Food adverts contribute to childhood obesity

 

Obese and overweight children increase their food intake more than 100 times after watching food advertisements on TV, according to a new study.

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University of Liverpool psychologists studied a group of 60 children, aged between nine and 11, of varying weights, and subjected them to a series of both food and toy television adverts, followed by a cartoon.

Food intake following the food adverts was significantly higher compared with the toy adverts in all weight groups.

Obese children increased their consumption by 134 per cent, overweight children by 101 per cent and normal weight children by 84 per cent.

This led the researchers to believe that weight dictated food preference during the experiment.

Food of differing fat contents was made available to the children to eat at their own will, ranging from high fat sweet snacks to low fat savoury products.

The obese group consistently chose the highest fat product - chocolate - whereas the overweight children chose jelly sweets which have a lower fat content, as well as chocolate.

TV advertising's 'profound effect'

Dr Jason Halford, Director of the University of Liverpool’s Kissileff Human Ingestive Behaviour Laboratory, commented: "Our research confirms food TV advertising has a profound effect on all children’s eating habits – doubling their consumption rate.

"The study was also particularly interesting in suggesting a strong connection between weight and susceptibility to over-eating when exposed to food adverts on television."

Obesity affects over 14 per cent of children in the UK, and the average child watches 17 hours of commercial television a week.

A ban on junk food advertising around children’s television programmes was introduced in the UK in January 2007 yet surveys have shown that many children still watch TV during 'family viewing' hours in the evening, when the ban does not apply.

The research team is presenting its research at the European Congress on Obesity in Budapest this week.

Future studies are planned to investigate whether enhanced responsiveness to food adverts or the greater amount of television children are watching is a predictor of childhood obesity.

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