Children and adolescents exposed to the advertising of unhealthy foods and drinks are those who consume more sugar, salt and unhealthy kilocalories from fast food, salty snacks, pastries or sugary or sweetened drinks. Specifically, the child population exposed to this type of advertising content ingests an average of 127.8 more kilocalories of unhealthy food and beverages than the rest, and adds an extra 7.6 grams of sugar and 132 milligrams of sodium to their diet.
This is reflected in the report prepared by the Gasol Foundation that its research director, Santi F. Gómez, presented today in a joint act with the Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzón, the director of the Department of Nutrition of the WHO, Francesco Branca and the executive director of AESAN, Isabel Peña-Rey, aimed at reinforcing scientific evidence on the impact that unhealthy food and drink advertising has on the health and lifestyle of Spanish children.
The report, based on data from the Unicef Spain Opinion Barometer for Children and Adolescents and a substudy on child and adolescent nutrition as part of the Pasos 2022-2023 study, reveals that the more advertising, the more unhealthy foods and drinks they consume. children, and eight out of ten of those surveyed state that they are exposed to it.
Specifically, the report indicates that advertising is especially influencing the habitual consumption of products such as energy drinks (consumption of these is 19% higher among boys and girls exposed to their advertising compared to those who have not been). , and the frequency with which children eat fast food or salty snacks (french fries, etc.). In this sense, 40% of children exposed to advertisements for unhealthy food declare that they consume fast food at least twice a week, while among those not exposed the percentage is 26%.
On the other hand, the consumption of pastries and sweets is already so widespread among the Spanish child population (85% of children take them more than five days a week) that advertising no longer affects a greater frequency of consumption, according to the person in charge from Gasol Foundation research.
The study shows that children who admit to being more exposed to advertising for unhealthy food and drinks are also those who spend more time on screens, be it television or the computer, video console or mobile, both during the week and weekends. And the products that reach them the most are soft drinks, fast food, industrial pastries and pastries, energy drinks, salty snacks and candies and chocolates.
All these impacts are then translated into a higher daily intake of kilocalories from unhealthy products. "If we think about their stage of development, between the ages of 8 and 16, a boy or girl exposed to this type of advertising ingests 372,000 more kilocalories from these unhealthy foods and drinks, and 23 kilos more of sugar than the unhealthy population. exposed to this publicity", assured Gómez.
And it has stressed that this impact has consequences not only in terms of childhood obesity, but also in academic performance, levels of psychological satisfaction and well-being. "Food has a very broad influence on healthy growth and on the ability of boys and girls to develop their full potential," the researcher emphasized.
Minister Alberto Garzón, for his part, has assured that the study by the Gasol Foundation reinforces all the scientific evidence accumulated over the years on the negative impact that unhealthy food advertising has on health, life expectancy and the quality of life of the child population and on which the royal decree drawn up by his department was based to prohibit this type of content.
And he has been convinced that if the decree has not finally been approved, it has not been because nobody doubts its necessity, but because "there has not been enough political will" to face the strong influence of certain companies in the food sector "who make their profits by selling those products and don't want to reduce their sales."
"That Royal Decree is there and it has to be the basis for future work, but it is not just a merely institutional issue, there are a series of powers facing reason, but I believe that in the end it will be achieved," Garzón declared.
