State Struggles with Junk Food Marketing to Latino Kids

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About 18% of all third-graders in Connecticut are obese.

About 25% of Latino third-graders in the state are obese.

Some experts in the region are highlighting unhealthy marketing as a contributor, given Latino kids’ high exposure to media, the New Britain Herald reports.

“In my opinion, Spanish-speaking children are more heavily targeted by junk food, dessert and sugar-sweetened beverage ads because their community is very disempowered and does not have the means to advocate for changes in these unhealthy marketing practices that have been seriously questioned by groups that have a higher social position in the country,” Dr. Rafael Perez-Escamilla, director of the Connecticut Center for Eliminating Health Disparities among Latinos at the University of Connecticut, told the New Britain Herald.

The food industry in the U.S. “self-regulates” itself regarding content of advertisements targeting children, but some politicians and groups around the nation are working down on young Latinos’ exposure to marketing of unhealthy foods, according to the article.

Learn more about getting involved in marketing issues at ChangeLab Solutions.