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30th January 2006 Expert calls for crackdown on food advertising The International Obesity Task Force is calling for Governments to do more to protect children from food marketing. Professor Philip James, chairman of the Task Force, will tell an Italy conference that children are increasingly exposed to not just ads, but also sophisticated marketing techniques such as text messaging. "The societal pressures on children to consume food which has little nutritional value is extreme," he says. "There needs to be far greater commitment by governments to protect children. "It's very questionable whether the lives of children should be commercialised in the way they are - this is only a phenomenon of the last 20 years, and it's contrary to every civilisation's understanding of how to nurture children." Speaking to the Hormones, Nutrition and Physical Performance Conference in Turin, Professor James is expected to say just a small proportion of marketing budgets goes on TV advertising, with firms resorting to more sophisticated techniques such as mobile phone messages and placing products in stores where children are likely to see them, such as at check-outs. He says that government action through regulation is "crucial for protecting children". A Department of Health spokeswoman agreed the promotion of unhealthy food to children was a concern, but steps were being taken through the ad ban and food labelling proposals. But a spokesman for the Food and Drink Federation said the industry had reformed its ways in recent years. "We realise firms need to be responsible, that is why we have cut salt content, started to introduce better labelling and looking at advertising." Worldwide, more than 22m children under five are seriously overweight and in the UK 15 per cent of 15-year-olds are classed as obese, with these figures rapidly rising.
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