Demi
Wed, Feb-28-07, 13:20
The Times
London, UK
28 February, 2007
Getting the message: French told to stop snacking
French consumers are being told to stop snacking between meals as part of a government campaign to combat obesity among children and low-income groups. From tomorrow, they will also be told to avoid eating foods high in salt and sugar and to take more exercise.
Manufacturers must display one of four messages on all advertisements or pay a fine of 1.5 per cent of their advertising budget to a national health fund.
Consumer groups attacked the new law as inadequate. They called for clear and specific warnings on unhealthy food and a ban on advertisements aimed at children. The messages, similar to warnings in alcohol advertisements since 1992, all begin: “For your health . . .” One says: “. . . avoid snacking between meals.” Another: “. . . avoid eating food with too much fat, too much sugar, too much salt.” There is also “. . . eat at least five fruits and vegetables a day”, and “. . . undertake regular physical activity”.
With its tradition of good food and regular eating habits, France suffers less from obesity than any other European nation except Norway, according to EU statistics. However the authorities have been alarmed by a steep rise in weight in recent years.
One third of the country is now overweight by the body mass index standard of 25. Obesity — a BMI of more than 30 — has doubled over the past decade to 10 per cent of the population according to INSEE, the national statistics institute. The condition affects one in six children under 15, compared with one in twenty in 1980.
The Ministry of Health found in a survey that up to 98 per cent of the French approved of the new advertising messages, which must appear at the bottom of television screens and advertising displays or be spoken on the radio.
The campaign was denounced as a joke by UFC-Que Choisir, the main consumer association. To test the effectiveness of the warnings, it showed 701 people a television advertisement, including the message, for a popular chocolate-coated breakfast cereal.
Nine out of ten did not make a link between the warnings and the nutritional imbalance of the cereal, said UFC.
Those who were least able to understand the message were children and less-educated people. “These are precisely those who are targeted, so the message misses its goal,” said UFC.
Patrick Serog, a nutritionist, said that the Health Ministry’s intentions were good but the messages were confusing. “When a commercial for a sugary product shows the message saying that you should not eat sugar, that suggests that the product does not contain sugar. It’s ambiguous and the food industry will play on that ambiguity,” he told The Times.
Over the past two years, antiobesity action has been taken in schools, with better food and the removal of snack and soda vending machines.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1449724.ece
London, UK
28 February, 2007
Getting the message: French told to stop snacking
French consumers are being told to stop snacking between meals as part of a government campaign to combat obesity among children and low-income groups. From tomorrow, they will also be told to avoid eating foods high in salt and sugar and to take more exercise.
Manufacturers must display one of four messages on all advertisements or pay a fine of 1.5 per cent of their advertising budget to a national health fund.
Consumer groups attacked the new law as inadequate. They called for clear and specific warnings on unhealthy food and a ban on advertisements aimed at children. The messages, similar to warnings in alcohol advertisements since 1992, all begin: “For your health . . .” One says: “. . . avoid snacking between meals.” Another: “. . . avoid eating food with too much fat, too much sugar, too much salt.” There is also “. . . eat at least five fruits and vegetables a day”, and “. . . undertake regular physical activity”.
With its tradition of good food and regular eating habits, France suffers less from obesity than any other European nation except Norway, according to EU statistics. However the authorities have been alarmed by a steep rise in weight in recent years.
One third of the country is now overweight by the body mass index standard of 25. Obesity — a BMI of more than 30 — has doubled over the past decade to 10 per cent of the population according to INSEE, the national statistics institute. The condition affects one in six children under 15, compared with one in twenty in 1980.
The Ministry of Health found in a survey that up to 98 per cent of the French approved of the new advertising messages, which must appear at the bottom of television screens and advertising displays or be spoken on the radio.
The campaign was denounced as a joke by UFC-Que Choisir, the main consumer association. To test the effectiveness of the warnings, it showed 701 people a television advertisement, including the message, for a popular chocolate-coated breakfast cereal.
Nine out of ten did not make a link between the warnings and the nutritional imbalance of the cereal, said UFC.
Those who were least able to understand the message were children and less-educated people. “These are precisely those who are targeted, so the message misses its goal,” said UFC.
Patrick Serog, a nutritionist, said that the Health Ministry’s intentions were good but the messages were confusing. “When a commercial for a sugary product shows the message saying that you should not eat sugar, that suggests that the product does not contain sugar. It’s ambiguous and the food industry will play on that ambiguity,” he told The Times.
Over the past two years, antiobesity action has been taken in schools, with better food and the removal of snack and soda vending machines.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1449724.ece