Infographic: Responsible Food Marketing to Children

The marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children and youth contributes to poor diet quality, high calorie intake, and excess weight gain. This infographic portrays the reach and impact of marketing unhealthy foods and beverages to children and the need for more responsible food marketing to children. Comprehensive guidelines for responsible food marketing to More

Recommendations for Responsible Food Marketing to Children. Issue Brief

The marketing of unhealthy foods to children and youth is a major public health concern. Children in the United States grow up surrounded by food and beverage marketing, which primarily promotes products with excessive amounts of added sugar, salt, and fat, and inadequate amounts of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. This issue brief outlines a More

Recommendations for Responsible Food Marketing to Children

The marketing of unhealthy foods to children and youth is a major public health concern. Children in the United States grow up surrounded by food and beverage marketing, which primarily promotes products with excessive amounts of added sugar, salt, and fat, and inadequate amounts of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. This document provides a comprehensive More

Food Marketing: Using Toys to Market Children’s Meals

Nearly $2 billion is spent yearly by U.S. food and beverage companies to market products to children, with the majority of expenditures promoting less healthful foods and drinks. For restaurants, including toys with children’s meals is the leading form of food marketing directed at children. The practice of child-directed marketing by pairing toys with children’s More

Impact of San Francisco’s Toy Ordinance on Restaurants and Children’s Food Purchases, 2011-2012

In December 2011, San Francisco enacted the first citywide ordinance–the Healthy Food Incentives Ordinance– prohibiting restaurants in the city from giving away free toys or other incentives with children’s meals or with foods and beverages not meeting minimal nutritional criteria. This paper examines the impact of the ordinance on restaurant response (e.g., toy-distribution practices, changes More

Food Prices and Body Fatness among Youths

This paper examines the effects of food prices on clinical measures of obesity, including body mass index (BMI) and percentage body fat (PBF) measures derived from bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), among youths ages 12 to 18. Using three waves of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data (1999-2000, More

How Food Prices Impact Body Fat

A sedentary lifestyle lacking physical activity, and consumption of calorie-dense foods and sugary drinks, have long been associated with obesity. But studies indicate that the inflation-adjusted cost of food, which has been falling, is also contributing to the recent epidemic of obesity. This issue brief highlights the results of a study published in Economics and More

Healthy Characters? An Investigation of Marketing Practices in Children’s Food Advertising

This article assesses the nutritional quality of foods that are advertised with familiar children’s characters. It also examines how frequently familiar characters are paired with health messages in these advertisement. A total of 577 food advertisements that were aired on the most popular broadcast and cable channels during 2011 were included in the study. Researchers More