From Food Navigator USA.com.

Food is the top product seen advertised by children, with American kids watching an average of 17 food ads every day, according to a new study.

Released yesterday by the non-profit group Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), the new report aims to help inform the growing debate between government, industry, the media and health groups on the link between childhood obesity

and food advertising. The study, Food for Thought: Television Food Advertising to Children in the United States, combines content analysis of TV ads with detailed data about children’s viewing habits, to provide an estimate of the number and type of TV ads seen by children of various ages. For each age group studied, food was the top product advertised, with half of all ads shown during children’s programs being for food. Some 32 percent of all ads seen by 2-7 year olds were for food, while 25 percent of ads seen by 8-12 year olds and 22 percent of ads seen by 13-17 year olds were for food.

The study found that tweens aged 8-12 see the most food ads on TV - an average of 21 ads a day. Teenagers see slightly fewer ads, at 17 a day, while children aged 2-7 see 12 food ads a day. The study, which was based on an analysis of 1,638 hours of television content and 8,854 food ads on top television networks, also confirmed widespread concerns that the most heavily advertised food products for kids are candy and snacks. These make up a total of 34 percent of all food ads targeting children, while 28 percent are for cereal and 10 percent are for fast foods.

In addition, 4 percent of ads seen by children are for dairy products and one percent for fruit juices. Of the 8,854 ads reviewed in the study, there were none for fruits or vegetables targeting children or teens. The new report comes at a time when the issue of food advertising to children is attracting increasing scrutiny. Policymakers in Congress, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and agencies such as the Institute of Medicine (IOM) have called for changes in the advertising landscape, and US food and media industries are developing their own voluntary initiatives related to advertising food to children.

Just last week, a new childhood obesity task force was launched by groups from the government, industry and media, as well as consumer advocacy groups, advertisers and health experts. Some of the nation’s major food firms will be taking part in the initiative, including Kraft, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Kellogg’s and PepsiCo. Health groups involved include the American Diabetes Association, the American Society for Nutrition and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Media or communications networks joining the initiative include Ion Media Networks, Viacom, Discovery Channel, Walt Disney Company and Sesame Workshop. Amongst other participants are also the Ad Council, Association of National Advertisers, and the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

The childhood obesity task force meeting was hosted by Senator Brownback, who also attended the forum in Washington DC yesterday where the KFF report was revealed. The report and a webcast of the session can be found here.

People generally assume that if they have high cholesterol, taking a statin drug to lower it makes good sense as it will reduce the risk of coronary artery disease. However, careful analysis of the data shows that this is a false assumption. In the January 30, 2007 edition of the journal, The LANCET Dr. J. Abramson of Harvard University Medical School reviewed the data supporting the use of cholesterol lowering statin drugs for primary prevention of coronary artery disease. That is, is there truly any benefit associated with the use of statin drugs just to lower cholesterol in people without proven coronary artery disease. His conclusion,

Our analysis suggests that lipid-lowering statins should not be prescribed for true primary prevention in women of any age or for men older than 69 years. These conclusions were reached after evaluating all eight of the studies designed to evaluate the usefulness of statin drugs in terms of preventing coronary artery disease.

As we are now seeing an increasing body of evidence that there may be some significant risks associated with these drugs

(Parkinsons Linked to Statin Drugs) its time to start asking meaningful questions

now with important scientific support, as to why so many physicians seem so compelled to prescribe statin drugs in situations where there is no evidence of need.

Statin side effects

Likely because of the totally passive experience of television watching, it has been demonstrated that there is a direct relationship between the number of hours of television viewed per day in preschoolers and risk of attention deficit problems. In a study appearing in the journal Pediatrics Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children researchers from the department of pediatrics at the University of Washington in Seattle, have studied more than 2500 children at age seven years and found a direct correlation between their risk of attention deficit problems and the amount of television they watched at ages one and three years. This large and very comprehensive study clearly correlated the amount of television viewing with difficulties with respect to attention deficit. The results of the study should not be surprising. When a child is faced with a novel or challenging situation, if he has had the opportunity to engage in extension creative exploration, he is much more likely to have the skills and the confidence to pursue a new challenging academic activity. The child exposed to television, however, has not developed a “comfort zone” in terms of being involved in situations that are challenging and require creativity. Again, television viewing is completely passive and does not challenge the child to explore new areas of creativity and problem-solving.

