Why are children getting fatter?
It is commonly assumed that today’s children consume more “junk” foods than ever before and that this over-consumption is the most important factor in fuelling the current epidemic of obesity in children. Furthermore, the press and media have encouraged the widespread belief that food advertising to children has an adverse effect on children’s food preferences and purchasing behaviour. There are, however, compelling arguments to resist both these claims.
Firstly, evidence suggests that consumption of fatty or sugary foods may not be the primary factor in determining childhood obesity. Research studies do not show a consistent association between dietary fat or sugar and obesity in young children. Moreover, the current obesity epidemic appears to be taking place against a background of declining calorie intake in children, especially younger children.
Secondly, despite media assertions to the contrary, there is no good evidence that TV advertising has a substantial influence on children’s food consumption and, consequently, no reason to believe that a complete ban on food advertising – which some politicians and lobbyists have demanded – would have any useful impact on childhood obesity rates. This conclusion is supported by experience from Quebec where, although food advertising to children has been banned since 1980, childhood obesity rates are no different from those in other Canadian provinces. A similar advertising ban has existed in Sweden for over a decade, but again this has not translated into a reduction in the rates of obesity in children.
If an increase in calorie intake is not the cause of obesity in children, then we have to look for an alternative explanation for childhood obesity problems. There are, in fact, good reasons for regarding the current epidemic of childhood obesity as primarily a problem of energy expenditure rather than energy intake. In other words children are becoming fatter not because they eat too much but because they are less physically active.
