A says that 90 per cent of online food and beverage ads viewed by youths are for unhealthy products high in fat, sugar and salt, such as desserts, snacks, cereals and sodas, prompting calls to create federal bans on such advertising.
鈥淚t makes me upset,鈥� University of Ottawa food scientist Monique Potvin Kent told 麻豆影视. 鈥淚 feel that food and beverage companies are taking advantage of kids.鈥�
Potvin Kent estimates that over the span of a year, Canadian children between the ages of two and 11 view more than 25 million online food and beverage ads.
鈥淥n television, there鈥檚 a limit to the number of ads they can have in a 30 minute show, in a 60 minute show,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut online, there are no limits.鈥�
The Heart and Stroke Foundation says that such advertising may be a leading factor behind why one third of Canadian children are currently overweight or obese. Since 1979, the number of Canadian children with obesity has tripled, the foundation says.
鈥�(It) has implications for heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes,鈥� Manuel Arango, the Heart and Stroke Foundation鈥檚 director of health policy, said regarding the statistics. 鈥淎 big culprit is the marketing that kids are bombarded with.鈥�
Parents seem to agree.
Seventy-one per cent of parents surveyed in the report blame such marketing for the so-called 鈥渘ag factor,鈥� where children pester their parents to buy products they see online and on television.
While Mandy Moore, a mother of three, tries to limit her children鈥檚鈥� time online, they still manage to see food ads.
鈥溾�業 want it, I want it, I want it!鈥欌�� Moore mimics. 鈥淭hey keep asking, keep asking and I do feel bad -- the more they ask, you do get worn down.鈥�
To help parents like Moore, the Heart and Stroke Foundation is calling for Ottawa to step in.
鈥淭hey have to move forward with their commitment to introduce legislation to restrict marketing of food and beverages to kids,鈥� Arango said.
The group representing the children's food advertising industry declined comment for this story. Experts say such an ad ban has worked in Quebec, where childhood obesity rates are the lowest in the country.
Moore says she supports calls for a ban on food advertising targeting children under the age of 16.
鈥淚鈥檓 supportive,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he sugar and the sugar cereals and the sugary drinks -- that to me is the worst of it, and that鈥檚 the kind of ads that I鈥檓 seeing the most.鈥�
Senator Nancy Greene Raine has been championing the cause.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that children should be targeted with advertising for products that we know are not good for them,鈥� the former Olympic skier told 麻豆影视 Channel.
Last September, Greene Raine introduced a bill in the Senate to prohibit marketing that encourages kids to eat unhealthy food.
鈥淚鈥檓 part of a committee in the Senate that studied the rising rates of obesity in Canada,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ne of the solutions -- and it鈥檚 by all means not the only one -- is to prohibit the marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to children.鈥�
Greene Raine鈥檚 bill has already gone through a second reading.
鈥淚 think there鈥檚 a good possibility of this bill passing,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no doubt in my mind that the public wants this bill.鈥�
Common Sense Media, a non-profit dedicated to making media and technology a positive force in kids鈥� lives, for helping parents limit the amount of food-related advertising their kids see. They suggest avoiding ads altogether by watching DVDs or using DVRs to skip commercials, helping kids identify ads and product placements while watching television or playing games, and reminding kids that the celebrities they see shilling products are almost always being paid.
Parents themselves can also make more informed purchases and parenting decisions.
According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation鈥檚 report, over the past 70 years, processed food purchases have doubled and now account for 60 per cent of family food purchases. One quarter of children ages five to 19, moreover, reported consuming sugary drinks every day while less than half of youths aged 12 to 19 eat the minimum recommendation of five daily servings of fruit and vegetables. Canadian children and youth, meanwhile, spend almost eight hours a day in front of screens.
With files from CTV National News medical specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip
