Food and beverage marketing influences the diets and health of children and adolescents. In 2019, fast-food restaurants spent $5 billion in total advertising to children. Black and Hispanic youth are disproportionally targeted by unhealthy food and beverage advertising compared to their White peers. The foods and beverages most heavily marketed to youth are for unhealthy products, high in calories, sugar, fat, and/or sodium, that do not align with national recommendations for healthful diets. Research in this area examines how the elements of marketing—including product, price, placement, and promotion—influence the food and beverage preferences and choices of children and youth, as well as their weight status, and how such elements can be used to promote healthier eating.

Research & Publications See all

October 2024

Evidence-Based Recommendations to Mitigate Harms from Digital Food Marketing to Children Ages 2-17

Digital food and beverage marketing is embedded in nearly every platform children use (websites, mobile apps, social media, video sharing, gaming, streaming TV), promoting unhealthy foods and beverages, which is harming children’s health. Healthy Eating Research convened an expert panel to develop evidence-based recommendations for actions to mitigate harms from digital food marketing to children More

September 2024

Water Is K’é: Learning from the Navajo Community to Promote Early Child Health

Drinking water instead of sugary drinks is key to reducing health disparities. Since beverage habits are shaped by complex personal, community, and environmental factors, community input is critical to design any intervention promoting water. The research team worked with community partners to design a program to promote healthy beverage habits among young Navajo children. The More

September 2024

Online retail nudges to help parents with lower-income choose healthy beverages for their children: A randomized clinical trial

Nudges offer a promising tool to reduce sugary drink intake among children who are most at risk for diet-related disease. The objective of this study was to examine the impact of online store nudges on purchases of sugary drinks for children in lower-income households. Caregivers with lower-income were recruited to an online shopping experiment and More

August 2024

Community-based diet and obesity-related policy, system, and environmental interventions for obesity prevention during the first 1000 days: A scoping review

Community-based policy, systems, and environmental interventions have the potential to reduce modifiable risk factors for obesity early in life. The purpose of this scoping review was to characterize the breadth, generalizability, and methodological quality of community-based diet and obesity-related policy, system, and environmental interventions during the first 1000 days of life, from pregnancy to 24 months More