Mom and Dad, Advertise Healthy Foods to Your Kids
New study finds “junk” food advertisers dominate children’s TV time. What you can do to keep your family healthy.
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By Lisa Cohn, R.D. October 24, 2005
While it’s no surprise that junk food ads are a common occurrence on children’s TV programs, you may be shocked to find out how pervasive the sales pitch has become. A recent study conducted by the University of Illinois and published in the American Journal of Public Health found that 83 percent of the food advertisements aired during children’s television programs promote junk foods. Additionally, the researchers found that snacktime eating was advertised more than breakfast, lunch and dinner combined.
If you think that your kids aren’t affected by the images piped into your home, think again. But you don’t have to take this in stride. There are steps that you can take as a parent that will help return the control over what your children eat to the family.
Why Should We Care About TV Ads?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 16 percent of children in this country are overweight and 30 percent of adults are obese. We need to deal with this problem now.
While it is difficult to know exactly how the overall advertising environment interacts childhood obesity, a review of all published research studying the effect of advertising on children’s eating patterns conducted in 2002 by researchers from the USDA and Tufts University found that children exposed to advertised food products ask for those more often than non-advertised products.
Higher levels of TV watching in children are associated with increased calorie, fat, and sugary or salty snack intake as well as lower consumption of fruit and vegetables. Several large studies found that number of hours of TV watched is directly linked with childhood obesity.
None of this is a surprise to nutrition educators. I conducted a study a decade ago at Columbia University which found that the percentage of high-fat food advertisements during the peak Saturday morning children's TV hours increased from 16 to 41% from 1898 to 1993. While we continue to study the phenomenon, reasonable people know that the shift in food advertising is having an impact.
A consensus is developing on the negative impact of junk food advertising on childhood health. The Children’s Advertising Review Unit of the National Advertising Review Council (NARC) will consider restricting these practices in the coming year. Whether or not the NARC will make meaningful changes in how advertisers target children remains to be seen.
Advertise to Your Kids
The most highly valued and lasting messages come from the home. You have the right and responsibility as a parent to make sure that the messages your child receives about nutrition will support their long-term health. As a nutritional counselor who spends much of my time working with families to improve their eating patterns, I know that parents can take control back from the advertisers.
While you may find it beneficial to formalize changes in how your family deals with food by meeting as a family with a nutritional counselor, there are a number of steps you can take on your own to improve your children’s health:
-Use ‘show and tell’ at home by keeping healthy options available daily; a fresh basket of seasonal apples brings the aesthetic aspect of healthier foods which packaged options usually lack
-Convenient serving and storage items and ready-to-eat produce packs (baby carrots, celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, cut-up fruits) keep favorite fruits and vegetables handy and visible
-Take notice of some of the finger salad items that are branded with kid-friendly characters (I wrote a piece for Nick Jr. Magazine recently and noticed that Spongebob is now on the lettuce packages)
-Be aware of candy packaged as food - the bite sized or kid friendy crackers with chocolate spread or the highly sugared cereals bars
-Be creative with favorite foods; you need not push or be the food police, tomato sauce can go over veggies, as a dip or even on baked potato wedges
-Bring kids to the market/garden to see unpackaged/labeled foods and let them taste things in the store to see what they would like to bring home
-Get your children involved in cooking family meals as early as possible. If they are the ones tearing up the lettuce leaves, they are going to have a closer relationship to their food and will be more likely to eat the salad
-Most importantly, make time to eat meals with your family on a regular basis
Lisa Cohn is a registered dietitian and long-time health educator focused on integrating positive nutritional change into broader lifestyle and family health changes. She runs the Park Avenue Nutrition Spa in Manhattan and is the Spokesperson for the New York City Youth Health Coalition. Lisa can be contacted at lccnutrition@aol.com.
Resources:
Harrison, K., Maske, A: Nutritional Content of Foods Advertised During the Television Programs Children Watch Most. American Journal of Public Health. Sep 2005. Vol. 95:9.
P&S RESEARCHERS LINK HIGH-FAT FOOD ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN'S TV,” COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY RECORD. 12/10/93
Story, M., French S: Food Advertising and Marketing Directed at Children and Adolescents in the US. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 2004
Coon KA, Tucker KL: Television and children's consumption patterns. A review of the literature. Minerva Pediatr 2002, 54:423-436.
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