Impact of Food Advertisements on Kids

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We all know that adverts are meant to persuade those watching into purchasing items or produce, but new studies have now shown that certain adverts can have an impact on the lifestyles of many children.

Adverts showing unhealthy food have been found to greatly increase the likelihood of children wanting to eat more high fat and high sugar foods.

The research was undertaken by the Institute of Psychology, Health and Society who studied a group of 281 children, all between the ages of six and thirteen from areas within the North West of England, and examined the preferences they had for food.

The study was conducted by showing the children a cartoon show along with a five minutes worth of adverts before the show commenced.  This was done twice, with the same cartoon show but with the type of advert being the variable.

The first showing was preceded by a number of adverts for toys while the second played a number of adverts for unhealthy foods, such as sugary sweets and snacks and fast food before the show.

After each showing the children were given a choice of foods to eat, a mixture of healthy and unhealthy; branded and unbranded items.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the choices made following the show preceded by food adverts was one of a higher proportion of foods that were branded, but unbranded foods that were high in fats, sugars and carbohydrates were also a popular choice when compared to the choices after viewing the toy adverts.

As well as food preference, the study has also highlighted the differences in health that children had between those that watched 21+ hours of television a week and those that had a lower television viewing rating.

Those who watched more television were more likely to be unhealthy, as well as having a significantly higher Body Mass Index (BMI).

One of the ideas for aiding the health of children that the researchers from the University of Liverpool suggested is a 9pm watershed on unhealthy foods, as well as an urging for parents to be more disciplined towards their children and what types of food they consume.

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