Proper health and nutrition is of critical importance to the growth and development of young children yet many American children eat in ways that do not meet proper nutrition guidelines. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the media, and its promotion of junk food, is one of the main culprits in the obesity epidemic. Read the article, “Children, Adolescents, Obesity, and the Media,” and watch the video, We’re Not Buying It: Stop Junk Food Marketing to Kids (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..
In your post, address the following:
- What role does the media play in the promotion of unhealthy food choices? Identify and describe a specific example.
- What are the long-term consequences of these media messages on children’s health and nutrition?
- Describe two to three specific things parents and teachers of young children can do to combat media messages that promote unhealthy food choices.
Your discussion post should be at least 200 words in length.
Answer preview
The media messages play long-term consequences on the health of the children as they encourage bad eating habits and this will, in the long run, create all kinds of illnesses. Many children don’t understand the effects that processed food have; they want to enjoy the yummy food that they see in the advertisements. Many of these junk foods cause obesity and at times heart problems, if children are spending more time on televisions, eating out at restaurants and getting less time on physical activities, it translates to increase in health issues (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2017).
Things parents and teachers of young children can do to combat media messages
Parents and teachers can limit the amount of time that children are spending on screens and use of social media platforms. The lesser the time a child has in front of the television the less the child sees these media messages on unhealthy food choices. Parents can encourage kids to evaluate their choice of food that the take and teach them more about dangers of junk food.
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