Watching TV and Childhood Obesity (Photo : Twitter)
A new study reveals that while watching TV, children see advertisements for unhealthy food products, which do not meet the United States Nutrition Guidelines.
All the TV shows, which are made for children less than 12 years of age, show advertisements for food products that are loaded with saturated fat, sugar or sodium. Such food choices are unhealthy for children and they should not be exposed to such ads.
In the study, researchers calibrated the nutritional values of these products with the U.S. nutrition guidelines. They found that majority of the products do not meet with the legal guidelines, according to News Everyday.
University of Arizona's Melanie D. Hingle told Reuters that, "It's very politically charged. The take home message is really not about what would be or could be."
"But that this independent group of experts in different communities said these are guidelines that make sense nutritionally, and hardly any of these ads meet these guidelines," Hingle added.
This issue has been raised in the past as well and so an Interagency Working Group on Foods Marketed to Children was developed. It comprises of the Department of Agriculture, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and Federal Trade Commission.
The IWG issued numerous proposal for the standards of the nutritional value of food products, which are advertised on children's TV shows. During the study, it was observed that most of the advertised products do not meet the IWG standards at all.
