On Healthy Living

A study from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies finds that junk food marketing aimed at kids under 12 influences them to ask for unhealthy food and snacks. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, but this is the biggest study to date of previous research on the influence of marketing on children’s food choices.

This is pretty disturbing when you think about how many of our habits, including food likes and dislikes, are set when we are young children. If parents give in to pressure to give their kids high-calorie, low-nutrition foods, then that’s all they will ever want and the epidemic of obesity will become even more widespread than it already is.

It is estimated that companies spent $10 million in 2004 marketing food and drink to kids, and you can bet most of that was unhealthy food and drink. The group that performed the study suggests the government should work to improve nutrition standards and provide incentives for producing and marketing healthy foods.

But this is not a place where parents can let the government take responsibility. Teach your children to like healthy foods by feeding them to your kids at a young age. I know this is possible (even though I don’t have kids) because I’ve seen the kids at my local natural foods store and farmers market begging their parents for healthy foods, just like “regular” kids beg for sweets and junk food. Don’t put your ideas about vegetables onto your children, don’t take them to fast food restaurants, and have them watch as little television as possible.

Instead, you should take your kids outside to play, or for a walk around the local farmer’s market. It will do you both some good.

Sarah White wrote this on December 7th, 2005 and filed it under Healthy Living, Diet & Exercise, Healthy Cooking, Healthy Eating, Health Foods, Vegetarian Cooking, Raw Foods |