Fast-food TV Ads and Obesity
| Apr 28, 2008 @ 10:17 PMAs a mother of two highly active pre-teens, I am deeply concerned with the number of fast-food commercials airing in Spanish-language television these days. Naturally, I cannot ban my kids from watching their favorite shows on TV, with contents that are perfectly okay for their age. However, the rising number of fast-food ads and the report on the impact of these commercials in fueling obesity that has become an epidemic among Latino children. In fact, a research that is led by Johns Hopkins Children’s Center pediatricians have shown that Latino youth make up 1/5 often US child population. And these Latino children have the highest incidence of obesity as well as overweight problems among all ethnic groups.
While it is true that we mothers cannot entirely blame obesity on these TV commercials, exposure to such enticing messages help kids develop unhealthy eating problems. Telemundo and Univision are the two largest Spanish channels in the United States that reaches to as much as 93 and 99 percent of the US-Latino households. We mothers should not only concern ourselves on what we feed our children. It is also important that we monitor what they watch, since TV has great impact on the kids and can greatly influence their eating lifestyle.
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One Response to “Fast-food TV Ads and Obesity”
September 29th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
I agree with the concerned mother about monitoring what children watch on the television. There is an increase in the amount of obese children because so many parents are failing to not only monitor what their children watch but remove their children from in front of the television. So many parents complain about what is on the television but do nothing about it. The way children spend their past time has dramatically changed over the past couple of years. I remember going outside and enjoying the sun, making up active games to play with my fellow neighborhood children and riding bikes with my siblings. Children these days are reluctant to go outside and be active and as a result, they gain wait. Child obesity is a proximate causation of parents not taking responsibility for their children and helping them stay healthy. It is not the responsibility of the television network to keep your children healthy, it is the parents.