Christmas and supermarkets

                  October 8th - the first time I have noticed Christmas displays in a store.

This is an easy game. People write to the newspaper every year remarking on the early appearance of Christmas or Easter-related products. Not everyone is unhappy with this commercial distortion of traditional celebrations. One friend(OK, my wife - that's sort of a friend) told me that she likes hot cross buns so why shouldn't she have them when she feels like having them? Well obviously I can't argue with that, mainly because I am not religious, but I feel that I am losing some of the landmarks of my life.

It is as though the seasons no longer change. I once worked in a city where it was too warm for many deciduous trees to lose all their leaves in winter. Despite good job prospects I moved back to my cooler origins so that time did not become an unchanging season, even if I could no longer grow hibiscus and frangipani in my garden. If Christmas extends throughout the year it has lost its cultural as well as any religious significance.There is nothing to look forward to since it is already and always present.

But Christmas is just too commercially attractive. Every year it encourages celebration, more spending and greater profits, so it must be tempting to grab a little bit more of it, to start a little bit earlier; or to take some of its elements for use throughout the year. I shouldn't be surprised to see this since a supermarket is simply an enterprise for the purpose of making money, not a heritage organization for the preservation of our cultural history. And, as my wife makes clear, it can only act with the support of the public - who no longer live in the same kind of world that spawned these traditions.

 Having defended the supermarkets for their right to be soulless and unscrupulous, I would like to say that, in my opinion, they play a major role in the increasing obesity and consequent increasing ill-health of our community. A supermarket is a giant-sized convenience store, promoting an unhealthy diet, attractively packaging unhealthy fats and highly processed high-GI foods. Whole aisles are devoted to biscuits containing the harmful but commercially advantageous(cheaper,longer shelf life) palm oil. Refrigerated shelves are laden with yoghurts proclaiming that they are ninety eight or ninety nine per cent "fat-free" despite the same calorie content and less satiety leading to overeating and obesity. It is implied that confectionary which is nearly one hundred percent sugar is actively health-promoting by eye-catching "fat-free" labels. Unhealthy foods which are impossible to disguise are offered as the indulgence "you deserve" in promotions that bypass the rational mind of many vulnerable people.

So, what to do? Well my wife has found quite a good solution. She doesn't go to the supermarket for her shopping except for irregular visits for kitchen and laundry supplies. She goes to the greengrocer for fruit and vegetables, which also supplies milk and bread. She doesn't have to run the gauntlet of temptation all the way to the back of the shop just to get some milk. She gets bread from the baker and meat from the butcher: not so useful for Christmas treats and decorations in early October but she is losing weight by eating healthy foods.