Nutritionists to Jusoor Post: Food advertising threatens children’s health

The marketing techniques used to promote unhealthy foods are frequently highly successful at influencing eating habits. The food industry employs strategies like digital footprint tracking, social media ad campaigns, and even flashy packaging to make the food appear more appealing.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), the childhood obesity epidemic raises death and morbidity rates as well as having significant long-term economic and social repercussions. In the past 25 years, the prevalence of obesity among children and young people in America has nearly tripled. 

Currently, 20% of youth are overweight, and the obesity incidence among kids under the age of six is rising alarmingly quickly. The prevalence of obesity has more than quadrupled among children aged 2 to 5 (5.0% to 12.4%) and 6 to 11 (6.5% to 17.0%), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while prevalence rates have quadrupled (5.0% to 17.6%) among adolescents aged 12 to 19. 

As more people have access to smartphones, social media platforms, and the internet, digital advertising has increased. A simple swipe of the card can be used to place an order thanks to the explosion of food delivery services.

For kids and teenagers, unhealthy meals and sugary drinks have also gotten cheaper. Marketers go out of their way to convince kids and teenagers that they need to consume these foods and beverages. In one advertisement, soda drinkers are shown as ninjas who ride powerful motorcycles and jump over barriers. Such exposure is harmful as a result of the short- and long-term harm it causes to children's knowledge of nutrition, preferences, purchasing behavior, consumption patterns, and health-related diet, according to the Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC). 

Marina Nabil Sobhy Kamel, a physiotherapist with a master’s degree in clinical nutrition from Cairo University, told Jusoor Post that the consumption of junk food increases for children whose parents enjoy a high economic level.

“The high consumption of junk food leads the children to suffer from ADHD, lack of attention, a defect in self-image, and a decrease in IQ level,” Kamel said, adding that “these are caused by unhealthy fats, hydrogenated oils, cholesterol and sugar.”

She advised parents to gradually cut aggressive food from their children’s lives and not to totally ban it at once.

“First, decrease its frequency, and then limit the quantity and replace it gradually with delicious and colorful homemade healthy food,” she said. 

Kamel also stressed that parents should be role models and raise their children’s awareness on the risks caused by such types of food. 

For its part, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued new guidance urging countries to enact extensive, legally-binding regulations to safeguard kids of all ages from the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages that are high in saturated fats, trans fats, free sugars, and/or salt, a food category known by the acronym HFSS.

WHO stated that the advice is supported by a thorough analysis of the data on policies to limit food marketing. Policies to limit food marketing have been demonstrated to be most effective when they are required, safeguard children of all ages, and categorize foods that should not be marketed through the use of a model of nutritional profiles developed by the government. 

Jusoor Post asked Fatma Waheed Moselhy, an Egyptian certified sport nutritionist specializing in obesity management, about the age when kids start to be attracted to unhealthy foods if there is no control by parents. 

“A child begins by the age of 3 to be drawn to unhealthy snacks like chips, sugar drinks and others,” she said, adding, “I receive many patients, whose ages range from 8 to 10 years old, who are obese. I also find teenage girls whose age is above 14 years old, and their fat rates are double the normal average.” 

Moselhy emphasized the meal-planning concept in which vegetables and fruits should be a major part. She also referred to limiting screen time per day (not to exceed two hours) in order to relieve the influence of aggressive food marketing.

“One-hour of physical activity should be part of the daily routine as well because it increases the metabolism rate,” she said. 

Moselhy warned parents against rewarding their children with food because it leads the child to become attached to sugar and unhealthy food, which they then deem as a source of happiness.