Food adverts threaten children’s health

23:15' 04/05/2008 (GMT+7)
Customers buy food in a fast-food store on Hai Ba Trung Street in HCM City.
Food advertisements are leading children to potentially dangerous diseases, warns Viet Nam Association for Standardisation and the Protection of Consumers deputy chairman Do Gia Phan.

Children prefer foods that contain too much sugar, salt and fat, for no other reason than they like the advertising, he says.

The result is they have energy but are malnourished.

The State should ban products that too easily make people fat, he argues.

Nutrition Institute Communication Centre director ,Dr Hoang Kim Thanh, says that not one single food contains sufficient nutrition.

This means that eating too much of one type of food will lead to obesity and the possibility of heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Even dairy produce, such as milk and cheese, which are said to be good for children, can cause obesity and harm the liver and kidneys if they are over consumed because of their high protein content.

Figures show obesity is rising in urban Viet Nam.

For example, in HCM City, about 6 per cent of children under five and 23 per cent of primary-school children are overweight.

One 11-year-old has set a record at 79 kg.

Children don’t have enough knowledge to know what is good for them and are often attracted by advertisements, says Dr Thanh.

"Why don’t you let me eat cheese which helps me grow taller." a mother quotes her son 7, as saying.

Attracted by an amusing advertisement, the boy became addicted to cheese.

His mother says she bought cheese for him when he was an infant because it provides calcium and other nourishment, but he refused to eat it.

It was only after watching an amusing advertisement that he changed his mind.

Not only television but newspapers, magazines and leaflets entice children to food. Dairy, beverage and fast-food companies deliver their produce to supermarkets, schools and kindergartens for children to sample.

Children drink milk to collect the games that are offered with the product.

One five-year-old child weighs 32 kg.

"She eats only a half bowl of rice at a meal but still gets fat because she consumes the snacks, cake, chips and sausage that are advertised on television," complains her mother.

New regulations

The International Customer Service Association has proposed regulations to govern the advertising of food and beverage - without alcohol - for children.

The proposal is now awaiting World Health Organisation approval.

In the meantime, Dr Pham Thanh Tuyen advises parents to control advertising that might influence their children.

"Parents can limit the times that children watch food advertisements by having them participate in other activities," the physician says.

And they shouldn’t spoil children by buying them all the food they want.