Effects of food advertising
There are some evidence that food advertising produces a negative effect with respect to eating habits both in adults and children. This influence is more affected in people who have a low socioeconomic level, as well as when they are carrying out activities that require their total attention.
Seeing television tends to the intake of food and drink of any kind, although these do not correspond to the foods that are advertised at that time. This is because many times, advertisements use strategies to make the announced product, evoke positive sensations in their receptors (through images, sounds or emotions that attract the attention of the spectators). All this influences the choice of products when making the purchase and food consumption of children.
Although many fathers and mothers care about the feeding of their children and try to advise them about a "healthy eating", in general, the child population tends to choose the products that attract them the most due to the great influencethat advertisements exercise.
On certain occasions, some celebrities, including elite athletes, announce products rich in fatty acids, saturated fats, with excessive salt content, etc. which are harmful to health, and when the population sees that type of advertising, it tends to relate that this product is consumed by the person who announces it and assumes that it is healthier than it really is.
There are also various studies that show a possible direct association between television food advertising and childhood obesity in many countries, especially in developed countries.
According to a study developed by the Department of Nursing of the University of Extremadura: “The abusive viewing of television consumes the time that children must dedicate to game and sports, stimulates the“ peck ”of chucheías and the inclusion in the diet of the diet of theFood products announced, very caloric and not very nutritious, which encourage nutritional disorders such as obesity and hypercholesterolemia ”.
One aspect to highlight is that several studies have shown that the limitation of the time of exposure of food advertising by television is related to important reductions in children’s obesity figures.
Therefore, it has been determined that currently between 16 and 40% of the child population, obesity secondary to television advertising suffers.
It is necessary to highlight that television food advertising is not only related to childhood obesity, but also greatly influences the mental and psychological health of children in the adolescence stage. This can be exemplified with the tendency to the appearance of certain eating disorders such as bulimia or nerve anorexia, which is mainly due to the beauty canon imposed by society and that derives in an obsession to achieve that “bodyperfect".
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