Jul. 1--NEW HAVEN -- When kids sit in front of the TV watching snack food commercials along with their cartoons, they eat more junk than those who don't watch such ads, according to a Yale University study.
The research shows that children watching television with food commercials can increase snacking by 45 percent, potentially contributing to the nationwide increase in child obesity and diseases such as diabetes.
When children reached for a snack, "it wasn't even the foods that they saw advertised," said Kelly D. Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale. "It's a troubling finding. It suggests these things are provoking eating anything that's around."
The research is being published today in the American Psychological Association's journal Health Psychology. Jennifer Harris, director of marketing initiatives at the Rudd Center, was the lead author.
The researchers conducted an experiment in which 108 children ages 7 to 11 watched cartoons. Half of the kids saw snack food commercials and half saw non-food commercials. A second experiment with adults showed similar results.
"This research shows a direct and powerful link between television food advertising and calories consumed by adults and children," said Harris in a prepared statement. "Food advertising triggers automatic eating, regardless of hunger, and is a significant contributor to the obesity epidemic. Reducing unhealthy food advertising to children is critical."
The researchers estimated that a half-hour per day viewing television with food commercials could lead to gaining 10 pounds a year, without dieting or increased exercise.
Brownell said kids are lured to buy -- or to nag their parents to buy -- sugary cereals, sweetened drinks and salty snack foods.
"The kids are an incredibly lucrative market to (food manufacturers)," Brownell said. "Brand loyalty starts early and they don't want to give up their market."
A third of children and twothirds of adults are overweight, Brownell said, and the extra pounds lead to heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and other problems.
Rich Hanley, a journalism professor at Quinnipiac University, said, "The television ads are extraordinarily potent because they package the narrative that everyone that consumes the product is happy."
He said government regulation of ads for snack foods and cereals would be difficult because the products range from somewhat nutritious to pure sugar. "It would be a very difficult rule to enforce," he said. "The government would almost have to take a product-by-product examination."
Brownell said the best solution would be for food manufacturers to regulate themselves, which some are doing.
"We actually don't advertise during children's programming," said Chris Kuechenmeister, spokesman for Frito-Lay, which makes Cheetos, Doritos and Fritos. PepsiCo, which owns Frito-Lay, belongs to the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, he said.
General Mills, which makes Lucky Charms, Trix, Cheerios and Wheaties, also has guidelines limiting advertising to children.
Its 2009 Corporate Social Responsibility Report states that it will advertise to children only products with less than 175 calories per serving and no more than 12 grams of sugar, as well as meet the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's "healthy" criteria.
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