Fast-food ad ban could cut child obesity: U.S. study

[China]

Fast-food ad ban could cut child obesity: U.S. study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Banning fast-food advertising on television in the United States could reduce the number of overweight children by as much as 18 percent, researchers said on Wednesday.

But the team at the National Bureau of Economic Research questioned whether it would be practical to impose that kind of government regulation -- something only Sweden, Norway and Finland have done.

"We have known for some time that childhood obesity has gripped our culture, but little empirical research has been done that identifies television advertising as a possible cause," said economist Shin-Yi Chou of Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.

"Hopefully, this line of research can lead to a serious discussion about the type of policies that can curb America's obesity epidemic."

For their study, funded in part by the federal government, Chou and colleagues used data on nearly 13,000 children from the 1979 Child-Young Adult National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, both issued by the U.S. Department of Labor.

"The advertising measure used is the number of hours of spot television fast-food restaurant advertising messages seen per week," they wrote in the Journal of Law and Economics.

"Our results indicate that a ban on these advertisements would reduce the number of overweight children ages 3-11 in a fixed population by 18 percent and would reduce the number of overweight adolescents ages 12-18 by 14 percent."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 13.9 percent of children aged 2 to 5 are overweight, 18.8 percent of those aged 6 to 11 are and more than 17 percent of those 12 to 19.

The percentages have been steadily rising.

Click on the link for the full article

[Zguy28]

I watched Mika Brezinsky and Joe Scarborough arguing about this this morning. She was pretty agitated in her support of the ban (to the point of saying its basically poisoning your kids to feed them FF).

[SkinsOrlando]

How about the fact kids are never outside anymore?? Get there fat asses outside off the computer and video games.

[buenosdiaz]

why would we want the government regulating what we eat?

maybe parents should think twice about feeding their kids fast food everynight for dinner?

[Zguy28]

How about the fact kids are never outside anymore?? Get there fat asses outside off the computer and video games.

Not to mention that its cheaper (and easier for lazy or overworked parents) to take them to McDonalds dollar menu than the grocery store.

[Zguy28]

why would we want the government regulating what we eat?

maybe parents should think twice about feeding their kids fast food everynight for dinner?

You guys act like they are banning the product altogether. They are not.

But honestly, regularly eating fast food is pretty much self-destructive behavior.

[Koolblue13]

why would we want the government regulating what we eat?

maybe parents should think twice about feeding their kids fast food everynight for dinner?

Well, when the government is paying for our health care, you want everybody healthy, right?

So the government should be telling us what we eat. They should also be restricting how much tv we watch and how many video games we play.

We could chip everybody and be able to tell who isn't eating their high nutrient government gruel.

[Koolblue13]

How about the fact kids are never outside anymore?? Get there fat asses outside off the computer and video games.

We should get rid of tax dollar payed and fueled school buses and make the kids travel in giant hamster balls everywhere.

[Kilmer17]

Good parenting would probably do twice as much.

[Koolblue13]

Good parenting would probably do twice as much.

And who is going to be responsible for that? That's unrealistic.

[dcnativenerd]

So, for all those keeping score at home:

Tobacco-Not okay

Fast food-not okay

Liquor-A-OKAY!

[Koolblue13]

So, for all those keeping score at home:

Tobacco-Not okay

Fast food-not okay

Liquor-A-OKAY!

ssshhhhhhhh

[ntotoro]

How was the study funded? Was it really necessary?

[buenosdiaz]

I cant imagine a world without singing chicken nuggets enticing me to buy happy meals...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtZhTrWPM_Y

[mbws]

So, for all those keeping score at home:

Tobacco-Not okay

Fast food-not okay

Liquor-A-OKAY!

Correction:

Liquor not OK

Beer & Wine OK

[buenosdiaz]

How was the study funded? Was it really necessary?

hey hey hey lets not get into the logistics of how they possibly determined how tv ad viewing correlates with obesity in a controlled environment where kids would not be exposed to fast food in any number of other ways

[Zguy28]

Our new President says that we are our brothers keeper.

[jpillian]

From what I understand, the FCC's deregulation of kid-centric advertising in the early 1980's (which led to such shows as Transformers, GI Joe -- where the characters were based on a line of toys) had a tremendous affect on the demand of such toys by kids.

