Word: junk
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...next step, say Ludwig and Brownell, is to restrict the sale of potato chips, candy and other junk food in schools. Texas, Los Angeles and New York City are leading the way. After that, says Brownell, cafeteria menus should be revised to replace foods high in empty calories with more nutritious fare. Ludwig is eager to eliminate fast-food-type meals from school cafeterias, some of which sell food supplied by McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Burger King and other franchisers. On days when kids eat fast food, they consume an average of 187 more calories than on days without fast...
Idea No. 1 is to ban the broadcasting of junk-food commercials to young children, just as the Federal Government banned cigarette ads from television in 1971."The average child sees more than 10,000 food commercials a year, and most are for high-calorie foods," says Ludwig. The American Academy of Pediatrics has concluded that advertising to children under age 8 is inappropriate, Ludwig says. "It's inherently unfair to market directly to young children, who lack the intellectual maturity to distinguish commercials from the substance of a TV show." Nestle argues that it's unfair to parents...
...Sweden, which have banned advertising aimed at children, or Australia, Italy and New Zealand, which have statutory guidelines that limit it. The next best thing, says Nestle, would be a federally mandated campaign of public-service ads that would promote healthy eating and help counteract the effects of junk-food ads. This sort of counterprogramming is exactly what the government required in the late 1960s, before smoking ads were banned from TV. Cigarette use dropped during all four years that the antismoking...
...steal a leaf from the tobacco wars: if you want people to use less of something, put a tax on it. "Health economists have shown that the tax on cigarettes is the single most effective thing they've done to prevent smoking," says Brownell, so why not tax junk foods or soda? A big tax, like that on cigarettes, would not be palatable, but Brownell believes a small tax could go a long way toward funding anti-obesity campaigns on TV and in schools. Some 18 states, he notes, already place tiny taxes on soft drinks or junk food. Arkansas...
...junk foods? A ban on advertising to tots? A national nutrition campaign advising us all to eat less? Could any of this actually happen? In the days when the Marlboro Man was riding high on the airwaves, Brownell points out, no one thought you could ban cigarette ads. "I don't know at what point the country will be so desperate," says Nestle, but she thinks that point is approaching fast. "If you're a family that has kids with Type 2 diabetes, your life is not going to be pretty," she says. "Nobody has a clue how much this...