OH! Magazine - Australian Version March 2016 | Page 14

SERVICE STATIONS &

MICHELLE
BRIDGES

YOUR HEALTH
Michelle Bridges explores the potential impact
of service stations on your health.
try to be a creature of habit in this
loony bin we call The-Inner-Westof–Sydney-circa-2016. And as any
modern girl trying to cut it in the digital
age will tell you, it’s not always easy!

I

I actually find routine quite grounding.
Hanging at the same café, buying my fruit
and veg at the same greengrocer, walking
the dog in the same park. Waking up at
the same time every night so I can stare
at the ceiling stressing about everything
I’ve got to do in the morning!
So, you can imagine my horror when I
arrived at the counter of my local service
station to pay for a full tank of diesel and
I was unexpectedly asked the question,
‘Would you like a (insert brand name of
chocolate bar)? They’re on special at the
moment and you get a second bar for only
a dollar more?’

Michelle’s Tip
Eat before you fill your car with
petrol. I know, it’s ridiculous, but
at least that way you can side
step temptation.

14

MARCH 2016 ( OH! MAGAZINE )

Deep breath. First – of course I’d like a
bar of chocolate. I’m a girl for goodness
sake! Second, I’m meant to be a paragon
of health and fitness so I figured he had
some bet going with his workmates that
he could prise me into purchasing a
choccy bar or two. Cheeky boy!
I looked around and realised that he was
surrounded by upwards of a billion
calories – chocolate bars, donuts, energy
drinks, pies, soft drinks... junk food had
quietly crept into the cash register space
and boldly taken up residence.
For an ethereal moment he looked like
Saint Francis of Assisi surrounded by
benevolent animals, quietly mouthing
‘come on, try one. It won’t hurt you. You
know you want to…’ but that moment
passed as the reality of the situation
unfolded in front of me.
I wondered if that was the blueprint for

the servos of the future? Is ‘would you like
petrol with that?’ set to be the script for
tomorrow’s service station attendants?
I suppose with obesity now being the
number one public health issue in
Australia – eclipsing smoking, alcohol,
drugs, the road toll and AIDS – it is logical
that fatty, sugary (alleged) foods should
now legitimately claim pole position in
service stations around the country.
I wonder if we will soon see legislation
that restricts ambush marketing of
unhealthy food products? Probably not. If
the Australian Food and Grocery Council
can sucker us into letting them selfregulate advertising junk food to our
children, (what, oh what were we
thinking?), then I’m not hopeful that we’ll
be seeing much meaningful change any
time soon. After all, it took us more than
30 years to put the brakes on the tobacco
industry, so I’m not holding my breath for
fast progress.

www.michellebridges.com.au

( Fitness & Motivation )