("History of Toy Shopping in America",http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10529/10529.ch02.pdf)

I can't imagine that fast food advertisements targeting children wouldn't have a similar effect. I don't see where banning the advertisement of fast food to kids would have a bad impact on anything except sales of crappy food to kids.

Probably a good idea.

It's a conundrum for me: I'm for smaller government, but I'm also for smaller waistlines as well...

[HighOnHendrix]

"Americans, let's face it: We've been a spoiled country for a long time.

Do you know what the number one health risk in America is?

Obesity. They say we're in the middle of an obesity epidemic.

An epidemic - like it's polio. Like we'll be telling our grand kids about it one day.

The Great Obesity Epidemic of 2004.

'How'd you get through it grandpa?'

'Oh, it was horrible Johnny, there was cheesecake and pork chops everywhere.'

Nobody knows why were getting fatter? Look at our lifestyle.

I'll sit at a drive thru.

I'll sit there behind fifteen other cars instead of getting up to make the eight foot walk to the totally empty counter.

Everything is mega meal, super sized. Want biggie fries, super sized, want to go large.

You want to have thirty burgers for a nickel you fat mother****er? There's room in the bag. Take it!

Want a 55 gallon drum of Coke with that? It's only three more cents." - Greg Giraldo

"Freedom of Choice, is what you've got.

Freedom from Choice, is what you want." - Devo

The proliferation of authoritarian fascism continues. Let's hear it for those Nazis that want to control us and tell us what to do and what to eat! :applause: Come on give 'em a hand! :applause:

[zoony]

why would we want the government regulating what we eat?

maybe parents should think twice about feeding their kids fast food everynight for dinner?

That's all well and good, but I tire of the "parents" argument. Not just in this, but in everything. "It's the parents responsibility, etc. etc."

Yah, it is. But that doesn't solve anything. Because right now, parents aren't getting it done. Not just with obesity, but with lots of things.

So why don't we discuss something that might work, rather than something that makes us feel good to say?

[HighOnHendrix]

Correction:

Liquor not OK

Beer & Wine OK

Sometimes. I've seen Crown Royal commercials as well as Jack Daniels. I'm sure there are serious restrictions on what they can put in their ads, but they do have them.

[MurrayH81]

Tax it! Double the price via taxation of all fast food/unhealthy food and also make people sign documents that permanently disqualify them from future health care. Rezone all fast/unhealthy food establishments 10 miles out side city boundaries, with no direct roads leading to them.

Of course, not all "fast food" is bad for you. Salad bars are fast, and if most dressings and all cheese are eschewed, they are healthy. Bean burrito's Fresco style from Taco Bell are healthy. Places that make soup generally are healthy.

[Koolblue13]

"Americans, let's face it: We've been a spoiled country for a long time.

Do you know what the number one health risk in America is?

Obesity. They say we're in the middle of an obesity epidemic.

An epidemic - like it's polio. Like we'll be telling our grand kids about it one day.

The Great Obesity Epidemic of 2004.

'How'd you get through it grandpa?'

'Oh, it was horrible Johnny, there was cheesecake and pork chops everywhere.'

OLS:x10

[#98QBKiller]

Stupid idea. Would government interference with fast food commercials get kids outside to play instead of sitting in a bean-bag chair playing playstation and watching tv all day? Nope.

This is on parents period.

[HighOnHendrix]

Tax it! Double the price via taxation of all fast food/unhealthy food and also make people sign documents that permanently disqualify them from future health care. Rezone all fast/unhealthy food establishments 10 miles out side city boundaries, with no direct roads leading to them.

Of course, not all "fast food" is bad for you. Salad bars are fast, and if most dressings and all cheese are eschewed, they are healthy. Bean burrito's Fresco style from Taco Bell are healthy. Places that make soup generally are healthy.

Or we could just let people make their own choices without trying to have the gov't influence those choices through heavy regulation, restrictions, red-tape, etc. This is supposed to be a free country. Plus, while obesity is a contributing factor to certain health problems, it's become very exaggerated in our society today. It comes down to this: if fast food is making you fat and you don't want to be fat, then don't eat it. If, like me, you can eat fast food constantly and not gain anything, then have at it. It is up to each individual to make their own choices in life, please keep the gov't out of my choices. Thank you.