Outside influences

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Once at child care, kinder and school, children learn more about the social aspects of eating and watch carefully to see what their friends eat. If they haven’t already, they’ll soon find out about party food and fast food, both of which are fine for special occasions. But the biggest external influence on what children want to eat is now commercial television, which relentlessly promotes fatty or sugary ('high-energy') low-nutrient foods, snack foods, fast food and soft drinks.

If your child eats high-energy foods regularly, he will be too full of fat and sugar to eat the nutritious things offered at meals. There’s also a high risk he will become overweight or obese. Television contributes to childhood obesity in two ways: by encouraging sedentary behaviour, that is, sitting down a lot, rather than encouraging physical activity, and by bombarding children with commercials for junk food.

Because food advertising on television has been shown to contribute to the problem of childhood obesity, you might want to consider taking some action. Here are some ways to address the problem.

• Limit your child's exposure to commercial TV.
• Borrow videos/DVDs from the local library.
• Lessen the amount of TV watched in general, perhaps even turn off the TV altogether.
• Take the TV out of your child's room.
• Talk to your children about the purpose of advertising.

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