'Foods, drinks marketed for kids have high sugar, low nutrients'

A new study has revealed that food for children with colourful labels and packaging with cartoons might indicate that the snack isn't muchnutritious, CNN reported.

Snacks that looked appealing to kids had high amounts of sugar and less amount of nutrients, as per the study, which waspublished in the journal PLOS One.

The study analysed the number ofmarketing strategies and theirnutritional information by looking atnearly 6,000 packaged foods.

“There are many products in our grocery stores that are very powerfully marketed and heavily targeted to children,” saidDr Christine Mulligan, who is thelead study author andpost-doctoral researcher.

“Unfortunately, we also found that these products are, more often than not, very unhealthy and of worse nutritional quality than products that aren’t being promoted to children.”

Dr Maya Adam, who is a clinical associate professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, said that companies use this strategy as children would grow up tobe “brand-loyal adults” and keep coming back.

“As adults, around the world, we take extra precautions when it comes to our children. We buckle them into car seats, make sure they wear helmets,” Adam said, who was not part of the study.

“When it comes to packaged foods, the food industry is doing the opposite: actually promoting less healthy foods to the most vulnerable members of society.”

Mulligan said that the study looked only at products at one point in time.

“We are likely underestimating just how much marketing children are exposed to on food packages in real-time — and packaging is just one of the ways that food companies target children with food marketing,” she said.

She said that marketing impacts how kids eat which will impact their healththroughout their lives.