Weightloss - ad awareness

Have you ever actually paid attention to commercials, billboards, signs, all the ads you see every day?

I have, and noticed a huge percentage are for things that are not good for you or your budget. Try it - while watching an average 30 minute TV program, note how many commercials you see for fast food, packaged foods that aren't healthy, weightloss scam products and treats. How many ads for those items do you see every day in the newspaper, magazines, coupons, sales ads, billboards, signs in the store, on your computer, packages for other foods or anywhere else? Our world is saturated with them, and odds are good that heavily advertised foods are things with a very high profit margin, meaning they're made of cheap, unhealthy ingredients like bleached flour, corn syrup, sugar and hydrogenated fat with little real nutritional value. How often do you see ads for plain bran, fresh celery, green beans or other inexpensive healthy foods? Almost never, because their profit margin is not high enough to afford to saturate the airwaves with ads. There are few exceptions, like almonds, orange juice and milk, where industry organizations promote the product when one producer can't.

Studies have shown that repeatedly seeing ads for particular products makes you more likely to buy that product, even if the individual ads don't make an impression. Just recognizing it increases the odds of buying it.

So what do you do? Ads are everywhere, and many are good ads that can save money and direct you to helpful products. The best advice is to be aware of what you're buying and what you're eating. Take note of what items you're frequently seeing ads for, and look at the ingredients and nutritional information for those items. If you know what's in it, you're far less likely to get something that's horrible for you, even if you have been blasted with ads for it. Try new items you don't recognize, look high and low on the shelves instead of in the middle where the most expensive brand name items tend to be, and try to stick to the outside edges in the store where the least processed items are. Less messed around with usually means more healthy! Support products that are healthy, and eventually we can make a difference in what we're exposed to :)