专家呼吁限制垃圾食品广告

肥胖研究人员于上周五称，在儿童很可能看电视的时段播出的食品广告中，有三分之二是垃圾食品。该结果基于一项针对11个国家的研究。

研究人员称，德国和美国以90%的比例遥遥领先于其它各国，英国和澳大利亚最低，约为50%。研究人员呼吁政府限制此类广告以抵御肥胖。

澳大利亚新南威尔士州癌症协会的营养学研究人员布利吉特•凯利和他的同事在阿姆斯特丹举行的欧洲肥胖会议上称：“从全球来看，儿童正接触到大量不健康食品和饮料的电视广告。”

“限制这类食品广告是预防儿童肥胖的一个重要手段。”

据国际肥胖工作小组介绍，全球约有1.77亿18岁以下的儿童和青少年被诊断为临床超重或肥胖，这其中包括2200万五岁以下的体重超标儿童。

肥胖会增加患心脏病和II型糖尿病等疾病的风险，而且患此类病症人数的不断上升也给很多医疗资金不充裕的国家增加了压力。

不健康的生活方式是导致儿童肥胖剧增的重要原因，其中包括高热量饮食、缺少锻炼、在电视机或电脑前连坐几个小时等。

凯利在接受采访时说：“人们非常关注不健康食品广告对儿童肥胖的影响，但很多国家的政府不愿对此加以限制。因此被调查的大多数国家没有食品广告限制条例。”

研究人员对澳洲、亚洲、东西欧、南北美洲的儿童进行了调查。结果发现，在年轻人最可能看电视的时段，以快餐、糖果、高脂乳制食品为主的垃圾食品广告数量增加。

凯利说：“儿童每年会在电视上看到约四千到六千个食品广告，其中有两千到四千个是不健康食品的广告。所以即使在儿童较少看广告的国家，这也是个不小的数目。”

研究人员称，尽管不能将广告和肥胖直接联系起来，但很明显广告对儿童所偏好的食品种类有重要影响。

Researchers urge crackdown on junk food TV ads

Junk food ads account for two-thirds of televised advertisements for food that are shown when children are likely to be watching, researchers into obesity said Friday, based on a study of 11 countries.

Germany and the United States led the way at 90 percent, with Britain and Australia the lowest at about 50 percent, the researchers said, urging governments to limit such marketing in order to combat obesity.

"Internationally, children are exposed to high volumes of unhealthy food and beverage advertising on television," Bridget Kelly, a nutrition researcher at the Cancer Council NSW in Australia, and colleagues told the European Congress on Obesity in Amsterdam.

"Limiting this food marketing is an important preventative strategy for childhood obesity."

About 177 million children and teenagers under 18 years old worldwide are clinically overweight or obese. The figures include 22 million overweight children under five years old, according to the International Obesity Task Force.

Obesity raises the risk of conditions like heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and the growing epidemic is piling pressure on many cash-strapped national health systems.

Unhealthy lifestyles including high-calorie diets, poor exercise and hours spent in front of the television or computer have contributed to the surge in childhood obesity.

"There is a lot of attention on unhealthy food marketing as an influence on childhood obesity and a lot of governments are reluctant to regulate," Kelly said in an interview. "So most countries in the study don't have regulations on food advertising."

The researchers, who looked at children in Australia, Asia, Eastern and Western Europe and North and South America, found that junk food ads mainly featuring fast food, confectionery and high-fat dairy foods increased during times young people were most likely to be watching.

"Children see around 4,000 to 6,000 food advertisements on television a year and between 2,000 and 4,000 are for unhealthy foods," Kelly said. "So even if you are in countries that are advertising less to children, that is still a lot."

While establishing a direct link between advertising and obesity is difficult, it is clear marketing plays a big role in the kinds of food children prefer, the researchers said.

(China.org.cn via China Daily May 18, 2009)