By: Allison Brewer, Intern

I am truly a sucker for commercials. Whatever I see, I want, be it a doughnut or the Magic Bullet. It’s no secret commercials can make products “call your name”. The American Dietetic Association tested the influence of TV commercials on the health of Americans. They set out to determine the types of diets the average American would have if they consumed only foods advertised during commercials. (gulp)

Eighty four hours of prime time television was recorded, staggered throughout the week, as well as 12 hours of Saturday morning cartoons and edited to only contain advertisements for food products. Only items that were set for sale were used in the study, not to include any background foods that helped form “part of a complete breakfast”, as some would say. The items were entered into Nutritionist Pro, an analysis program to determine content and nutrient values.

If you were to eat only what foods were advertised on the recorded commercials, and base that on a 2,000 calorie diet, you would find that your new diet had 25 times the recommended servings for sugar, 20 times the recommended servings for fat, and only half of recommended servings for both fruits and vegetables. On the bright side, your new diet did contain the recommended servings of grains, but wait, the fiber content was extremely low, to indicate poor quality content. The TV diet creates an over consumption of foods that lead to illness, while severely limiting those that fight it.

Bottom line: don’t let TV ads influence your food choices and eating habits. Put color on your plates — veggies and fruits should be the base. Notice next time you watch TV how many commercials are for junk products. Know that companies pay big bucks to get your attention and they don’t have your health in mind.

What could be done? Public media can fill community service obligations through the production of more public service announcements and nutrition education segments. And probably the biggest influence of all, government policies, can help increase awareness and regulation. They could establish a minimum on nutritionally sound advertisements aired during primetime hours, while also setting upper limits for unhealthy ads.

Source: JADA, Vol 110 #6, pgs 904-910

View Original Post at rebeccascritchfield.wordpress.com

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• SportsPLUS, Health & Fitness, Nutrition