Watching food advertisements by parents leads to greater consumption of junk food by their children, as the kids often have distorted views on what constitutes a healthy meal, researchers have found.
They conducted separate interviews with children in pre-schools to get a sense of what children thought made up a healthy meal. The goal was to see how family characteristics were associated with children's dietary intake and perceptions of healthy meals. Using food security as a marker, Harrison found that the media-junk food link was very strong among food-secure people, and almost zero among food-insecure people. Since food insecurity is associated with limited income, it sets limits on how much people can spend on junk food. Food-secure people, on the other hand, can afford to give in to cravings when watching food advertising. People in this category were more likely to consume junk food, and their children had distorted views on what constitutes a healthy meal.