Children's food preferences: Effects of weight status, food type, branding and television food advertisements (commercials)

Abstract

OBJECTIVE. To investigate the effects of weight status, food type and exposure to food and non-food advertisements on children's preference for branded and non-branded foods. DESIGN. A within-subjects, counterbalanced design with control (toy advertisement) and experimental (food advertisement) conditions. Subjects. A total of 37 school students (age: 11-13 years; weight status: 24 lean, 10 overweight, 3 obese). Measurements. Advertisement recall list, two food preference measures; the Leeds Food Preference Measure (LFPM), the Adapted Food Preference Measure (AFPM) and a food choice measure; the Leeds Forced-choice Test (LFCT). RESULTS. Normal weight children selected more branded and non-branded food items after exposure to food advertisements than in the control (toy advertisement) condition. Obese and overweight children showed a greater preference for branded foods than normal weight children per se, and also in this group only, there was a significant correlation between food advertisement recall and the total number of food items chosen in the experimental (food advertisement) condition. CONCLUSION. Exposure to food advertisements increased the preference for branded food items in the normal weight children. This suggests that television food advertisement exposure can produce the same 'obesigenic' food preference response found in overweight and obese children in their normal weight counterparts.

The ventral pallidum and orbitofrontal cortex support food pleasantness inferences

“…For example, although a growing body of research demonstrates important differences in obese and lean subjects during food perception (Carnell et al 2012), future research should also address whether group differences exist in the coupling between subjects’ ratings of inferred food pleasantness and the activity of the ventral pallidum and OFC, as well as whether specific dimensions of pleasantness are differentially weighted in obesity and influence food-related decision making. In so doing, these findings might thus provide a neurobiological account for why obese children are more susceptible to food advertisements than their lean counterparts (Halford et al 2008b; Halford et al 2008a), and provide targets for interventions aimed at ameliorating their relative vulnerability.…”

Reward components of feeding behavior are preserved during mouse aging

“…External cues have an important influence over the amount of food consumed by hungry and satiated rodents (Weingarten, 1983; Petrovich et al, 2007). Appetitive conditioning has also been implicated in human feeding behavior; for example, cues provided in the media and the general obesogenic environment that pervades modern societies strongly influence eating choices and eating patterns in children (Jansen et al, 2003; Halford et al, 2008; Birch and Anzman-Frasca, 2011), adolescents (Scully et al, 2012), and adults (Scully et al, 2009), independently of body mass status (Ferriday and Brunstrom, 2011; Ziauddeen et al, 2012). The present findings demonstrate that subjects of any age can attribute incentive salience to food cues, thus placing them at risk for maladaptive behaviors, e.g., overeating in absence of metabolic need.…”

How important is the choice of the nutrient profile model used to regulate broadcast advertising of foods to children? A comparison using a targeted data set

“…3 The global obesity epidemic currently affects over 10% of the adult population worldwide. 4 Television advertising is known to be an important influence on children's preferences for food and drinks 5, 6, 7 (henceforth we include drinks in the term ‘foods'). Television advertising continues to be the most dominant promotional channel, and the food products promoted have an undesirable nutritional profile.…”