Why is Cancer Council NSW interested in food marketing?
Obesity is a significant risk factor for cancer of the breast, colon, endometrium, gallbladder, oesophagus and kidney. The table below shows the relationship between these cancers and overweight and obesity.
Cancer Type |
Percentage of cancers associated
with overweight and obesity |
Endometrial cancer |
39% |
Oesophageal cancer |
37% |
Kidney cancer |
25% |
Gallbladder cancer |
24% |
Colon cancer |
11% |
Breast cancer (post menopausal) |
9% |
Around 80% of overweight children will become overweight adults, so preventing weight gain in children is very important. This makes childhood overweight and obesity a key priority area for The Cancer Council NSW.
The causes of overweight are manifold. The principle behind maintaining a healthy weight is to balance the energy that you put into your body (as food) with the energy that you burn up (as physical activity).
Many factors make it difficult for people to maintain this balance between food and physical activity, including the environment in which we live. Unhealthy food marketing is one such environmental factor that is thought to contribute to our “obesogenic” or obesity-promoting environment. Although there is no unequivocal evidence that food marketing causes childhood obesity, several international reviews have recently provided evidence to show that food marketing influences children's food preferences, the food that they request from their parents and ultimately the food that they eat.
Concerns about food marketing
Children's dietary choices have a long-term effect on their health.
The majority of current research relating to food marketing has focused on TV advertising. It is suspected that the effect of food marketing on childhood obesity is even worse when other forms of food marketing are considered.
Children's constant exposure to unhealthy food in the media normalises these unhealthy foods, so that high fat, high sugar and high salt foods become an accepted part of their everyday diet. These foods tip the balance between food intake and physical activity so that more energy is taken in than is used up. Over time this unbalance can lead to weight gain.
Junk Food Injunction Newsletter
 Winter Edition 2009
The aim of this newsletter is to keep you informed about food marketing to children and its impact on children’s health.
This edition of Junk Food Injunction highlights a new advocacy campaign from public health and consumer groups, including Cancer Council, which aims to demonstrate community support for better regulations on unhealthy food marketing to children.
We also describe how food marketers are infiltrating classrooms, and the marketing spin used by food companies to promote their products as healthier than they really are.
Read Junk Food Injunction
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Printed copies of this newsletter are mailed to the subscribers. If you like to be added to the distribution list please contact: Bridget Kelly, Ph: (02) 9334 1467 or
email: bridgetk@nswcc.org.au
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