Recommendations:

1. I am in complete agreement with the American Academy of Pediatrics that children 2 years and younger should not be involved with television at all. This includes even infants being held on their parents laps while their parents watch television. That is an important time to be talking, allowing your infant to begin to develop the important skills necessary for language. Talk to your infant. Play peek-a-boo, play games with your infant, as opposed to you yourself being mesmerized by the television and completely “unavailable” for your infants developing mind. From age 2-3 years television should be minimal. This includes additional time often spent by children watching videos and DVDs. Many suggest that between ages 3 years to 5 years children should be limited to no more than 1-2 hours of television each day. In my opinion, television viewing (including videos and DVDs) should in no way take up such a significant part of a preschoolers life. It’s difficult to specify a certain “number of hours” per week of television that is appropriate for a preschooler, but I would indicate that severely limiting television viewing during this critical period will have profound positive effects on future behavior, brain function, socialization skills and actually help pave the way for better school performance. Again, making television less accessible opens the door (literally) for those activities for which your childs brain has been genetically programmed to thrive upon, namely play and all of its manifestations, including hand-eye coordination (manipulative play), creativity (imaginative play) and, not the least important, learning socialization skills, all of which will pave the way for a smarter and better socially adjusted child leading to the ultimate goal of a happier child.

2. Set a good example. If preschoolers observe their parents reading or involved in conversation or involved in any other activities aside from watching television or surfing the internet, they will obviously be more likely to engage in non-television and “screen activities” themselves.

3.

Finally, never use television in a reward-punishment scenario. That is, never fall into the trap of telling your child for example “if you finish your vegetables, you can watch another half hour of television tonight”. Or “just for that, no TV tonight for you”. This approach to television makes it sought after as a special prize or treat.

Why is television so seductive for children? Humans are actually designed to seek out sensory experiences. It is through various sensory experiences that we learn about our environment and that obviously has a very important role in terms of human survival. Television, especially now that we have high definition TV, provides almost a perfectly comprehensive sensory experience for both the visual and auditory systems. The same argument holds for why humans have such a problem being seduced by sweets. When we were hunter-gatherers, sweets (foods containing sugar) were an indication of ripeness. Now, however, our desire for sweet foods is detrimental, but still remains a part of our genetic programming. To underscore further the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Committee on Public Education, recently issued a comprehensive statement regarding television and children and included in this statement was the following:

“More than 1000 scientific studies and reviews conclude that significant exposure to media violence increases the risk of aggressive behavior in certain children and adolescents, desensitizes them to violence and makes them believe that the world is a “meaner and scarier” place than it is”. Further, they indicate that “research has shown that news reports of bombing, natural disasters, murders and other violent crimes have the potential to traumatize young children.” They further stated “pediatricians should urge parents to avoid television viewing for children under the age of 2 years. Although certain television programs may be promoted to this age group, research on early brain development shows that babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with parents and other significant caregivers (e.g., childcare providers) for healthy brain growth and development of appropriate social, emotional and cognitive skills. Therefore, exposing such young children to television programming should be discouraged.” Interestingly, the report admonished pediatricians with respect to having television and video in their waiting rooms

as this would serve as an inappropriate role model. In this report, pediatricians were told to have “educational materials” in their waiting rooms to promote reading and to also to actually have volunteer readers available in waiting rooms as opposed to television and video equipment. In the report, pediatricians were encouraged to add to their patient questionnaires, questions concerning how much time children were exposed to television and other electronic media. Finally and perhaps most importantly, pediatricians were told that they should “…become educated about the public health risks of media exposure through workshops and written materials”.

