<–Do all roads lead to this?

The dark underbelly of globalized markets permeating Korea is epitomized by the sweet delicious grip Krispy Kreme has on Korea’s youth.  Go to any Costco or E-mart in Seoul and we see oversized carts filled to the brim with pastries, cheeses, and packaged American goods once considered ‘foreigner foods’ but now a daily staple on kitchen tables.

And the consequences, though alarming, are no surprise to English teachers who have witnessed kids scarfing down handfuls of calorie rich, nutrition deficient (and perhaps, melamine laced) snacks for the better part of the last five years.  Anecdotally, each fall or winter, I saw a dwindling few students whose parents had packed their child anything remotely organic like a sweet potato (고구마), sliced fruits, or heaven forbid, carrot sticks! 

Chips, crackers, packaged food facsimilies, and doughnuts, while not entirely made from America, have certainly led this generation of young Korean kids from slim to obese along a similar path–only this time two or three times as fast.

In last week’s Reuters, this article notes how the obesity rate has TRIPLED over the last three years!  In what I think is a misguided attempt at de facto public health policymaking, the government is offering obese kids W40,000 vouchers to go the gym, or to learn about healthy eating habits.

“Kids won’t be able to waste the money on eating sweets. We will give them electronic vouchers that can only be used in designated places,” Chun said.

Costs to the government and the economy related to childhood obesity were 2 trillion won in 2006, the ministry said, making the voucher program cost effective.

This is the unfortunate consequence of several converging factors including: overworked parents who have less involvement in what their children eat between meals and during hagwon hours; a marketing/advertising regulatory system that (while effective in prohibiting cigarettes from appearing on TV) has given food companies free reign to blitz young women, including mothers, with false messages.

In another example, the notion that pizza is some kind of ”diet food” that beautiful twentysomethings eat falls on deaf ears for foreigners in Korea, but to middle school girls and young college coeds looking for a “fancy” meal out, this message is only reinforced by the fact that more and more of the customers at present are college age customers (and as yet not noticeably obese).  

The final and most consequential factor is simply that the Korean food market, like many in Asia, is following the corporatized food production and distribution chains begun in the West post WWII.  This is the saddest part, as I have seen five doughnut chains (Krispy Kreme, Mister Donut, Dunkin Donuts, and others) open up in just one college district where I live in three years!  Why?  Because it makes money, of course, public health be damned.  And what are those shiny franchises replacing?  Hole-in-the-wall Korean eateries that largely sold cheap, delicious ‘homemade’ and for the most part, healthy Korean cooking. 

Basically as one friend noted to me, it’s Fast Food Nation – Korea version.  I think the ultimate irony is that as American who narrowly averted a ballooning twenties just by coming to Korea (and eating Korean foods), I am now witnessing the arrival of a trend from America Food Inc. that can just as well be avoided.

–Sarah credits bibimbap for her healthy figure

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