Junk food adverts shown during family television shows like the X Factor could be tempting children to eat extra calories.
Research suggests teenagers consume an additional 270 calories a week for every advert for unhealthy food or drink they remembered seeing on television, above a weekly average of six junk food adverts.
The additional calories are the equivalent to eating an extra two packets of crisps or a McDonald’s hamburger each week. Over a year this adds up to 14,000 additional calories – or 84 Mars bars.
Research suggests teenagers consume an additional 270 calories a week for every advert for unhealthy food or drink they remembered seeing on television
Junk food adverts have been banned from children’s programmes in a bid to stop rising child obesity rates.
However, they are still shown during family-friendly shows like soaps, reality TV and sports coverage.
This year’s X Factor is sponsored by fast food app Just Eat, while Cadbury’s is the official snack of the Premier League.
Campaigners have called for a ban on adverts promoting fast food and sugary drinks before the 9pm watershed.
How was the study carried out?
Researchers from Cancer Research UK and Stirling University questioned 3,348 British youngsters aged 11 to 19 about their television viewing and what they had eaten over the past month.
Early results from the study were presented at the National Cancer Research Institute conference in Liverpool on Tuesday.
They found healthy children could recall an average of six television adverts for unhealthy food or drink per week, while obese children could recall seven.
Obese children also watched an average of around 45 minutes more television a day than healthy children.
Seeing one more junk food advert on broadcast mediums was correlated to higher consumption of unhealthy food and drinks, according to the obesity study’s lead author Christopher Thomas.
Teenagers are being targeted
‘An extra junk food advert per week predicts a large amount of unhealthy eating and drinking – particularly over substantial time periods,’ he said.
‘This study suggests that broadcast marketing influences diet choices in 11 to 19 year-olds in a substantial way.’
Results took into account the children’s age, gender, ethnicity, region, deprivation level and health knowledge.
The study shows that if a young person remembers one extra advert a week, on top of the average for a healthy teen, it equates to 270 extra calories eaten per week.
This is around two packets of salted crisps, which adds up over the year, according to Dr Jyotsna Vohra the study’s co-author at the CRUK’s Policy Research Centre for Cancer Prevention.
Though junk food adverts are banned on children’s TV shows, children will also watch the talent shows and football matches popular with adults.
‘A 9pm watershed for junk food adverts would reduce children’s exposure to persistent advertising used by the junk food industry and help cut back their craving for unhealthy food,’ said Dr Vohra.
Researchers urge caution
The researchers cautioned that the study only showed a correlation and did not prove a cause between viewing adverts and eating extra calories.
Nearly a third of British children aged two to 15 are overweight or obese, while obese children are five times more likely to become obese adults.
Obesity is linked to serious problems including heart disease, diabetes and 13 different types of cancer.