It isn’t just childhood obesity but also risk of certain lifestyle related diseases later in life that are influenced by food choices made early on in life. For this reason the World Health Organization has drawn attention to marketing of unhealthy food that is high in sugar, fat and salt that influences the eating habits of kids.
TV commercials and other marketing methods that makers of junk foods devise to target children does in fact influence what kids prefer to eat, what they ask parents to buy and patterns of family consumption, observed the WHO.
For these reasons the WHO has called upon member states to take steps to reduce the exposure of children to advertizing and marketing of foods high in unhealthy ingredients such as sugar, salt, trans fats and saturated fats.
Inter-governmental collaboration, legislations or changes in public policies, cooperation of civil society and other measures are recommended to be put in place to reduce the exposure of kids to what may encourage unhealthy eating.
WHO has asked member countries to monitor and control these advertisements and their impact on children, their health and their eating habits.
Previous studies have noted that TV commercials expose children to “non-core” food products which have low nutritional value and are instrumental in causing child obesity.
