I doubt most parents would assume a box of waffles with a picture of SpongeBob on the front was necessarily health food. But what if the box also had a label saying, "high in essential nutrients for growing kids"? Even if you don't consciously think about it, you might soften in your approach to the waffles. Well, I got news for you: That food is most likely junk.
See, researchers in Canada analyzed more than 360 products marketed to children. They did NOT include junk food, so there's nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide on this study. Instead they covered what is sometimes packaged as "fun food", products with cartoon characters and so on pimping the contents, such as prepackaged dinners. And guess what? Nearly 90 percent did not meet established nutritional standards, measured by percent of calories from fat, and the amount of sugar and/or sodium. Worse still in my book, 62 percent of the foods researchers identified as being of poor nutritional quality had claims of health on the packaging, like "low fat" or containing "essential nutrients".
So yes, the food industry is not above using shady marketing (such as pictures of kids playing sports on a box of sugar-salt crack) to fool parents about the health value of foods. And of course, there's the issue of directly marketing to kids, by putting appealing and familiar characters on the packaging. Just be forewarned that the fun, convenient food you buy at your kid's request is highly likely to be straight-up junk.
Related:
Tyson Foods Big Fat Liars
Locally Grown Ain't All That
