A new international investigation, focused on the type of food-related ads that are broadcast in 11 countries, has determined that almost 67 percent of them are about junk food, and also that they are shown at times when children are likely to be watching television. Researchers made the announcement on Friday, and implied that this might be one of the main causes for the rampant spread of obesity among children and teenagers. Over the recent few years, the epidemic has affected a large number of youngsters, especially in western, developed nations.

Results also showed that the United States and Germany occupy the first positions in this chart, with 90 percent of food-related ads being about fast food chains. In the lower parts of the statistic, only half of food ads are about unhealthy meals in Australia and the United Kingdom. Scientists are very concerned about this state of affairs, and urge national authorities to take drastic measures on this matter, in order to curb the spread of obesity.

 

They argue that smaller advertising spaces for this type of ads, as well as a complete ban for unhealthy products, could lead to a significant drop in the amounts of children that become obese simply on account of outside influences, and not because they are genetically-predisposed for developing the disease. “Internationally, children are exposed to high volumes of unhealthy food and beverage advertising on television. Limiting this food marketing is an important preventative strategy for childhood obesity,” Australia Cancer Council NSW nutrition researcher Bridget Kelly stated at the European Congress on Obesity, recently held in Amsterdam, Reuters reports.

 

“There is a lot of attention on unhealthy food marketing as an influence on childhood obesity and a lot of governments are reluctant to regulate. So most countries in the study don't have regulations on food advertising. Children see around 4,000 to 6,000 food advertisements on television a year and between 2,000 and 4,000 are for unhealthy foods. So even if you are in countries that are advertising less to children, that is still a lot,” Kelly added later, in an interview.

 

Among the most severe side-effects of obesity, researchers have long since identified type II diabetes and heart diseases. These two conditions can also trigger a lot of complications in themselves, including blindness, skin ulcers, heart attacks, heart failure, and death. All of this happens because modern, western youth does not exercise as much as previous generations, and because they spend a lot of time in front of the TV, or the computer, eating high-calorie snacks in the process.