Children’s Exposure to Food and Beverage Advertising on Television: Tracking Calories and Nutritional Content by Company Membership in Self-regulation

Abstract

American children have an energy imbalance that has contributed to current obesity rates of 10.4 % and 19.6 % for children aged 2–5 and 6–11, respectively (Ogden, Carroll, Curtin, Lamb, & Flegal, 2010). Whereas estimated energy requirements for moderately active children aged 2–5 and 6–11, respectively, are 1,300 kilocalories (kcal) and 1,733 kcal for boys and 1,250 kcal and 1,633 kcal for girls (United States Department of Agriculture, 2005), actual estimated daily intake for these respective age groups is 1,559 kcal and 2,151 kcal for boys and 1,393 kcal and 1,889 kcal for girls (Wright, Wang, Kennedy-Stephenson, & Ervin, 2003). This implies an energy gap based on moderate activity in the range of 143–418 kcal per day, on average, depending on age and gender. Recent estimates of top sources of energy show that children obtain significant empty calories from grain desserts (e.g., 138 kcal/day for ages 4–8 and 145 kcal for ages 9–13) and sugar sweetened beverages (e.g., 121 kcal/day for ages 4–8 and 169 kcal for ages 9–13) (Reedy & Krebs-Smith, 2010). It was estimated that approximately 40 % of children’s total energy intake (798 out of 2,027 kcal per day) came in the form of empty calories with 433 kcal from solid fat and 365 kcal from added sugar (Reedy et al., 2010). Children’s overall diets are less healthy than recommended and related high intakes of sugar, sugar sweetened beverages, fat, saturated fat, and sodium and have been associated with greater risk of obesity in addition to other negative health outcomes and other health consequences (Appel, Frohlich, Hall, Pearson, Sacco, Seals et al., 2011; Bray & Popkin, 1998; Gidding, Dennison, Birch, Daniels, Gillman, Lichtenstein et al., 2006; Guenther, Dodd, Reedy, & Krebs-Smith, 2006; Ludwig, Peterson, & Gortmaker, 2001).