Just Too Sweet by Susie O’Brien Article Review

Regardless if you’re in a situation where you’re expecting a baby, already have children or just researching, you want to have basic knowledge of the important topic of baby food. Therefore, you want to be feeding your child the right food containing the nutrients and protein they need to grow strong and healthy. However, author of ‘Just too sweet’ Susie O’Brien unearths that “popular toddler snacks and milks are no better than junk food, a new study has found.” These toddler snacks and milks have nearly as much sugar as Fanta, a drink that could potentially cause the liver to produce large quantities of insulin much more rapidly than the average body should. No responsible parent would dare to feed their child food that may cause those effects. Susie consolidates her main argument with several secondary arguments concerning the negative health effects of these repulsive snacks and milks with statistics in favour of the author from respected sources such as Deakin University. The factual tone developed in the newspaper creates a new perception for the target audience as they might be feeding their children the wrong food as they are reading the newspaper. 

Susie’s first argument is introduced as “foods marketed as healthy for toddlers is false when only one in 20 meets dietary guidelines.” Susie opens her argument by stating that “parents are being misled” making the target audience feel as if they have no interpretation on the subject, therefore being driven to believe what the author is writing. Persuasive devices such as ‘appeal to authority’ are repeatedly demonstrated throughout the argument to display an expert’s opinion and knowledge on the topic. This is because if the targeted audience is going to accept someone else is correct or take advice from anyone it would most likely be an expert because they can prove what the average person can’t making their information authoritative and dependable. For instance, ‘Jennifer McCann of the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition’ states that “32 toddler milks and 154 foods designed to be eaten by toddlers, including fruit and cereal bars, salty snacks and ready-made frozen meals, eight of the ten toddler products were sweetened and 85 per cent were ultra-processed.” Jennifer clearly states her point and only makes it more authentic by backing it up with solid research and evidence. The targeted audience was most likely persuaded and convinced as experts have stated their point as well as providing substantial evidence making their argument sharpened.

Her second idea presented to us was that “recent evidence linking high intakes of ultra-processed foods in young children to cardiometabolic risks, asthma, being overweight and obesity as well as lower overall diet quality.” Emotional blackmail has been strategically used in this quote as the persuasive technique plays on the insecurity of the audience (in this case being the health of their child) to influence them to uncritically accept the line of argument. The author then provides advice for the target audience to show them the alternative to the negative effects they used in emotional blackmail. “We encourage consumers to carefully read product labels and ingredients lists when buying food for their children and question the on-pack claims and marketing of these products.” By the author using words such as encourage the audience doesn’t feel forced or threatened to take the writers side yet still knowing the correct path to take, the authors suggested advice. Likely effects on the target audience were them being more cautious as this argument specifically used emotional blackmail to insert guilt in the audience as they’ve most likely been feeding their children the wrong foods. They might have also been affected in this way because they have now been equipped with the knowledge of risks and negative outcomes of feeding their children the incorrect foods.