Toucan Sam, no more?
The reported epidemic of childhood obesity is becoming an issue towards the marketing of the food industry that appeals to children. I recently read an article from the NY times on food ads for children and reducing unhealthy content in packaged food. The article stated, “The federal government proposed sweeping new guidelines…that could push the food industry to overhaul how it advertises cereal, soda pop, snacks, restaurant meals and other foods to children.” It discusses the issues with the cartoon characters, like Toucan Sam, that can market and sell junk food or healthy food. Regulators have asked these companies to make a decision: make the products healthier or stop advertising it to children. These guidelines are purely voluntary and recommended, but that isn’t the case when there is a lot of pressure for the companies to embrace it. The article goes on about the salt and sugar content that will be regulated in terms of what is healthy and what is not as well as other guidelines.
It is a very interesting article that I came across that I thought would be something worthwhile to share. This is great news for the government to finally do something to address the issues of childhood obesity. I read a lot about child obesity in most of my classes through published journal articles because I am a kinesiology major. It’s crazy how fast this epidemic is growing and how little we do to prevent it. But it’s hard because there is so much lack of motivation for kids to eat healthy and exercise. So many factors come into play that there is only so much we can do. However, becoming more aware of these factors can reduce the chances of childhood obesity in the future. We can only learn and grow from our mistakes.