Again, the other seductive aspect of television for preschoolers is on the parents side. That is, television is hugely convenient for parents in that it suddenly causes children to stop running around the house and being disruptive. They are essentially mesmerized by this “instant babysitter”, giving parents free time. More on this later.

The other important displacement-in other words, things that children are not doing when they are watching television-is physical activity. Increased television utilization by preschoolers has been clearly correlated to obesity. Quite simply, in that when children are watching television they are not involved in anything physical and further, they are likely to be mindlessly snaking during their television viewing. The critical importance to obesity and brain health involves the connection of both obesity and excessive caloric intake to a reduction in the brains production of BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor). The reduced production of BDNF, the brains “growth hormone” reduces a variety of functions important for the brain, including synapse formation, as well as synaptic pruning, as well as the health and vitality of brain neurons. Ultimately, reduced levels of BDNF lead to decreased memory function and therefore learning. So more television means more obesity, more calories and less BDNF, therefore a brain that functions less adequately, more inefficiently, with poorer ability to retain information. Risk for obesity in adolescents is clearly linked to obesity during preschool years. Teenagers who are obese are at dramatically increased risk for diabetes, which is now increasing at an explosive rate. It is estimated that there are now over 18 million diabetics in the United States. Diabetes is associated with increased levels of blood sugar, which as a catastrophic effect upon the brain, ultimately damaging proteins and showing a direct correlation with increased risk of Alzheimers disease. In fact, the rate of Alzheimer disease is approximately 400% increased in diabetics. Television viewing is responsible for a general decline in physical fitness in preschoolers. When children watch TV, physical suffers. A decline in physical activity in preschoolers has been correlated in multiple studies with a decline in academic performance.

From

FoodComsumer.org

There is another reason to shut off the light before going to bed.

Keeping the lights on at night may affect a small number of “clock genes” that play a major role in controlling how cells live, die and function, according to researchers at a five-day London meeting sponsored by Children With Leukemia, a charity organization in Great Britain. Night lighting interferes with the molecular mechanisms that control cell death and multiplication, thereby causing cancer, according to researchers who are searching for a link between lighting at night and an increase in childhood leukemia risk.

According to Russell Reiter, professor of cellular and structural biology at the University of Texas, a possible link between electric light and cancer could be the hormone melatonin that protects genetic material from mutation. Night light may increase the risk of cancer-related mutations because it suppresses the body’s production of melatonin, Reiter told the London meeting. Childhood leukemia rates in Britain and Europe has been increasing steadily, according to Michael P. Coleman and Anjal Shah, epidemiologists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. This is not only the case in Europe.

A study by epidemiologists at the University of Minnesota in the United States found an increase in childhood leukemia of about 1 percent every two years between 1973 and 1998.

During those years, however, the incidence of adult leukemia decreased. Furthermore, artificial lighting at night or night light may also contribute to breast cancer, according to Richard G. Stevens, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center. The clock gene revolution is relatively new, identified only about five years ago, said Stevens, who has been studying the role of clock gene malfunction in breast cancer. According to Stevens, out of the eight or nine clock genes in mammals, some of them control apoptosis, the process by which the body destroys abnormal cells, while others control cell division. When those genes malfunction, cells ignore signals that tell them not to divide and abnormal cells fail to dissolve, thereby causing cancer, said Stevens, Scott Davis chairman of the department of epidemiology at the University of Washington, said although linking night light with cancer seems like a stretch, there is an underlying biological basis for it. Davis has been studying how night light affects the production of hormones in females and its potential contributions to breast cancer. We have found a relationship between light at night and night-shift work to breast cancer risk, Davis said. The studies indicate that night work disrupts the activity of melatonin, which leads to excessive production of hormones in women.

However, even if the link between night light and cancer were to be confirmed, Stevens said, there are currently no therapeutic remedies for it.