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Saturday morning sugar rush

by Bethany Sanders (Subscribe to Bethany Sanders's posts)
Apr 12th 2008 8:00AM

0Comments

Filed under: Nutrition: Health, In The News, Media

In our house, we try not to label foods "bad" or "good," but instead try to categorize them as "all the time" foods and "sometimes" foods. Potato chips are ok, we just don't eat them every day (unless we're camping, then it's a requirement).

According a recent study, however, though "sometimes" foods should be eaten only now and then, kids are seeing ads for food that are high in sugar, fat, and salt significantly more than for the nutritious alternatives.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest studied nearly 30 hours of children's TV that ran on one Saturday morning and found that 91% of food ads were for unhealthy foods. They also discovered that 42% of the ads contained misleading health claims ("real fruit flavor!).

Parents control what goes into their cupboards and subsequently what goes onto their kids plates, but recent studies have indicated that this kind of marketing promotes unhealthy eating. Young children, especially, have a difficult time telling the difference between commercials and programming and are especially at risk. Though "sometimes" foods can certainly be incorporated into a healthy, balanced diet, the advertising dollar seems to be tipped heavily in their favor.

Tags: cartoon, cartoons, children, childrens programming, ChildrensProgramming, marketing, nutrition, snacks

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