Too much junk food marketing in kids’ mags

Popular children’s magazines are contributing to unhealthy food marketing to children and adolescents, potentially contributing to childhood obesity, according to University of Auckland research.

The study, the first of its kind in New Zealand, found unhealthy foods were most frequently marketed in popular children’s magazines. References to healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables were relatively rare.

The content analysis study looked at five magazines with the highest readership among 10 to 17-year-olds and another targeted specifically at this age group. It involved one issue per month for a year for each magazine between December 2012 and January this year.

The magazines contained a significantly higher proportion of unhealthy branded food references (72 per cent) compared to those targeted at older population groups (42 per cent).

Snack items such as chocolates and icecream were marketed most frequently (36 per cent) while vegetables and fruit were marketed the least (3 per cent).

‘‘Magazines also need to be aware of their role in contributing to the continued increase in unhealthy food consumption and obesity,’’ principal investigator Dr Stefanie Vandevijvere, a research fellow in the university’s department of epidemiology and biostatistics, said.

It was concerning that the magazines overwhelmingly featured unhealthy food, when they had a responsibility to promote healthy eating, Vandevijvere said.

‘‘Magazines could take socially responsible editorial positions on healthy eating and reducing obesity, such as they do for similar issues (such as for self-esteem not showing skinny models).’’

The findings raised concerns about the effectiveness of self- regulation in marketing and showed the Government should regulate food advertising to curb children’s potential high exposure to unhealthy food marketing, Vandevijvere said.

‘‘They even seem to breach their own code which stipulates that food marketing should not undermine the food and nutrition policies of the Government, the Ministry of Health’s food and nutrition guidelines, nor the health and wellbeing of children,’’ she said.

All foods referenced were classified into healthy or unhealthy foods according to a Ministry of Health system.