Heart & Stroke Report: Food Marketing to Children
Posted:
2017-02-06
The Heart & Stroke 2017 report on the Health of Canadians, The Kids Are Not Alright, presents results from national and international studies/reports on how industry is marketing unhealthy food and beverages directly to children and youth, and how this marketing affects their preferences and choices, their family relationships and their health. The report also includes results from the Heart & Stroke commissioned online poll of 2,400 Canadians from September to October 2016 on these related issues. Seventy percent of the surveyed Canadians stated that they think children are exposed to too much food and beverage marketing, 78% believe that the food industry markets unhealthy foods and drinks to children, and 71% stated that they think this marketing is unfairly influential. The report provides data that children's food choices are influenced by this marketing. Dietitians of Canada is a member of the Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition, founded by Heart & Stroke in 2014. The goal of the Coalition is to restrict all food and beverage marketing to children and youth 16 years and under. View a two-minute video by research Dr. Monique Potvin Kent and read more about the problem and solutions of food marketing to children at Stop M2K. See a similar post in the U.K. in December 2016 on New Rules Ban the Advertising of High Fat, Salt and Sugar Food and Drink Products in Children's Media.