Share on PinterestExperts say children can be persistent in wanting certain food items. skaman306/Getty Images
Researchers say packaged foods marketed to children contain higher levels of sugar and are lower in essential nutrients than other products.
They said cereal and toaster pastries had the most child-appealing marketing among the products they studied.
Experts say more education for parents as well as government regulation on product marketing to children are needed.
Foods marketed at kids with the most child-appealing packaging are often higher in sugar and lower in vital nutrients than those with less appealing packaging.
That’s according to a Canadian study published today in the journal PLOS ONE.
Researchers looked at nearly 6,000 individual food products relevant to children’s diets and reported that around 13% of them contained child-appealing marketing, with the power of that marketing varying from product to product.
In general, however, though there was a weak correlation between marketing power and general nutrient levels, the researchers said the foods that were evaluated to be the most appealing to children were higher in sugar — with an average of 14.7 grams versus 9 grams — compared to standard packaging.
“While this study found variability in nutritional quality and composition depending on the food category and the nutrient, results showed that in many cases, products with child-appealing packaging were higher in nutrients of concern – in particular, total sugars, free sugars, and sodium — than products with non-child-appealing packaging,” the researchers from the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa wrote in a press release.
Of all the foods studied, only two categories had more than 50% child-appealing marketing: cereal and toaster pastries. These were among the products most aggressively marketed to kids.
The study looked specifically at the Canadian food market, but experts say it’s likely the same processes and conclusions apply to the United States.
“It is impossible to know without collecting the data, but in my experience, heavily processed foods high in salt, sugar, and fat are relentlessly marketed to kids in the U.S.,” Dr. Natasha Agbai, a pediatrician based in San Francisco, told Medical News Today.
How does one determine what is “child-appealing” and what isn’t?
This was a core challenge the researchers attempted to address with a codified system based on a dozen individual categories.
“The current lack of standardization in terms of definitions and methodologies for evaluating child-appeal is concerning,” the researchers wrote.
“The specific marketing techniques that were displayed on product packages varied across food categories,” they said. “However, core techniques that have traditionally been found to be used in child-appealing marketing, such as having a child-appealing visual design, appeals to fun or cool and the use of characters remained popular across the sample.”
Of course, children aren’t usually buying cereals or pastries for themselves, but what appeals to kids often influences their parents.
“The ‘nag factor’ or ‘pester power’ is a term used to describe the influence that children, especially toddlers and preschoolers, have on their parents’ purchasing decisions,” Agbai explained. “Marketers recognize that children can successfully negotiate purchases by constantly pestering or nagging their parents to buy a product they desire. The idea is that the more a child asks for a product, the more likely the parent is to give in and make the purchase.
“This phenomenon is a potent force in the retail industry, as children can sway their parents’ purchasing decisions, making them a valuable demographic to target for companies,” she added.
To help curb the marketing of less healthy foods directly to kids, the researchers suggested that policymakers implement more aggressive marketing restrictions to protect children.
Dr.. Daniel Ganjian, FAAP, a pediatrician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in California, agreed, noting that doctors have a role to play as well.
“Parenting and pediatric groups should come out with a best-practices policy for children’s marketing,” Ganjian told Medical News Today. “Then parents should only buy from stores and organizations that follow this policy. Another way is to ask the government to regulate the marketing of unhealthy foods to kids.”
Parents have a role to play, too.
“For parents, it’s becoming aware of what is truly healthy and unhealthy for their kids,” Jesse Feder, RDN, a dietitian based in Florida, told Medical News Today.
“Learning what these foods can do to your kids can help parents understand the severity of the situation,” he added. “Teaching your kids why certain foods are bad and others are good and instilling healthy eating habits is important. Successful policies include the addition of nutrition information on menus in restaurants in the U.S., increasing healthy food availability in poor neighborhoods, reducing the amount of food swamps, and decreasing the sizes of drinks and items available in fast food chains, to name a few.”
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
