From Your Health Journal…..”I wanted to promote a great article from one of my favorite sites called the Digital Journal, written by Kathleen Blanchard entitled Canadian obesity experts call for ban on kids’ junk food ads. We discuss on Your Health Journal many times how childhood obesity is on the rise. Obesity related disease is also on the rise such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, asthma, and weak joints. The combination of children eating poorly, lack of exercise, poor sleep habits, and sedentary lifestyle are all contributing to this major concern. Now, leading obesity experts in Alberta Canada are calling for a ban on junk food and beverage ads that target kids. The impetus is to curb obesity rates that the researchers say should be the responsibility of governments. This leads again to the question on whether government has the right to control what we buy, what we eat, and how much we consume. In NYC, this seems to be an issue between the Mayor’s office, a Judge, and consumers. Some people think the government has the right to get involved since they are the ones who will flip a good part of the bill when it comes to healthcare. Then, others say people have the right to eat and consume whatever they want. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in Canada. Please visit the Digital Journal web site (link provided below) to read the complete article.”

From the article…..

Leading obesity experts in Alberta Canada are calling for a ban on junk food and beverage ads that target kids. The impetus is to curb obesity rates that the researchers say should be the responsibility of governments, at least in part.

Kim Raine, a professor with the Centre for Health Promotion Studies in the School of Public Health at the U of A said in a press release, though banning ads to kids that include high sugar, high fat choices won’t cure obesity, “…it’s one step in a multi-pronged approach to creating an environment where the healthy choice is the easy choice.”
Raine, who is the lead author of the new consensus calling for the ban, proposes the only food and beverages that should be marketed to children are those that are healthy and government approved.

No one says ensuring children eat healthy diet is the government’s responsibility. But Raine says when advertisers make high-fat, sugar laden foods fun and easy, kids want them.

To read the complete article…..Click here