effects on this generation. Will we have them for grownups to wear in meetings so they won't have to hear the obnoxious phrase "bio break" during a 4-hour, 800-slide presentation about Six Sigma and ROI?
-Disposable diaper manufacturers: I think it's the popular brand (name rhymes with Hampers) that shows happy babies and toddlers giggling in broad daylight because they're wearing 'sposies with "TWELVE hour protection." I think we know who's being protected for 12 hours - parents. I'm hoping at least this is for nighttime use, although from the commercials it would appear it's for allowing kids and their caretakers to be in denial of elimination for an entire day. Don't tell me someone isn't tempted to do this on a long car trip, a to skip a few bathroom/diaper changing breaks because the label says the kids should be OK for 12 hours.
-Extra sugar-free gum: It's probably fairly harmless, but healthy? Would Bob chew it?
-Cheap ground turkey: sure, it's lean meat, but as the flesh of miserable, factory-farmed mutant animals I can't call it healthy. Or wholesome. Would Bob eat it? I like this article about turkeys which is written from a diner's perspective - not a vegetarian one - and even a meat eater can be disturbed by the industry and its creepy products as well as the poor Frankenbirds.
But back to Pampers or Huggies or whatever. I hate to use the phrase "slippery slope," because all slopes are somewhat slippery, but how did so many parents come to, um, depend on these? And pullups designed to help kids as old as 5 avoid using a toilet - these will surely have serious effects on this generation. Will we have them for grownups to wear in meetings so they won't have to hear the obnoxious phrase "bio break" during a 4-hour, 800-slide presentation about Six Sigma and ROI?
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