Resumen

TUCCI, Sonia. Efecto de los comerciales de televisión en la escogencia y consumo de alimentos en los niños. Rev. Venez. Endocrinol. Metab. [online]. 2010, vol.8, n.1, pp.11-18. ISSN 1690-3110.

This review examines the effect of food advertising on children’s food preferences, food choice and, ultimately, children’s obesity. The majority of food items promoted by TV adverts are calorically dense/ low nutritional value products. This contrasts with the healthy diet promoted by governments, health organisations schools and parents. Food TV adverts exert a direct effect on food preferences, they influence purchase behaviour and increase their consumption. Children eat more after viewing food TV adverts. Although this increase can be seen in all weight groups, obese children tend to eat more, followed by overweight children and normal weight children. The effect of food adverts is present even at the age of 3. The review ends by mentioning the strategies that have been proposed in order to decrease food promotion to children and favourable conse-quences of this.

Palabras clave : Obesity; overweight; children; TV adverts; food; food preference.