Heart & Stroke Foundation
Our children are bombarded with ads for unhealthy foods and beverages, and it’s harming their health.
The federal government has made a commitment to restrict marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to kids, but has not yet fulfilled this promise. Heart & Stroke dietitian Carol Dombrow explains why the time to act is now. Read more.
The Examination
Registered dietitians are being paid to post videos that promote diet soda, sugar and supplements on Instagram and TikTok.
As the World Health Organization raised questions this summer about the risks of a popular artificial sweetener, a new hashtag began spreading on the social media accounts of health professionals: #safetyofaspartame.
Steph Grasso, a registered dietitian from Oakton, Va., used the hashtag and told her 2.2 million followers on TikTok that the WHO warnings about artificial sweeteners were “clickbait” based on “low-quality science.” Read more.
Science Direct
The study examined the association between the usual percentage of calories (%kcal) from ultra-processed foods and the American Heart Association’s seven cardiovascular health (CVH) metrics among U.S. adolescents aged 12–19 years. The study found that U.S. adolescents consume about two-thirds of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods and that there was a graded inverse association between %kcal from UPF and CVH scores. Read more
Buenos Aires Times
Argentina’s Congress approved a new law obliging the food industry to include packaging labels alerting the consumer as to excessive sugar, fat and sodium content. The labels must read “excessive sugar,” “excessive sodium,” “excessive saturated fat,” “excessive total fat” and “excessive calories,” as well as alerting whether caffeine or sweeteners are contained, two components not recommended for child consumption.The food industry will be given 180 days to adapt to the new rules. Read more
The Conversation
Funny memes, insider-driven stories or inspirational content, known as content marketing, is advertising that disguises its commercial nature with no call to action. It promotes positive emotions in the consumer and often there is no obvious connection to the product or the service being advertised. Content marketing on social media is hard for children to recognize since they have fewer skills for recognising advertising than adults. Read more
Science Daily
Consumption of ultra-processed foods has increased over the past two decades across nearly all segments of the U.S. population, according to a new study by researchers at NYU School of Global Public Health. In the new study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers analyzed dietary data from nearly 41,000 adults who took part in the CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2001 through 2018. Read more
Food Navigator
A recent study has come out in favour of mandatory front-of-pack labelling (FOPL) policies – for both directing consumer choice and encouraging the food industry to reformulate products. The study published in PLOS Medicine confirmed the benefit of colour-coded labels in nudging consumers to choose more healthy products. Read more
News Medical Life Sciences
Researchers from the Department of Communication and Social Psychology at the University of Alicante (UA), warn about the advertising of ultra-processed food aimed at children by popular YouTubers in the form of challenges and contests. Read more
Vice
For Black and Latino communities that already have higher rates of diabetes and obesity, fast-food advertising adds another layer to health inequities that can become intergenerational. “For underserved populations like African Americans and Latino Americans, we see a lot more patients with family members who struggle with weight-related conditions,” says Dr. Veronica Johnson of Northwestern Medicine. Read more
Food Navigator
New research reveals the extent to which European children are exposed to the marketing of unhealthy food products – and the results show that voluntary restrictions are only succeeding to ‘reassure policymakers on paper’ and ‘buy time’ for the food industry, according to The European Consumer Organisation BEUC (Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs). Read the article
Vancouver Sun
Heart & Stroke
The Globe & Mail