TV ads double obese children’s food intake in UK
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Overweight children who watch television advertisements for food are likely to double their intake and the fattest children are most likely to choose the least healthy foods, a study published on Tuesday showed. The study by the University of Liverpool of 60 British children aged 9-11 years, published at the European Congress on Obesity in Budapest, showed the more overweight a child was, the more it would eat when exposed to adverts followed by a cartoon.
Obese children increased food intake by 134 percent and normal weight children by 84 percent, the study said. Obese children consistently chose the highest fat product available in the research, chocolate.
In Britain 14 percent of children are classified as obese and around 30 percent as overweight or obese.
“It is the first (research) to demonstrate lean-obese differences in intake. Moreover, the adverts were not for the foods offered, so this was beyond a brand effect,” Dr. Jason Halford, lead author of the study said by email.
“The advertising industry claims adverts do not promote over-consumption but only cause children to switch brand ... previous studies have looked only at choice but did not allow (for) consumption.”
The study said that despite a ban on junk food adverts during children’s TV programming in Britain from the start of this year, surveys have shown many children are still exposed to such adverts during evening family viewing hours.
Halford said the partial ban on junk food adverts was a step in the right direction but did not alone solve the problem of child obesity.
“It is not advertising, it is the type of food that is advertised. It is not just food, it is lifestyle,” Halford said.
“Children are now being treated for type-2 diabetes and even cardiovascular problems. We never saw that 15 years ago ... This could shorten the lives of these kids by 15 years and childhood obesity rates are rising still,” he said.
According to a World Health Organisation study, there are 1.1 billion overweight people in the world, of whom 312 million are obese, according to the body mass index (BMI), which is a measure of body fat based on height and weight.
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