How Much Do Advertisements Impact Our Food Choices

Whether we realize it or not our lives are heavily influenced by advertisements, this includes our food choices. Currently, our planet offers much more food choices than it used to. With the help of chemicals and machinery, factories are able to produce foods that are threatening to our health. In the past couple of years, researchers have found that the calorie intake of the average North American has significantly increased. In fact, researches concluded that by 2010 the average North American consumes 20% more calories daily than in 1970. There are many factors creating this issue, including social media and advertising. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, supermarkets do not directly promote unhealthy foods any more than healthy foods. Advertisements for unhealthy foods are usually aimed at children. Dr. David McKeown, Toronto's medical officer of health, is planning to ban junk food advertising to children under 13 in order to slow down or stop Canada’s growing obesity rate. He claims “most of the food advertised heavily to children are poor in nutrients and high in calories”. This is a huge concern as the obesity rates have increased significantly over the past few years. These advertisements are so powerful that looking at soda drink consumption one hour in front of the TV increased the likelihood of children drinking a sugary beverage by 50 percent. According to Think Progress, “an average preschooler watches 2.8 fast food TV ads a day. Kids aged 6 to 11 watch 3.2 a day, and by the time they’re teens, that number rises to 4.8 a day.” Now that you know how heavily your food choices and your family and friends food choices are impacted by advertisements. It is important to be aware of this in order to take steps to stop them from affecting you. In return, the amount of unhealthy foods you consume daily, will decrease.

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