Protecting kids from their own appetites

Couple of items in the news this morning about kids, junk food and booze. Over in the U.K., the Food Standards Agency has hatched an intriguing plan to battle childhood obesity by putting “traffic-light” labels on food packaging: green for healthy, orange for iffy, red for holy crap. Food manufacturers (at least the ones that make red-light food) naturally hate the idea; the FSA says it will make buying healthy food quick and easy. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., new research from Dartmouth suggests that kids 10-14 who own T-shirts, hats and other gear emblazoned with alcohol brands will start boozing earlier than kids who don’t. So of course it’s the fault of the merchandise—not the fault of the kind of parents who would buy their kid a Molson box-hat like this one.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

March 21, 2006 | Permalink