A Taste of Wellness for Savoury and Snacks
Givaudan
Childhood obesity is a growing problem in the US. The food and softdrinks industry has come under increasing consumer and political pressure toreduce the promotions and marketing of junk food tochildren, whether at home or at school.
"Junk" is the general term used for food that is described asnutritionally deficient and high in calories.
The study is the first to explore the nutritional composition of foodsadvertised to children using the manufacturer's labeling description, statedresearchers at the Universityof Illinois .
Nutrient-poor high-sugar products, mainly candy, sweets and soft drinks,dominate television advertising aimed at children between the ages of six to11, according to research by Kristen Harrison,a speech communication professor at the University of Illinois .
Overall about 78 per cent of the food advertised during TV programmeswatched by young children is junk food, with publicity for candy, sweets andsoft drinks making up 44 per cent of the total.
Promotions relating to convenience and fast foods made up 34.2 per centof the advertisements during such programmes, Harrison found.
While the US does not yet have any recommended daily values ( RDVs ) forsugar, the two groups of foods "exceed the RDVs of fat, saturatedfat and sodium, and fail to provide the RDVs offiber and certain vitamins and minerals," Harrison stated in anannouncement about the results.
"How many kids actually eat a diet like that, I can't say,"she stated. "But it's important to note that this is the nutritionalcomposition of the diet being marketed tokids and their families, and research shows that the more they are exposedto such advertising, the more likely they are to buy the advertised foods.So, heavy TV viewers probably follow a diet moresimilar to the TV-advertised diet than do lighter viewers."
Other findings reveal that:
- Snacking is depicted in food advertising more often than breakfast,lunch and dinner combined. More than half of all eating is depicted inlocations such as in cars or outdoors;
- Junk-food ads dominated, with far fewer ads for breads and cereals.The ads offered little representation of fruits and vegetables, dairy foods,meats, poultry and fish;
- Child actors' body size was unrelated to their eating behavior,"suggesting, erroneously, that eating and body weight are notrelated," Harrison said; and
- Most ads featured no health-related messages. Of the few that did, themost common message was that advertised foods contained "some naturalingredients."
Harrison and other researchers also evaluated the nutritional content offood advertised to adults during the most popular TV shows. They found thatconvenience and fast foods high in fat andsodium made up 57.1 per cent of such advertising.
"An individual eating a 2,000-calorie diet composed of thegeneral-audience foods would consume considerably more than the RDVs of fat,saturated fat and sodium, while ingesting only afraction of the RDVs of fiber, vitamin C, calcium and iron," shesaid.
The researchers taped 40 hours of TV programming that aired innorth-central Illinois between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. for five weeks. The sampleyielded 1,424 advertisements, of which 29.9 per cent werefor food products.
The most heavily advertised foods included Burger King Kids Meal chickentenders, Jell-O Pudding Bites, McDonald's Happy Meal french fries, PostFruity Pebbles cereal and Wendy's Kid's Meal crispychicken nuggets.
The study's findings will appear in the September issue of the AmericanJournal of Public Health.