The new Guidelines issued by the World Health Organization, accepted and supported by the Italian Society of Pediatrics, recommend member countries to protect minors from advertising of foods and drinks harmful to their health
That there is an increase in overweight and obesity in children is a worldwide trend that has been consolidated for several years. According to theWorld Health Organization (WHO), in just over thirty years, the prevalence of children and adolescents aged between 5 and 19 years overweight or obese increased more than four-fold, rising from 4% to 18% globally. Among the initiatives in place to combat obesity, WHO just released a paper which contains a series of recommendations already promoted in 2010 on the promotion of food and drink intended for children and adolescents.
The need emerges from the document defend minors from the harmful effects of junk food advertising (in particular those with a high content of saturated fatty acids, trans fatty acids, sugars and salt) which, thanks also to the promotion on TV and online spaces, are increasingly chosen by children and teenagers and are usually present in homes and meeting spaces of the younger ones.
The appeal of the Italian Society of Pediatrics
We have warmly welcomed the new WHO guidelines to protect children and adolescents from the harmful impacts of unhealthy food and drink advertising. Annamaria Staiano, President of the Italian Society of Pediatrics.
We are witnessing a real media bombardment for minors who, thanks to certain advertisements, are subjected to the high risk of adopting incorrect lifestyles and inadequate diets. We hope that policies are implemented that limit the presence of advertisements for so-called “junk food or drinks” in programs intended for minors. This is particularly relevant because children, increasingly precociously, are continuously exposed to tablets, mobile phones and TVs and therefore to an ever-increasing amount of advertising messages and this has a devastating impact on the choices they make and will make, and which concern many often the food field.
In the latest report by OKkio alla SALUTE – the national surveillance system linked to the Ministry of Health created to monitor the evolution of childhood obesity every three years – in 2019, overweight children were 20.4% and obese 9.4% (the new 2022 data report is being worked on).
The latest data from OKkio alla SALUTE gave us a slightly better picture than in the past, but we are still at fourth place in Europe in terms of childhood obesity and overweight and if we look at the only obesity we are in third place, therefore the data is not comforting, says Staiano. It’s not just nutrition that is accused, but the lifestyle of the child and the family.
Physical activity and the abuse of digital products also have an impact. It is necessary to work not only on the single child but on the obesogenic environment around the child, above all on the environments that he habitually frequents, including school. To improve the situation, a change of pace is fundamental, and for this reason new restrictive policies in the field of advertising marketing are important. The institutions must take measures so that all the environments that offer stimuli and that have an impact on people’s lives and choices, especially if they are minors, are carefully monitored, concludes Staiano.
July 8, 2023 (change July 8, 2023 | 08:00)
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