Opinion: Stop the soft sell of junk
Richard Watts, campaigns director, Sustain
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
It's not new to say that children's diets are in crisis, while 92 per cent of children consume too much saturated fat, 86 per cent consume too much sugar, and 96 per cent do not eat enough fruit and vegetables.
In the past ten years, obesity in children aged two to five nearly doubled, and it is predicted that unless action is taken, a fifth of boys and a third of girls will be obese by 2020.
The junk food industry spends hundred of millions of pounds pushing fatty, salty, sugary food to children, and the methods they use are changing. We all know how burger chains give toys away with children's meals and that a massive amount is spent advertising junk food on television. But food companies are developing a range of new and insidious ways of selling their products to children behind parents' backs. For example, companies now run SMS message competitions and advertise on child-appealing social networking websites like Bebo.
Not surprisingly, it works. Studies have shown that marketing affects which foods children spend their pocket money on, and which foods they pester their parents for in the shops. More three-year-olds recognise the McDonalds golden arches than their own surname.
The current controls on junk food adverts fail dismally to protect children. A survey by Which? showed that 19 out of the 20 most popular commercial TV programmes among children were not affected by the rules governing junk food marketing on television.
Protecting children from junk food marketing will improve their diets and their health. It will also make a whole range of other health promotion tools more effective. It will be easier to teach children about healthy diets in school if they are not having adverts for chocolate and cola rammed down their throats at home.
For more information go to www.childrensfoodcampaign.org.uk.
