The President of the Childhood Obesity Foundation, Dr. Tom Warshawski, notes that the survey findings represent a call for action by governments and municipalities. “The survey demonstrates that Canadians are concerned about food marketing directed at children. Over 75% of respondents realize that the marketing of unhealthy food products to children contributes to overweight and obesity issues among young Canadians. It is not surprising that 82% of respondents would like limits to be placed on the marketing of low nutritional value foods to children. In fact, the majority of respondents are in favour (64%) of prohibiting advertising directed at children across Canada, as is already the case in Quebec,” he said.
According to Craig Larsen, Executive Director of the Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada (CDPAC), this survey helps demonstrate that Canadians are ready to respond to the World Health Organization’s call to action, which encourages all its Member States to implement regulations to reduce the exposure of children to marketing as well as its impact on children. “The promotion of high calorie and low nutritional value food products in particular is a major factor in the obesity epidemic. It is now time for governments to react to the call for action put forward by the WHO and Canadians and take the necessary measures to control the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children”, he stated.
The survey was conducted by IPSOS Descarie among 2,000 respondents representative of the Canadian population between April 22nd and April 30th, 2010. The error margin is 2.2%.
