Ban Fast Food Advertising Directed

¶ … Ban fast food advertising directed at children

All Americans, including American children, are getting heavier and heavier. According to the Centers for Disease Control in 2010, about one-third of American adults suffer from obesity. Approximately 17% of children and adolescents aged 2 -- 19 years are obese. This is especially worrisome given that children traditionally suffer from weight problems less than adults and are more active, and the longer a person is overweight, the longer society will have to treat the health consequences of obesity. Although there is no single cause of obesity, there is strong evidence that the advertising targeting children that promotes fast food plays a significant role in causing children to prefer sweet, processed, and highly caloric food. The fast food industry spends billions of dollars every year creating advertising campaigns designed to create a 'nag factor' -- encouraging parents to patronize the restaurants because their children beg them to do so.

Unhealthy food preferences remain with children later in life, and cause them to favor fast foods and snacks over fresh fruits and vegetables. I have seen this in my own family: several of my younger cousins have had weight problems. Kids move less than ever before, parents have less time to cook and are more willing to buy kids the foods children crave. While banning fast food advertisements directed at children would not automatically eliminate childhood obesity, it would be an important first step.

Every time I spend time with a small child, there is a predictable cry around meal time: "can't we go to McDonald's?" The combination of cartoon characters and kid-friendly food is difficult to resist. The journal Pediatrics found that children are approximately six pounds heavier due to fast food consumption. Every day, nearly one-third of U.S. children aged 4 to 19 eats fast food, which likely leads to a weight gain of six extra pounds per child per year. According to the study, "fast-food lovers consumed more fats, sugars and carbohydrates and fewer fruits and non-starchy vegetables than youngsters who didn't eat fast food. They also consumed 187 more daily calories" ("Fast food linked to child obesity," CBS, 2004). Fast-food consumption has increased fivefold among children since 1970, across children of all socioeconomic levels.

Of course, it could be argued that children naturally have a preference for sweeter, saltier, and fattier foods than adults. While this may be the case, relying on fast food as a source of nutrition makes it easier to eat highly caloric food than would be otherwise: it takes a long time to peel potatoes and fry French fries at home, but it is easy to zip through a drive-through and pick up a bag from McDonald's or Wendy's. It is often said that 'we eat with our eyes' first, and children are no different. When hamburgers are in attractive packaging emblazoned with cartoon characters, children will want to eat the burgers more than broiled chicken and whole wheat pasta. Conversely, Cornell's Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs found that children eat more fruit when the fruit is displayed in attractive baskets rather than in stainless-steel buckets (Aubrey 2011). However, the presence of fast food offerings is too powerful to resist, even when fruit is present. In my own experience, I notice that when children beg to go to McDonald's, they show no interest in the healthier menu. One study of McDonald's located on hospital premises found: "When apple dippers and milk jugs were on the menu...families rarely ordered them. Apple dippers were purchased by anywhere from 0.3% to 3.6% of kids; milk from 1.1% to 6.6% of the time, depending on the age of the child. Almost no children purchased a yogurt parfait, apple juice or orange juice. On the other hand, French fries, soda, cheeseburgers, apple pie and the Big Mac were the most often-ordered items" (Parikh 2011).