In an effort to combat the rising tide of childhood obesity and promote healthier eating, the Heart and Stroke Foundation is calling on the federal government to pass legislation restricting food and beverage marketing to children.
“Given experts’ prediction that today’s children may be the first generation to have poorer health and shorter lifespans than their parents, we need to be bold,” writes Diego Marchese, interim CEO and executive vice-president of Heart and Stroke, in the 2017 Report on the Health of Canadians released Wednesday.
Obesity rates in Canadian children have tripled since 1979 — one in three kids are now overweight or obese — putting them at greater risk for developing health problems such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and diabetes, the report notes. It argues that restrictions on marketing to those under 16 would protect children, support parents and level the playing field for industry.
Industry’s efforts over the past decade to self-regulate, through the Canadian Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, have been “a failure,” says the report.
“As long as regulation is optional, the playing field is not even. Even if the criteria were strong, companies that comply and put children’s health first would be at a competitive disadvantage.”
Calls for regulations have been made before. Heart and Stroke is part of the Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition started in 2014, which is made up of 11 non-governmental organizations, including Toronto Public Health.
And Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in his 2015 mandate letter to Minister of Health Jane Philpott, said he expects her to promote public health by “introducing new restrictions on the commercial marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to children, similar to those now in place in Quebec.”
The report also highlights Quebec, which has the highest vegetable and fruit intake among Canadian children and the lowest obesity rate among those aged 6 to 11. Legislation introduced there in 1980 banned commercial ads of goods and services to kids under age 13.
For its report, the foundation commissioned Monique Potvin Kent, an expert in food and beverage marketing to children. She reviewed the digital ads shown over a year on the top 10 websites aimed at children between the ages 2 and 11, and youth aged 12 to 17.
Her Betkanyon research shows that more than 90 per cent of online food and beverage ads seen by children and teens are for unhealthy items high in fat, sodium or sugar. And children between the ages of 2 and 11 see 25 million food and beverage ads, collectively, on their 10 favourite websites in a year.
Children and teens are bombarded with ads for restaurants, cakes, cookies, ice cream, cereal and sugar-sweetened beverages.
“There are many ads on TV directed at kids and it’s even higher for teens, but there are only so many spots available, there is a limit,” writes Potvin Kent, who is an assistant professor in the University of Ottawa’s School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine. “On the Internet, there are absolutely no limits.”
Also included in the report was a survey of 2,401 Canadian adults interviewed online by Pollara Strategic Insights. It found that 70 per cent feel children are exposed to too many ads by the food and beverage industry, and 71 per cent think industry has an unfair advantage over parents when it comes to influencing what kids consume due to how much money it spends on ads.
David Ma, an associate professor at the University of Guelph’s department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences, welcomes the initiative. But, he adds, “There’s no magic bullet.”
He said two large meta-analyses published last year showed advertising has a small to moderate impact on children making unhealthier food choices. But, those studies were done in controlled laboratory settings, so it’s unclear how a ban would impact children in the real world.
“If (legislation) were implemented, obesity wouldn’t go away overnight,” Ma said. “If enacted, this would be one part of an overall strategy that we need to implement. We need more exercise, a less sedentary lifestyle, less screen time, and improvements in food skills and nutritional literacy. Marketing is just one part of the puzzle.”
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