{"id":6273,"date":"2024-05-30T13:20:14","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T18:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toxinfreeusa.org\/?page_id=6273"},"modified":"2025-07-06T21:07:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T02:07:18","slug":"childhood-diabetes-reduction-act-ban-junk-food-advertising-targeting-children","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/toxinfreeusa.org\/take-action\/childhood-diabetes-reduction-act-ban-junk-food-advertising-targeting-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Ban Junk Food Advertising Targeting Children"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tell Your U.S. Senators: Pass the Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act to Ban Junk Food Advertising Targeting Children<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act<\/a> (S.4195), introduced by Senators Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, and Peter Welch, establishes a first-of-its-kind federal ban on junk food advertising targeted to children in the United States. The legislation also requires the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to implement strong health and nutrient warning labeling, directs the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the dangers posed by ultraprocessed foods (UPFs), and develops a national education campaign for children and caregivers through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be clear: The twin crises of type 2 diabetes and obesity in America are being fueled by the food and beverage industry that, for decades, has been making massive profits by enticing children to consume unhealthy products purposely designed to be overeaten,\u201d said Sanders. \u201cWe cannot continue to allow large corporations in the food and beverage industry to put their profits over the health and well being of our children.<\/strong> Nearly 30 years ago, Congress had the courage to take on the tobacco industry, whose products killed more than 400,000 Americans every year. Now is the time for Congress to act with the same sense of urgency to combat these diabetes and obesity epidemics. That means banning junk food ads targeted to kids and putting strong warning labels on food and beverages with unacceptably high levels of sugar, salt, and saturated fat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, more than 35 million Americans are struggling with type 2 diabetes \u2013 90% of whom are overweight or obese. These crises go hand-in-hand and children are severely impacted. Today, one out of every five kids is living with obesity. A serious illness in itself, diabetes is also a contributing factor to heart disease, stroke, amputations, blindness, and kidney failure. Unless the U.S. dramatically changes course, these numbers will continue to grow exponentially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This epidemic not only endangers the health of tens of millions of Americans, but it is also enormously expensive to the U.S. healthcare system. In 2023, the total cost of diabetes was nearly $413 billion, amounting to about 10 percent of total healthcare expenditures in the U.S. \u2013 up 27% over the past six years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each year, the food and beverage industry spends about $14 billion to market many of their unhealthy products to the American people. Even worse, some $2 billion a year is spent on advertising unhealthy food and beverages to children. According to the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, children and teens view about 4,000 food and beverage ads on television every year \u2013 an average of ten advertisements each day. Another study found that children who watch Nickelodeon and Nicktoons are exposed to more than ten unhealthy food and beverage ads every hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the food and beverage industry\u2019s marketing operation continues to target children, the nation\u2019s food has undergone a radical change. Today, a shocking 73 percent of the food supply in the U.S. is ultraprocessed and loaded with high levels of added sugars, saturated fats, sodium, and non-sugar sweeteners. Consuming UPFs can be as addictive as cigarettes, as deadly as heavy alcohol consumption, and is linked to over 30 serious health conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act, the U.S. would join nations such as Canada, Mexico, the U.K., Chile, Ireland, Sweden, South Korea, Taiwan, Spain, Portugal and others that have seriously restricted or banned junk food ads targeted at children. In the 1980s, Quebec banned junk food advertising to children. Today, they have the lowest childhood obesity rate in Canada and the highest consumption of fruits and vegetables of any province in their nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur food environment has become dominated by ultraprocessed foods that have more in common with a cigarette than a fruit or vegetable.<\/strong> Many ultra-processed foods are hyperpalatable and trigger the core signs of addiction, like intense cravings and a loss of control over intake,\u201d said Dr. Ashley Gearhardt, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan and Director of the Food and Addiction Science & Treatment Lab. \u201cThe American public is not adequately warned about the risks associated with these products and children are a key marketing demographic for ultra-processed foods with unhealthy nutrient profiles. The Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act is a courageous step towards promoting the physical and mental health of American children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just the rate of diabetes and obesity that is skyrocketing among our children.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A <\/strong>2024 study<\/strong><\/a> shows a dramatic 500% increase in colon cancer among kids 10 to 14 between 1999 and 2020.<\/strong> Researchers found that the rate also increased 333% among 15- to 19-year-olds, and 185% among 20- to 24-year-olds. “Colorectal cancer is no longer considered just a disease of the elderly population,” lead researcher Dr. Islam Mohamed, an internal medicine resident physician at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, said. The researchers said suspected risk factors include lack of physical activity, antibiotics and dietary additives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can reign in the shocking increases in childhood diseases by preventing Big Food corporations from enticing our children in the first place. We don\u2019t allow corporations to advertise addictive, health-harming tobacco products to children. We shouldn’t allow the advertising of addictive, health-harming junk food to children either.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell your Senators to pass the Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act. We can stop another generation of kids from being junk food addicts and protect them from the related health harms.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

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