What If You Only Ate Food in TV Ads?

If you were to only eat food that was advertised on television, you would be in a sorry state indeed.

Your diet would be laden with huge amounts of sugar and fat and virtually no fresh fruit and vegetables, according to researchers from Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia who analyzed what would happen if someone ate 2,000 calories a day only from foods that were advertised on TV.

The research team, led by Michael Mink, analyzed the food advertised during 84 hours of prime time broadcasts and 12 hours of Saturday morning broadcasts during one month in 2004.

Based on this analysis, a daily diet of food from TV ads would include the following:

* 25 times the recommended servings of sugar
* 20 times the recommended servings of fat
* Less than half the recommended servings of vegetables, fruit and dairy products.

"The results of this study suggest the foods advertised on television tend to oversupply nutrients associated with chronic illness--e.g., saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium -- and under-supply nutrients that help protect against illness -- e.g., fiber, Vitamins A, E and D, calcium and potassium," Mink said in a news release.

The findings were published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

From the Editors at Netscape