Let’s do the numbers.
*Overweight kids are 10 times more likely to become obese adults than normal weight kids.
*Junk Food in Schools shows that more than 84% of kids eat too much fat; more than 91% eat too much saturated (i.e., solid at room temperature) fat; and 51% eat less than one serving of fruit per day.
*In a healthy weight kids study in Kentucky, over 40% of teachers use food as the primary reward for students; about half of teachers thought that most overweight children will “outgrow” their problem (hint, they won’t!)…can it be so different elsewhere in the U.S.?
*Companies spend $15 billion a year on marketing to children.
*Advertisers don’t get it: The WSJ quotes CEO Bob Liodice as saying, “As an industry, we strongly reject the claims that advertising causes childhood obesity and the related premise that new government restrictions or bans on advertising to children should be imposed.”
*In other words, U.S. ad execs think that Sweden, Norway, Belgium and Poland–which don’t allow ads showing kids younger than 12 using or touting products–are wrong!
*”Kellogg says it stands by the nutritional value of Cinnamon Marshmallow Scooby-Doo cereal” …well, here it is: no fiber, 3 teaspoons of sugar and 3.5 grams of trans fat in every cup, first ingredients corn flour, sugar and marshmallows–which are also pure sugar. They should be ashamed of themselves.
*Big Tobacco started this way too: defending their cancer and heart disease causing products. Adults can change their environment. But kids are captive. Marketers are brilliant manipulators–their work should be to defeat pediatric obesity, if for no other reason so that they can have customers once kids become adults.