Sugary cereal ads are making kids fatter

"Appetite" published the latest research from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College in the United States, pointing out that advertisements for breakfast sugary cereals on television may affect children's eating habits, causing them to eat more sugary cereals, which in turn affects children's health and obesity.

In the study, the authors recruited 548 pairs of parents with children aged 3-5 years old as subjects, and the parents were required to report whether their children watched high-sugar breakfast cereal (SBC) advertisements on television. Based on the data analysis results, the research team found that for every 10 additional high-sugar breakfast cereal advertisements the children watched over a week, their voluntary intake of similar high-sugar cereal products increased by about 14%.

On average, children who watched 20 high-sugar breakfast cereal ads per week increased their intake of similar high-sugar cereal products by nearly 30% compared to children who did not watch these ads. Eating too much sugary cereals is likely to cause children to be overweight or even obese.

The study was published in Appetite, Vol. 108, pp. 295-302

This article is from ELSEVIER Global Pharmaceutical News