Number of Ads for Unhealthy Foods, Beverages on Spanish-Language Channels May Contribute to Obesity Among Hispanic Children
[Feb 21, 2008]
Spanish-language television commercials for foods and beverages with little nutritional value might be contributing to obesity rates among Hispanic children in the U.S., according to a study published online Tuesday by the Journal of Pediatrics, Reuters reports. Nearly half of all food commercials the study examined advertised fast food, and more than half of drink commercials advertised beverages with high sugar contents.
For the study, lead author Darcy Thompson, a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins Children Center, and colleagues reviewed 60 hours of programming airing from 3 p.m. through 9 p.m. on Univision and Telemundo, the two largest Spanish-language channels in the U.S. (Fox, Reuters, 2/19). Of the 989 product advertisements that aired during the study period, 15% were for food or beverages, an average of about 2.5 food or drink ads per hour. Most of the food and drink ads were oriented toward adults, though 29% were oriented toward both children and adults, and 2% were oriented specifically toward children, the study found.
Researchers said the number of ads for a pediatric nutritional supplement, which accounted for 12% of drink commercials, was a surprise. According to the study, “The ad campaign appeals to a common concern of some Latino families that their normal-to-overweight preschool child isn’t eating enough, ‘no come nada,’ even though their child’s eating habits are typical and age-appropriate.”
Comments
Thompson said that the ad content was similar to that during English-language programs but that the findings were more significant for Hispanics because they have the highest rate of children who are overweight and at risk for being overweight of any racial or ethnic group (Phend, MedPage Today, 2/20). About 30% of Hispanic children in the U.S. are overweight, compared with 25% of white children, according to government estimates.
“While we cannot blame overweight and obesity solely on TV commercials, there is solid evidence that children exposed to such messages tend to have unhealthy diets and to be overweight,” Thompson said (Reuters, 2/19).
She added, “Pediatricians and providers for Latino children need to consider TV viewing when they are talking” about children’s weight with parents (MedPage Today, 2/20).
An abstract of the study is available online.
the church of early morning light
I love now, I thought, passing through my subway stop’s turnstiles, taking a turn and ten steps through the green swinging door and down the stairs. The early morning sky, pristine white-blue from this direction, is framed by the window. On the bench below it, two young women in swirls of scarves twist to watch for the train that soon draws towards and under the station. The man beside them, in a short thick tan jacket, drinking coffee cupped in his cold wide brown hands, stands up too.
baby, it’s cold outside…humming.
We all flow down the stairs and into the train. So early there’s seats into Manhattan. Sitting across from the coffee man, next to a sleeping Cambodian woman, I lean my behatted head against the framed subway map and let my mind wind through all the faces around me then through ideas for my work projects. At the next stop, the doors open to the red, blue, silver, white flurry of tags on the cement divider walls, and a woman in a long brown coat an red, blue, green, white knit hat steps in, humming.
Obama fans jam arenas with eye on ‘history’; Gunman injures 17 before shooting himself at Northern Illinois University; Britney Irreconcilable Differences: Suing Dad; the old testament; the new testament: people are reading. We take on another half dozen people at the next stop. They settle around the poles, eyes drift closed.
The woman near the door, standing over me and sleeping neighbor, breaks off her humming with a shout—and lopped off bits of bible verses follow. Loudly. She piously opines in flat declarative sentences. Dear Lord, let not me be judged before coffee.
Oh preacher preacher, I think I have met you before. I think you are the same woman with the French-African-accented voice who screamed at me – you are ugly when you close your ears to the word of God!! –last spring one night coming home in earplugs after interviewing people about AIDS all day.
At the next stop, the car mostly empties. In the next car, I sit beside a man slack jawed and slumped with sleep. The coffee man sits next to a grey haired lady in a sleeping bag like coat, knitting.
Eat, Pray, Love; City is hoping V-day as hot as lust year’s; handfuls of printed off articles; titles in Cyrillic: people are reading.
Our windows blink clear, suddenly out of the tunnel. Then there’s the bridge wires like miles of black lead line with the stained glass dawn pinky apricot and orange with the silver flash of the river below it.
too cold to follow the rhythm
following the rhythm tonight is one for a long run, but mercy on me, no, it is too cold in Brooklyn. At the office today, all the ladies were comparing layers of stockings and cable knit tights and leg warmers and skirts and slips and boots and scarves. I mean, the tart brigade ladies not the ladies in high end fully lined wool suits.
