Food marketing to children and youth : threat or opportunity?

Creating an environment in which children in the United States grow up healthy should be a high priority for the nation. Yet the prevailing pattern of food and beverage marketing to children in America represents, at best, a missed opportunity, and at worst, a direct threat to the health prospects of the next generation. Childrena (TM)s dietary and related health patterns are shaped by the interplay of many factorsa biologic affinities, their culture and values, their economic status, their physical and social environments, and their commercial media environmentsa all of which, apart from their genetic predispositions, have undergone significant transformations during the past three decades. Among these…