Junk Food Ads: World Leaders Discuss Cracking Down On Junk Food Marketing

GENEVA — The U.N. health agency says world leaders will discuss efforts to clamp down on junk food marketing to children when they meet in New York on Sept 19-20.

The World Health Organization says heads of state will use the U.N. General Assembly meeting to talk about limiting the number and type of ads that children are exposed to.

WHO says 43 million preschool children around the world are overweight or obese. Experts talk of a "fat tsunami" that is already causing millions of premature deaths each year.

Bjorn-Inge Larsen of the Norwegian Directorate of Health told reporters Friday that he expects voluntary measures limiting junk food advertising to eventually evolve into laws banning the practice in the same way that has occurred with tobacco.

Comments

[miloiki]

08:41 PM on 01/23/2011

We should have the government control all advertising so only the truth will be told. And the government should proscribe all diets for it's citizens, thus ensuring balanced nutrition. And the government should control all resources so as to ensure equal distribution. Let's give the government control over every aspect of our lives. It will be great. No one will have to think.

[Patryk]

11:08 AM on 01/24/2011

Well, the private corporations have had their way and look what happened. Millions of uninsured, undereducated and overweight geniuses.

[Margie Kronewitter]

11:36 AM on 01/23/2011

Hopefully, they'ill stop "drugging" kids with Frankenfoods. Eliminating TRANS-FATS is the best regulation ever. Obesity and most cancers are directly related to irregular fats. THE LOW FAT DIET ADVICE is the nuttiest pseudo science ever. "The ZONE" says 1/3 of calories should be lipids. Humans evolved eating saturated fat & cholesterol. Cholesterol is so important that every cell can make it. THE DANGEROUS FATS ARE THE MAN-ALTERED ONES & DANGEROUSLY PROCESSED OILS = heat, light & oxygen turn good fats to bad.

If you aren't comsuming what you NEED, you'll keep eating = HIDDEN HUNGER. Food addict self medicate.

FAKE SWEETENERS ARE DANGEROUS. Big Food knows that combining SUGAR, FAT AND SALT HIT THE PLEASURE CENTER OF THE BRAIN (DOPAMINE RECEPTORS) LIKE COCAINE. Stevia is a safe sweetner. High Fructose Corn Syrup is being renamed.

Cheap foods are fattening. Whole foods are satisfying and contain balanced nutrients. (Chromium to metabolize glucose). Whole milk fat protects from diabetes & helps absorb calcium & magnesium.

The big ? is "WHAT ARE LONG TERM EFFECTS OF GMOs, BANNED IN EUROPE, YET CROSSPOLINATING WITH OTHER CROPS.

When the body becomes toxic, it holds water, attempting to dilute the poisons. Years ago, Feingold accused food coloring of causing hyperactivity.

The American diet is cauing the epidemics of obesity, alzheimers, asthma (magnesium deficiency) ets. Big Food creates patients for Big Pharm. These corporations KNOW their products are causing "food addiction". Their corporate responsibility is to their shareholders, not the health of citizens. FOLLOW the $$$$

[drsolo]

10:31 AM on 01/23/2011

About time!!!

[ConstitutionCrusader]

11:18 AM on 01/22/2011

That's just stupid. Preschoolers don't buy their own food, their parents do! There's a "fat tsunami" because the world has changed and we're no longer toiling in the fields, and running is no longer our main mode of transportation. Please solve world hunger first before you put us all in fat camp, okay WHO?

[samilli3]

12:08 AM on 01/22/2011

so the UN is controlling the world?

[ScottSutton]

10:51 PM on 01/21/2011

What about nixing gigantic billboard ads all together?

[unobtrusivecynic]

09:04 PM on 01/21/2011

Thank goodness we have the UN to tell us all what's good for us! Otherwise we might actually have to take responsibility for our own actions, and that would be hard! I can't wait for the UN to tell sovereign nations to tell private businesses what to do! It's almost like a double nanny state!

[steve12]

11:47 PM on 01/21/2011

What is wrong having the World Health Organization telling us what is good for us. We can listen to the evidence, like adults, and make a judgement or choose to be our fingers to our ears, like children. Ignorance is so much easier to live with. You don't have those things called "facts" that get in the way of one's perception of reality.

[unobtrusivecynic]

01:42 AM on 01/22/2011

Did you read the article? They're cracking down on advertising. If they want to tell us what's bad for us, then they can do that. But now they want to restrict the advertising rights of private companies.

Am I the only one who has a problem with the government forcing advertising restrictions on businesses?

[econ1]

06:34 PM on 01/21/2011

You have to love the UN. I guess things like this keep it from human rights issues and other such things.

One man's "junk" food is another's staple. Raman noodles (which I had for lunch) are probably someone's junk food. A beef patty sandwich is likely someone else's. Pizza I expect would make everyone's list but bread, tomato and cheese....I don't know. Ice cream for sure. Potato chips...yup. Corn tortillas ....probably. This is kinda fun. Where does one apply for the UN job?

