Food marketing and nutrition
Let's start from the beginning. There are foods that are good and foods that are bad for your health. Not that the bad ones put us in immediate danger. They only harm our health in the medium term if consumed regularly. And they add nothing to our diet or to the daily need for nutrients (vitamins, minerals, proteins…), which are fundamental for the normal functioning of the human body. For these reasons, the most dogmatic refer to them as "junk food".
These foods are not prohibited because, when consumed occasionally by those who follow a healthy diet, they do not pose an immediate danger. They provide pleasure to those who enjoy them, but from a nutritional point of view, they add little or nothing.
This group includes most soft drinks and sugary beverages, a large portion of sweets and other treats. Given these assumptions, there is freedom to sell them in a society that allows free choice and, above all, promotes, or should promote, informed choices by citizens.
It turns out that, since these foods are easy to manufacture, have a long shelf life, are easy to store, and are produced with relatively inexpensive raw materials, they allow for a sufficiently high profit margin to justify their intensive promotion and advertising. In particular, massive promotion is aimed at very young consumers, who have less capacity for protection.
Today, we know that food advertising and marketing have the ability to intensely modify the tastes, preferences, and eating behaviors of children. And even more so of obese children.
We also know that companies have been investing heavily in younger audiences, particularly in digital marketing, digital games, social media, digital influencers, and other communication formats that often go unnoticed by parents and all of us.
And despite the consensus and scientific evidence that children are extremely vulnerable to this type of manipulation, that advertised foods are, in most cases, of low nutritional value and with potential negative effects on their health, that the WHO and the European Commission suggest strong regulatory intervention by member states in this area, and that self-regulation has been unable to control these forms of communication… society's negligence and silence on this issue has been constant.
It's clear, given the enormous amount of money involved and the strong lobbies in the area, that they will be talking about this again soon. The arguments will be the usual ones: that it's essentially a matter of lack of education and food literacy, that the industry is aware of the seriousness of this problem and has been self-regulating well for a long time, that the State lacks the capacity to oversee it, and that this digital world is impossible to control.
But the underlying issue is simple. In Portugal, 30.7% of Portuguese children aged between 6 and 8 years old are already overweight, and obesity affects 11.7% of children living in the country.
If nothing is done, one in three overweight Portuguese children may suffer for the rest of their lives, with dramatic consequences for themselves and their families, particularly because most of the diseases that affect older Portuguese people today, such as diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and certain types of cancer, have a strong dietary component that begins to be built when children's tastes and food preferences are shaped.
Food marketing and children
Advertising and marketing targeting children about certain foods that contribute to these serious public health problems is currently being used intensively and with massive investments, despite everyone agreeing that it shouldn't be happening.
To change this situation, the Portuguese parliament recently approved (as is happening in other European countries) Law No. 30/2019 of April 23, 2019, which will come into force soon and aims to limit the advertising of food and beverages that contain high energy value, salt, sugar, and saturated fatty acids.
It's an imperfect law, still with many flaws, that's for sure. And one that will face much opposition from the food industry. And it will be a drop in the ocean in this ocean of early construction of children's food tastes and preferences. But it establishes, for the first time, an explicit nutritional benchmark for the protection of children in this unregulated world of food marketing (including digital marketing) aimed at the youngest. It forces us to stop and reflect and aligns with the WHO's global guidelines in this area.
Fortunately, most of the companies that heavily advertise on food products are multinational corporations, increasingly focused on social responsibility issues and with a global reputation. It is hoped that a serious discussion will begin at this level for the sake of the future health of those who are most vulnerable in our society.
First published in Visão Magazine.
Written by
Pedro Graça, Director of the Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Porto