Junk Food Adverts Change Children's Taste Buds
According to a new Telegraph article by Professor Dame Sally Davies the Chief Medical Officer for England obesity related sickness is costing the NHS more than 6 billion a year. With the exponential rate at which the childhood obesity crisis is growing the stress on the NHS and the impact on our children's health is undeniable.
We recently reported that the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on a Fit and Healthy Childhood has called for stricter rules in place for junk food companies to tame their child focused marketing including the banning of friendly characters to advertise junk food and pushing back junk food advertising after a 9pm watershed. Well polling now indicates that 70% of people agree with the water shedding of junk food ads and the government has come out this week stating they will be clamping down.
We reported recently that McDonalds were being delivered to schools
"Adverts for foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt are more prolific than any other category of food promotion. In fact, only 1 per cent of adverts are for vegetables!" Professor Davies explains that actually being exposed to the adverts actively changes our children’s taste buds making the battle to glamorise vegetables we wrote about recently in the Vegetable Power campaign an even harder sell.
Public health experts also warn about the growing influence of social media stars and online advertising in manipulating our children into engaging in games produced by advertisers and of course eating unhealthily. Professor Dame Sally Davies says online advertising methods are a growing consideration for the government and new rules will be devised to reflect the government’s pledge to bring in policy to combat the junk food advertisers grasp on our children’s eating habits.
Standing Desks
Standing Desks for kids help educate our children in the language of physical literacy. It's a known fact that active children become active adults and it is our duty of care to expose our kids to a culture of movement. Sitting all day in a chair to learn is counterproductive to this aim and we have helped over a hundred schools in the UK to integrate standing desks to combat the sedentary problem.
Your school can request a student standing desk trial by filling in the form here.
You may want to read:
The telegraph article.
Our article on rising childhood obesity.
The new veg power campaign.
How the government will combat the online problem