Childhood Obesity and Technology Great Research Paper

Total Length: 2013 words ( 7 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 6

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In the 90s, sugar, cookies, snacks and candies were amongst the foods that were most advertised on the TV. Since the 80s, the ads showing high fat and high sodium foods has almost doubled.

Effects of Movie and TV show Characters on Eating habits of American Children

There has been a great increase in the usage of cross promotions by the fast food companies as well. Other than this, one of the most important facts that have been concluded by the researches is that increased television viewing is increasingly linked with several eating disorders in the children. More than U.S. $3 billion are invested by the fats food companies on the ad campaigns specifically targeted at the children. With this, an additional fact highlighted by the studies is that the buying behaviors of the parents are very much influenced by the children. The things that are bought by the parents at the grocery store are very much influenced by the parents. With this, it needs to be highlighted that there is a great link between television viewing and grocery store shopping. The researches have highlighted that greater the time children spend in watching TV, unhealthier the choices become in relation to the food being bought by the children.

Thereby from here, it can be said that great roles are played by the television viewing on an increased rates of obesity seen in the American children (Hedley, Ogden, L.C., Johnson, Carroll, Curtin, and Flegal, 2006, p. 2848).

Conclusion

The advertisers and the researchers have concluded that a great influence is seen on the children as well as the families from the fast food ads on the television.
In the recent years it has been seen that the great increase of the presence of movie characters, sports celebrities and the cartoon characters in the fast food ads has been the main reason of an increase in the fast food ad viewership.

References

Ebbeling, B.C., Pawlak, B.D., and Ludwig, S.D. (2002). Childhood obesity: public-health crisis, common sense cure. Lancet 360: 473 -- 82.

Gortmaker, S.L., Peterson, K., Wiecha, J., Sobol, a.M., Dixit, S., Fox, M.K., and Laird, N. (1999). Reducing obesity via a school-based interdisciplinary intervention among youth: Planet Health. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 153(4):409-18.

Hedley, a.A., Ogden, L.C., Johnson, L.C., Carroll, D.M., Curtin, R.L., and Flegal, M.K. (2006). Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity among U.S. Children, Adolescents, and Adults, 1999-2002. JAMA 291:2847-2850.

Kotz., K, and Story, M. (1994). Food advertisements during children's Saturday morning television programming: are they consistent with dietary recommendations? J. Am Diet Assoc. 94(11):1296-300.

Ludwig, S.D., Peterson, E.K., and Gortmaker, L.S. (2001). Relation between consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and childhood obesity: a prospective, observational analysis. Lancet 357: 505 -- 0.

Richard, D., and Williams, L.C. (2001). Childhood obesity: the health issue. Obes Res. 9:239S -- 243S.

Robinson, N.T. (1999). Reducing Children's Television Viewing to Prevent Obesity: A Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA 282(16):1561-1567.

Appendices

http://visual.ly/sugar-spice-childhood-obesity-America

http://www.just4kidsbeverages.com/whatYouShouldKnow.html

http://www.ecologyhealthcenter.net/sites/default/files/images/vicio_circle.jpg http://www.sparkpe.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/childhood-obesity-bmi.gif http://www.encognitive.com/files/images/child-obesity-in-the-us-encognitive.jpg http://bigkidz.wikispaces.com/file/view/fig3_3.gif/50260111/fig3_3.gif.....

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