Study Claims Fast Food Ad Ban Could Cut Obesity Levels

The advertising of fast food on television is a controversial issue

A complete ban on any sort of advertising for fast food on television in America could have a drastic effect on lowering the amount of obese children according to a new research project. Shin-Yi Chou from Lehigh University based in Pennsylvania claims that the numbers of overweight children could drop by as much as eighteen percent if a complete ban was put into effect.

For the study medical data on almost 13,000 children who enrolled in the 1979 Child-Young Adult National Longitudinal Survey of Youth as well as the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth was examined. This data includes eating and living habits which were analysed in detail by the researchers. They claim that their results show that a complete ban on fast food adverts would lower the number of overweight children in the age group three to eleven by 18% and would also reduce the number of overweight adolescents of the ages twelve to eighteen by 14%.

The advertising of fast food on television is a controversial issue as many people argue that it is not right in a free society to regulate advertisements for food. On the other hand in view of the vast health and financial cost to countries due to the over consumption of fast food many doctors are calling for restrictions. Some nations such as Finland, Norway and Sweden have already gone ahead and banned fast food adverts and it is likely that other countries will follow soon if obesity levels continue to rise.

The problem of fast food advertising is that children who watch more television and thus are exercising less are the ones who are most exposed to the adverts creating a vicious circle. There have also been calls for a tax to be put on fast food in the same way as cigarettes are taxed in the United Kingdom to counteract the increased medical bills that are incurred as a result of the unhealthy side effects.