A considerable period of any day is spent by children watching TV. Of all the time they spent before TV, respectable time is spent watching the alluring and attractive food advertisements, some of which are exclusively meant to attract children. This has a major influence on children’s mentality to the good and the bad among various eatables, which eventually obstructs the path of successful weight loss in case of obese children.
The actual story is not entirely as simple as mentioned above. The mental behaviors of healthy children and that of obese kids are different towards these luscious advertisements. While healthy children’s minds respond restrictively towards alluring foods, minds of obese children respond more desirably. A survey reveals that about 20% of kids in the age group of 6 – 11 are obese. ‘Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention’ has confirmed the report affirmatively. However, the path ahead is neither smooth for health departments of the country nor for the children who are in pursuit of weight loss. Besides, dedicated researches would are required in this matter because of the distinction in the mental behavior of different children.
A research was conducted on 20 children in order to establish the difference in their mental behavior Of the 20 children 10 were obese. All of them were given 60 logos of food and their brain activities were MRI scanned. The 10 kids who were obese were found to found to have increased flow of blood in the brain region which signifies reward. In the other hand, the flow of blood was more to the area of their brains that regulates control over one’s self. Besides, in order to ensure that hunger has least influence on the study, each child asked about hunger to which all reported to have had similar degree hunger at the time of the test.
This test is of crucial significance to country where the numbers victims of obesity are growing rapidly. This also signifies the influence of advertisements on weight loss regime of children. While losing weight is already quite tough a job, it becomes tougher due to numerous advertisements, which a child has to face on numerous media. On the other hand, advertising industry is billion-dollar industry which is tough to negotiate with. The more a child succumbs to its urges the more it affects its Body-Mass Index (BMI), which becomes another hindrance in the path of weight loss. Thus, an intricate plan is required.