TV advertisements for fast food may be banned during daytime
November 22nd, 2005
The government is considering restricting advertisements of fast food on television and soft drink vending machines in schools as part of efforts to reduce obesity in children.
Officials said yesterday that the Ministry of Health and Welfare is working on comprehensive measures to control the problem of obesity which is causing increasing health risks and social costs. The steps will be finalized next month.
Under the plan, commercials for fast food will be banned during the daytime to restrict children’s exposure to the ads.
The ministry also plans to require fast food and soft drinks companies to place notice of calories, fat and other dietary information on their products.
The ministry will form a task force later this month consisting of officials from related ministries and experts.
Advisories will also be placed on the packages of food products deemed unhealthy.
“Restricting fast food commercials is a mid- or long-term plan to tackle obesity. We will hear various voices from the public and experts in the first place,” said Choi Sung-rak, head of the ministry’s health policy team.
A person is defined as overweight when the body mass index (BMI) - a person’s weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared - exceeds 25.
The percentage of overweight Koreans climbed to 36 percent of the population from 22.2 percent in 1995. In particular, the rate of overweight female and male children doubled to 15.4 percent and 15.9 percent, respectively, for the last three years.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare estimates the social and economic costs for obesity at 1.8 trillion won - including costs for treatments for obesity-related diseases and loss of productivity due to early death and hospitalization.
Its plan also includes covering health insurance expenses for drugs to treat excessively overweight patients whose BMI is more than 30. Obesity clinics will be open in five local health centers as a trial program, providing counseling and treatments for overweight people.
Under a short-term plan, the ministry will prepare a package of guidelines which will encourage people to have healthy eating habits and regularly exercise.
The health risks of fast food were highlighted earlier in October, when an environmentalist Yoon Gwang-yong appeared in a Korean version of an American documentary “Super Size Me.”
In the film, he had fast food three times a day along with snacks with his doctor observing changes of his body condition.
Yoon planned the experiment for 30 days, but quit in 24 days due to “health concerns.”
(hjjin@heraldm.com)
By Jin Hyun-joo
Source: koreaherald.co.kr
Entry Filed under: Nutrition News
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