If you are a Youngevity user, then you understand the idea of supplementing for the nutrition we don’t get in our modern diets.
I call this “getting the good”
The other part of the equation many people ignore is what I call “avoiding the bad”
Let’s talk about a very “bad” part of American diets.
OK. I admit that I take my family through the drive through sometimes when life gets a bit crazy and rushed.
Knowing full well that we are about to ingest a nearly toxic stew of processed foods.
I do try to avoid this when ever possible.
It is important to note that most Americans don’t even think twice about it.
Its fast
Its cheap
And makes the kids “happy”
I am not going to go into the nutritional damage that most fast foods can do to your body in this post.
This post is to help raise awareness about how fast food companies have learned to bring your family back…
over and over again.
Kids are very easily manipulated through TV commercials. Anyone with kids can attest to this fact.
My kids christmas list is derived almost 100% from the ads that are targeted towards them.
Here is some very interesting data that we had better pay attention to.
Fast food companies promote children’s meals on TV with ads that feature toy prizes, and it has been suggested that the use of these toy prizes may prompt children to request eating at fast food restaurants.
In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers discovered that the more kids watched tv channels that aired ads for children’s fast food meals, the more frequently their families visited those fast food restaurants.
who is surprised?
2009, Jennifer A. Emond, PhD, and colleagues from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Using a database they compiled of all fast food TV ads that aired nationally in found that only two nationally-recognized fast food chains engaged in child-directed TV advertising at that time.
According to Dr. Emond, “Seventy-nine percent of the child-directed ads from those two restaurants aired on just four children’s networks.”.
The researchers enrolled 100 children (3-7 years of age) and one of their parents in the study. The parents completed a survey that included questions about frequent their kids watched each of the four children’s networks, if their children requested visits to the two restaurants, if their children collected toys from those restaurants, and how often the family visited those restaurants. Researchers found that 37 % of parents documented more frequent visits to the two fast food restaurants with child-directed TV ads.
Fifty-four percent of the children requested visits to at least one of the restaurants. Of the 29 % of children who collected toys from the restaurants, almost 83 % requested to visit one or both of the restaurants.
Some factors associated with more frequent visits were more TVs in the home, a TV in the child’s bedroom, more time spent watching The Television during the day, and more time spent watching one of the four children’s networks airing the majority of child-directed ads.
Despite the small numbers of enrolled families, this study suggests that the often a child views child-directed fast food TV ads, often involving a toy, the more likely the family visited the fast food restaurant that was featured in the advertising.
These findings also show that children’s food preferences may be partially shaped by a want for the toys promoted television advertisements. “For now,” notes Dr. Emond, “our best advice to parents is to switch their child to commercial-free TELEVISION programming to help avoid pestering for foods seen in commercials.”.