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By Betsy Atkins, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent
ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Ever wonder why some kids prefer greasy cheeseburgers, chicken fingers and fries over garden-fresh fruits and veggies? A recent study reveals children may be much more susceptible to fast food advertising than parents and nutritionists think.
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Each year, the fast food industry spends more than $10 billion dollars on advertisements geared toward children, but are these ads really working? Thomas N. Robinson, M.D., M.P.H., an associate professor of pediatrics and medicine at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., reports they are.
When Dr. Robinson and his colleagues performed a taste test with 63 children between ages 2 and 6, he found most of the children liked the taste of food and drinks wrapped in McDonald's packaging better than identical food and drinks wrapped in unbranded packaging. This applied to foods like hamburgers, chicken tenders, French fries, 1 percent milk and baby carrots. Researchers also report children who had more television sets at home and those who ate McDonald's food on a regular basis were also more likely to prefer foods in McDonald's packaging than the foods in unbranded packaging.
Tara Gidus, R.D., a registered dietician and national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association in Orlando, Fla., told Ivanhoe parents can help children avoid the fast food frenzy by limiting their TV time. "It's really scary, the statistics about how many hours of TV most children are watching per day. That's obviously a major area of where kids are getting their ideas about what foods to eat," she said. Gidus advises parents to take their children grocery shopping and let them assist in food preparation. "If you're just serving them all the time without asking or without involving them, they're going to start to ask for what's advertised," she said. "[When a child is between the ages of 2 and 6,] you really want to expose them to everything they're going to be eating as adults, so make lots of fruits and vegetables available and introduce them to different kinds of meats -- not just chicken nuggets all the time."
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Tara Gidus, R.D.; Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 2007:161:792-797
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