Garbage ads make children eat more, even if advertising does not show food!

The exposure to junk food advertising (compared to incorrect) means that children and adolescents consume much more calories during the day, regardless of the type of media advertising, in accordance with the randomized crossover study presented at this year’s European Congress on obesity (Eco) in Malag, Spain (11-14 May).

The study showed that 7-15-year-olds exposed to just 5 minutes of food ads with a high content of saturated fat, sugar and/or salt (HFSS) used an average of 130 kcals a day, which is equivalent to calories in two slices of bread.

Timely tests are presented because many countries in Europe and around the world are considering implementing curbs on unhealthy food advertising to solve the level of childhood obesity.

“Our findings contain key information on the scope, nature and impact of unhealthy food marketing through various media on the behavior of young people,” said Professor Emma Boyland from the University of Liverpool in Great Britain. “Even a short exposure to high -fat food, salt and sugar marketing can increase calorie consumption and potentially weight gain, especially in young people who are more susceptible to advertising and whose nutritional patterns affect their health for life.”

The causes of obesity are complex and under the influence of many factors. While the research emphasized the connections between HFSS food advertising in audiovisual and immediate media [1] and then consumption [2]Little is known about the impact of other forms of media, including only brands (i.e. advertising containing only branding elements such as a logo, but without food or drink products) or audio advertising (e.g. podcasts, radio), to shaping nutritional designs.

It is also unclear whether the effects of food advertising differ in the sociodemographic characteristics of the individual and how it can contribute to health inequalities.

To examine this, scientists conducted a randomized crossover study to estimate the impact of HFSS Food (vs non-frood) ads to immediate and subsequent consumption of children, as well as assess whether it was moderated by advertising content (only brand vs. product), media type (audiovisualisual (audiovisualisual [e.g., TV] vs. visual [some social media posts] vs. audio [podcasts] vs. static [paper billboards]) or sociodemographic features.

In total, 240 volunteers aged 7 to 15 from schools in Merseyside, Great Britain took part in the study. Two different times the participants were exposed to five minutes of HFSS food, and then the advertising of the Nestyle, which were only based on the brand or product through one of four different media.

Then the scientists measured the subsequent consumption of snacks and lunch by children, and their height and weight to calculate the body mass indicator (BMI). To calculate the socio-economic status (SES) (SES) from 2019 for 2019, a multiple deprivation indicator of 2019 2019.

The analysis showed that after the exposure to HFSS food advertising, children consumed more snacks (+58.4 kcal), more lunch (+72.5 kcal) and generally more food (snack and lunch in combination, +10.90 kcal) than after exposure to non -sode advertising.

Interestingly, advertising content did not alleviate this effect, so that the ads only brands were just as effective as product advertising in growing consumption.

Although neither the type of media (i.e., Audiovisual, Visual, Audio, Static Imaim), nor socio -economic consumption of children modernized socio -economic status, scientists did not find that for each standardized increase in BMI (ZBMI, corrected by the child’s age and sex), the children consumed an additional 17 kcal generally. According to Professor Boyland, “Our results show that unhealthy food marketing leads to a lasting increase in calorie consumption in young people at a sufficient level to increase weight gain. This study is the first to show that food ads only brands for which there is no limiting advertising policy around the world, increase food intake.