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With more pressure on all forms of transport, it’s great to see the police booking motorcycles using the bicycle lane in Melbourne this morning.

While it’s great to see people using motorbikes rather than cars, there has to be a common sense approach to motorbike riders using the bicycle lanes to avoid the traffic congestion.

It is extremely dangerous to cyclists when 150-300kg of metal is hurtling in and out of the cycling lane, at times narrowly missing the bicycle commuters.

If we are to encourage people to adopt bicycle usage over using their cars, it has to be safe.

The real solution is to introduce the Copenhagen style bicycle lanes which is what is proposed by the City Of Melbourne for the new Swanston St redevelopment.

Are Junk food companies developing brand loyalty towards children? With childhood obesity being a complex issue, is regulation required?
With the recent approval of McDonalds at the Royal Children Hospital, is creating brand awareness from an early age a good thing.

I like to compare it to tobacco adverting in motor sport, if it had no effect on peoples decision top either change their cigarette brands or influence their decision to commence smoking why would they spend hundreds of millions of dollars placing there logo’s on the cars?

Well guess what, they ban any form of advertising in Australia yet junk food is ok to be promoted unregulated.

Today everyone from breakfast cereal companies such as Nutri-Grain which is a third sugar to McDonalds sponsoring Little athletics.
Coco Krispies made similar nutritional claims in the US.
The next strategy are branded toys and even McDonalds now has a toy whereby the children can make hamburgers in a Barbie doll style plastic kitchen.

Now we are seeing websites created by the big multi nationals with web based games show casing planety of company logo’s and product images.

So why do junk food companies do it?
*Brand awareness
*Creates associations with a particular event or activity
*Creates a relationships with the parents
*Influencing children at an age where they lack the ability to make healthy food and beverage decisions.

Ultimately you can argue that the parents have the final say or control the money to purchase these products but the same can be said for cigarette advertising.
Ultimately it makes it harder for responsible parents to take control of there children’s health.

The latest Government Preventative Health Taskforce document targeting obesity and Diabetes make recommendations to phase out junk food advertising before pm and banning junk food toy competition promotions.
The only issue is the voluntary nature of this report, once again leaving it to the socially responsible corporations to follow the guidelines.
Unfortunately self regulation hasn’t worked as was experienced by Coke last year.

So will the junk food companies adopt a more responsible approach when developing their brand loyalty towards children

Fingers crossed it passes through the Senate. With binge drinking out of control, any initiative to curb consumption is definitely a move in the right direction.

After a Melbourne cyclist was killed on the 18th September last year and amongst constant pressure, the City of Melbourne are dragging their feet on the issue of removing the buses from Swanston Street Melbourne.
Former Councilor Ng said the council had been aware of the problem of buses along Swanston St jostling for space with trams, cyclists and pedestrians and it had a plan to move them.
From mid-2009, the council would force tourist buses to park next to the second Southern Cross tower in Bourke St, near the corner of Exhibition St.
She said buses overstaying the 15-minute parking limit had also been a problem and inspectors had conducted a crackdown earlier this year.
“We have been aware of the problem for a while and that’s why we adopted the bus relocation plan,” she said.

Maybe the Minster for Transport and the Mayor of the City of Melbourne can ride a bicycle into the city along St Kilda Rd from the south to Carlton in the north for a month during peak hour and share their experiences with the public.

Are the healths risks associated with eating a diet rich in saturated fats, sugar and other nasty artery clogging food stuffs worth the risk to his liver and other organs?

‘I have always been telling my clients who have come through the gym’s doors that weight loss shouldn’t be difficult, but it has reached the point where I can’t relate and by doing this it should make me a better personal trainer,’ he said.

Doctors in this country though have pointed out the dangers of such rapid weight gain and loss.

‘Weight gain of this kind could cause Mr James to get visceral fat around his organs such as his heart and liver, increasing the dangers of diabetes and high blood pressure,’ says Dr Matt Capehorn of the National Obesity Forum.

I find it confusing that rapid weight gain followed by loss can give one an insight into understanding how overweight/obese can lose weight.

A highly conditioned personal trainer has missed the most important part of losing weight, the psychological element.
It’s like saying that a new Ford sedan can get 1,000,000kms from the engine just because a Taxi drivers does.
The missing point is the car is running 24/7 with all the fluids and filters changed regularly.
Your average Ford Sedan is driven for 30kms to work, the engines cools and it doesn’t reach operating temperature until the drive back home, similarly no moisture builds in the engine if driven constantly.

Do you think that Paul “PJ” James is more akin to the average sedan or the Taxi work horse?