SIRC Media Watch Archive
The Pick – August 2005

Sun? Just say no. Love, sex, UV light — these days we’re all addicted to something. One in three of us has an addiction, according to official figures. But if you tot up all the modern addictions that we’re supposedly prey to, it’s hard to believe that many of us aren’t some sort of junkie. It’s not just fags, booze and drugs. Psychiatrists, nutritionists, sociologists and other scientists — particularly in America — are now writing extensively about addictions to love, sex, the internet, gambling, sugar, shopping. And this week, research published in the Archives of Dermatology suggested that up to 53 per cent of beach-goers could be addicted to their sun fix...It raises the question of what really is an addiction. Times

Foodmania! One day we detox, the next we binge. One week it’s the organic veg box, the next it’s a KFC bucket. And if we’re now a nation of foodies how come we spend more than ever on fast food? Have we all got mad chow disease ... We are, it seems, a Mad Food Nation - in a constant state of anxiety. If it’s not E. coli, it’s E numbers. If it’s not pesticides, it’s food miles. If not dairy, it’s dioxins. Or danger diets. Or Ronald McDonald. We’re frightened of everything. Turkey Twizzlers. Tanzanian sugar snap peas. Evil salt. Evil sugar. Evil antibiotic-resistant campylobacter. And that’s without counting the scourge of the missing digits that turn up in our microwaveable ready-meals. In this climate of fear, little wonder that we’re feeling a trifle bilious. As legendary American TV chef Julia Child once put it, ‘When you’re afraid of your food, you don’t digest it well’.Observer

Media Monitoring  Let them eat sweets. Amid all the panic about the nation’s health, children are being robbed of one of their greatest pleasures, says Tim Richardson. Eating candy does all kinds of good (just don’t tell them to make it last) ... Guardian.