[babybecks]

06:44 PM on 01/21/2011

It's actually extremely difficult to get a job with them. You need to have oodles of advanced degrees and speak foreign languages fluently. Which is why most of those jobs are not held by Americans. Mostly British and European

[StephBr]

09:52 PM on 01/21/2011

You obviously don't cook.

[NobodySince1980]

05:35 PM on 01/21/2011

How about parents learn to say, 'no' and mean it?

My three and four year old daughters want the yogurt with Dora on it which is ridiculously high in sugar and I say, 'no, it's not healthy, it has too much sugar.' They want cereals or oatmeal with cute characters and bizarre colors, I say 'no, it's not healthy, it has too much sugar' (and whatever else it may have that's crap).

They have a fruit and vegetable drawer which they make take snacks out of anytime they want. On the rare occasions I buy canned fruit, I buy it in its own juice and I buy only unsweetened applesauce, natural, no sugar added peanut butter and all-natural, no sugar added fruit preserves. They have never had juice as it is just empty calories better consumed by actually eating the fruit and they love ice water, only getting reasonable amounts of milk at breakfast and dinner.

As they grow older, they will have more range in their choices but I'd like to do all I can to instill good habits in them now and teach them what we should eat on a daily basis and what should be a very rare treat. I also don't reward with food(s) so that they don't link foods to an even more positive feeling that it already can give our brains. It's as simple as, 'no' and dealing with whatever fight ensues.

[Fred Butters]

06:11 PM on 01/21/2011

Wait, wait, wait... you said "no" to your kids? I don't... how could... did their heads explode?

[NobodySince1980]

07:29 PM on 01/21/2011

Hahaha. They didn't like it the first time but didn't flip out. Tried it again a several trips later and put up a fight and I took their hands, walked away from the cart and said we were leaving and once they realized that meant they wouldn't get anything at all, not fruit, veggies, etc, they stopped immediately, apologized, and were fine. :) Now, if only saying 'no' at home always went over that well.

[StephBr]

09:43 PM on 01/21/2011

OK, but you are a smart mom, remember there is a vast majority of humans with an IQ much lower than yours.
People that need to be threatened with a fine to get them to buckle up for example.

[drsolo]

10:41 AM on 01/23/2011

Actually, a lot of stressed out working moms who find it difficult to find their spine when their kids start whining. The point is to stop advertising junk foods on CHILDREN'S programs and on TV when CHILDREN are watching. Advertisers wouldnt spend billions each year on Ads if they didnt WORK. I dont know anybody really wants to see ads for food (or anything else actually), but ads for junk food could be banned and nobody except those make money off the junk would care.

There was a time script drugs couldnt advertise on TV. Now pharma spends twice as much on ads as it does on research for new drugs. duhhhhh. More people demanding drugs they dont need and physicians giving in because they dont want to alienate their patients. Guess what this has done to the cost of health care!!!

[Larry West]

04:41 PM on 01/21/2011

Junk food ads don't make people fat! People who eat a ton of it because they don't even have access to healthy food makes is the problem.

[StephBr]

09:50 PM on 01/21/2011

No, people eat a ton of it because a cheeseburger is cheaper than healthy food.

[drsolo]

10:44 AM on 01/23/2011

It isnt the cheeseburger, it is the bun, the sugar in the relish, the fries and the sugar in the soda that puts on the pounds. Remember the guy in "Super size me" who ate a cheeseburger every day for years and was skinny? He didnt drink the soda, he didnt eat the fries.

[sillyblueness]

09:51 AM on 03/17/2011

I completely agree that we need access to healthy food, but junk food ads do work very well. Companies would not invest in them otherwise. There are plenty of studies linking purchasing with advertising.

[Alvarask]

04:41 PM on 01/21/2011

It's so much easier than ensuring non-foods that only LOOK like real foods aren't even being sold in the first place.

[drsolo]

10:44 AM on 01/23/2011

I was actually at one of those "food shoots" and they really dont use real food cause they dont look very good.

[carrieanna]

03:50 PM on 01/21/2011

Why can't we just counter with PSAs for veggies and other healthy foods?

[txdem1968]

09:07 AM on 03/15/2011

Follow the money, its all about branding and profit. Chiquita bananas used to advertise when they had the market cornered on banana sales, seen any banana ads recently? I think the last produce ad I saw was for Haas avacados. You're idea is a good one, I just don't see the govt wanting to pick up the tab.

[HerrMonk]

01:51 PM on 01/21/2011

It's the UN: who cares?

[StephBr]

09:50 PM on 01/21/2011

Spoken like a proud American...

[shthar]

01:41 PM on 01/21/2011

pointless.

it would take them 20 years to decide what's junk food and what isn't.

But the lobbyists will make a lot of money.

[Fred Butters]

06:15 PM on 01/21/2011

They'll probably just used the outdated, pseudo-science that the USDA and FDA use to decide what junk food is. So basically, if the USDA doesn't make money off it's production, it's junk food!