How to Help Your Children Avoid Successful Food Marketing

By: Tammy Terry | WRBL News 3
Published: July 09, 2010

It's summer; the kids are likely to spend more time in front of the TV.
Food marketing packs its most powerful punch on the young. The average kid sees 15 food commercials a day, and all it takes is one commercial to make a young person desire a particular food. The power that food marketers wield wouldn't be so problematic if they were advertising healthy food, like fruits and vegetables. Researchers have uncovered disturbing findings linked with food marketing according to Jennifer Harris, Ph.D., M.B.A., Director of Marketing Iniatives and Associate Research Scientist at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, which conducts research on the effects of food marketing.

* Advertising can affect a person's preference for categories of
foods
* People who see more fast food commercials want to eat more fast
food than those people who see fewer commercials
* When people are exposed to food ads, they eat more food overall
* If people see an ad before they taste a food, they like the
taste of that food more

"The vast majority of ads are for unhealthy products such as fast food, drinks and snack foods," stresses Harris. In fact, viewing and childhood obesity is directly related to children's exposure to commercials that advertise unhealthy foods, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health in February 2010. And it's not just the unhealthful products being portrayed; it's an entire eating message.
Recent food ads promote the message that young men should "eat like a man" with big portions of meat, and that it's a great idea to enjoy a "fourth meal" of the day. To see samples of unwholesome food ads, visit the Yale Rudd Center's website at www.yaleruddcenter.org and view the Worst Food Marketing Practices.

The Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children, a taskforce that includes the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and Federal Trade Commission, will make food marketing recommendations to Congress this summer. And the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has developed "Guidelines for Responsible Food Marketing to Children"
available at www.cspinet.org which include criteria for food marketing that doesn't undermine the health of children.

RESIST FOOD ADS

* Don't be gullible - don't accept all marketing claims as truth
* Stay on track - keep your vision of a healthful diet and don't
let food ads knock it down
* Turn off the TV - avoid food triggers by leaving the room during
commercials
* Watch out for internet temptations - food ads can pop up
anywhere
* Be a good citizen - support healthy marketing initiatives like
CSPI's "Guidelines for Responsible Food Marketing"

Adapted from "The Power of Persuasion: Food Marketing Really Does Work"
by Sharon Palmer, R.D. and published in the June 2010 issue of Environmental Nutrition www.environmentalnutriton.com Environmental Nutrition, PO Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142 800-829-5384