Snack-tain America! Superhero films don’t es-cape junk foods
BOX office hits such as Marvel’s Captain America and The Avengers are awash with junk food that would fail UK advertising rules.
Scientists binged the US’s 250 topgrossing films from 1 4 to 201 , which also include The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and James Bond. They found 73 per cent had food too unhealthy to meet Ofcom and Food Standards Agency limits for advertising to under-16s, while 0 per cent would fail on drink. Snacks and sweets were the most common items, in almost a quarter of food scenes, followed closely by fruit. Alcohol was the most seen drink, making up 40 per cent of film beverages. Diets shown in the films failed US nutrition recommendations too – by 25 per cent for saturated fat and 45 per cent for fibre.
‘Popular US movies depict an unhealthy diet that fails national dietary recommendations, akin to US individuals’ actual diets,’ said lead author Dr Bradley Turnwald, of California’s Stanford University.
‘Depicting unhealthy consumption in media is a sociocultural problem that extends beyond advertisements.’