The Broadway bagel-man in the metal cart announced in puffs of white breath—my fingers! my fingers! bending them stiffly like slammed in a door sore, his thick fingers in thin white latex gloves. they barely…work. He had my coffee in the bag before my dollars were out from under my frozen bag flap.
At the coffee shop on the way home, the night manager wrapped his grey hoodie tighter around his scrawny self. He smiled real big and asked about my weekend. I had brunch twice with friends. That’s a really good weekend, right? So I smiled real big. He said, Yeah—that’s a great weekend. Brunch is great. We should have brunch every day. Mandatory brunch.
Yes—brunch and siesta. It would be blissful. It will be heavenly. It is Italy.
green peppers & egg sandwiches
This is one of my favorite sandwiches because I can get everything local and because it is something my family made for breakfast, lunch, and dinner when I was growing up. My grandpa and great uncle grew up in a Sicilian family who immigrated via New Orleans to Chicago. Uncle Ronnie was a butcher, so these sandwiches followed dinners of Italian sausage and peppers and the leftovers went with the eggs. Now they follow sausage-free meals when I sauté an extra pepper or two or they emerge on their own, worth the work of slicing a pepper.
For two sandwiches or one generous sandwich (a good idea):
slice 1 green pepper into strips and sauté in olive oil on medium-high heat until soft and slightly charred about 15-20 minutes. Scoop the cooked peppers into a bowl
slice a hand’s length from a loaf of Italian bread (or baguette) and cut that in ½ lengthwise.
rub the cut sides into the oil in the skillet and fry till toasted. Weighing down the bread will flatten it and more deeply toast it. I often use my tea kettle or another cast iron skillet.
whisk an egg or two with a little cream and a little salt & pepper. Scramble in the skillet.
assemble eggs, peppers on the baguette and sandwich. Eat.
If you are upset by how the egg and pepper squidges out the sides, try hollowing out your bread a little.
lesbian phone sex
this came to me from my ex-girlfriend, who happens to be a documentary film maker. to wit:
this fabulous exposé of lesbian lust buttons is performed by Erica Kash and Julie Goldman. Kash I have not seen before. She began her career in Japan and is smashing in her silver-white wig.
Goldman first made me laugh at all our queer predicaments and cultures at a midwestern LGBT conference when i was in college. Of course, the bit that sticks in my mind was about tongue piercings. Then again, I think it wasn’t part of the routine but a nicely turned flirtation with a so-pierced delegate in the front row. A decade later, I saw her judge the Ms. Lez competition in Brooklyn. Brava. She’s fantastic.
trifle
admittedly, not just any trifle. This is festival trifle. Trifle with Italian Christmas cake, pistachios, cardamom, heavy cream, and apricots soaked in hot sugared liquor (not in the original recipe). make your own panettone for this, and we’ll do our own you-tube video.
as it came to me from Nigella via my favorite kitchen witch:
Here you go love ~ from Nigella’s Feast
4.5 C dried apricots
6 C water
3/4 C superfine sugar
juice of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 orange or 1 tangerine
6 cardamom pods
1/2 pandoro or 1lb piece of pandoro or panettone
1 C heavy cream
1 C greek or whole milk yogurt
3 Tbs honey
1/4 C pistachios
1/4 C slivered almonds
amaretto if you like
Put apricots, water, sugar, juices in saucepan
Bruise cardamom, add to pan, stir
Bring to boil, turn down, add a few slugs of amaretto and simmer for 30 min
Drain apricots, discarding seeds and pods, put liquid back in pan, boil over high heat 15-20 min to reduce to syrup (to about 1.5 cups) – let cool
Cut pandoro into 1/2 inch wide, long slices. Line bowl with half of long slices, spread half of warm apricots over cake, pour half of suryp over this.
Repeat (placing slices opposite direction) – leave overnight covered with plastic wrap in fridge
Topping: whisk heavy cream till soft peaks, add yogurt and beat to combine – spread over trifle
Drizzle honey, scatter nuts
