According to a recent study, white-dominated neighborhoods have more fast-food chains but black neighborhoods target young children even if there are fewer fast food chains in the area.
According to the study, these fast food chains target young children as their advertisements are child-oriented as well as the meals that they serve. The study pressed that if this continues to happen, the dietary preferences of children will be affected. Also, taste preferences of people can be linked to adulthood obesity.
The study has been published via the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and it's about worrisome evidence that the child-centric food marketing greatly affects the kids than adults. In the study, they had a sample population of 6,716 fast food restaurants and although most are located in white neighborhoods, those in the black neighborhoods strongly target children.
The study found out that a fifth of the eateries marketed to children lure these youngsters with meal toys and with outdoor-facing ads that feature toys and cartoon characters.
The study says, "restaurants in majority black neighborhoods had almost two times the odds of displaying kids' meal toys compared to those in white neighborhoods."
This has also been linked in a previous study that says the fast food companies target young people who live in lower-income communities and noted about the communities of color and that they use price promotion and advertisements. The foods served by these chains are said to have lower nutritional value.
According to statistics, black American adults have the highest rate of obesity and overweight in the country. This then supports the study that black kids are being bombarded with ads for them to want to eat on fast food chains. The diets of these children are encouraged to be watch and the study pressed that they want to inform all racial backgrounds and not just black communities.
