How Does Food Marketing Influence Eating Behavior?

A new study shows that food marketing was associated with a significant increase in food intake, food choice, food preference, and food purchase requests.

Food marketing was associated with increased intake, choice, preference, and purchase requests in children and adolescents, as suggested by a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Food Choices and Obesity

There is a substantial increase in obesity among children in recent decades. This has serious implications because childhood obesity that tracks into adulthood is an important risk factor for chronic diseases.

Changes in the production of affordable, highly processed foods that are effectively marketed are the main reason behind it.

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‘The implementation of policies to restrict children’s exposure to food marketing should be enacted as soon as possible to combat childhood obesity.’

Food marketing that largely promotes products high in fat, sugar, and/or salt (HFSS) is prevalent across television, digital media, outdoor spaces, and sport.

Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the effects of food marketing given their immature cognitive and emotional development, peer-group influence, and high exposure. The link between exposure to HFSS food marketing with behavioral and health effects is complex but associations meet the criteria for a causal relationship.

Therefore, the new study was conducted to inform the development of updated recommendations to restrict food marketing to children.

What’s Interesting?

Researchers conducted a systematic review and a series of meta-analyses following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) reporting guideline.

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The WHO Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group Subgroup on Policy Actions formulated the research question and identified the critical outcomes to be captured.

The results showed that food marketing exposure was associated with increases in children’s food intake, choice of and preference toward test items, and purchase requests.

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There was little evidence to support associations with food purchasing by or on behalf of children, while data relating to dental health and body weight outcomes were scarce. No studies were found for the diet-related non-communicable diseases or validated surrogate indicators outcome.

These findings provide evidence of food marketing associations with critical behavioral outcomes and recommend enacting policies that restrict children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing.

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Source-Medindia