Study Reveals Junk Food Ads Drive Higher Calorie Intake in Children

New Delhi: Exposure to junk food advertising significantly increases calorie consumption among children and adolescents, regardless of the media format or ad content, according to a new randomized crossover trial presented at the 2025 European Congress on Obesity. The study, led by researchers from the University of Liverpool, found that even five minutes of exposure to advertisements for high-fat, salt, and sugar (HFSS) foods caused children to consume an average of 130 extra kilocalories in a single day—the equivalent of two slices of bread.

The trial involved 240 children aged 7–15 from schools across Merseyside, UK. On separate occasions, participants were shown five minutes of HFSS food advertisements and non-food advertisements across four media formats: audiovisual (e.g., TV), visual (e.g., social media), audio (e.g., podcasts), and static (e.g., billboards). The ads included both product-based and brand-only formats. Following the exposure, researchers measured the children's ad libitum snack and lunch intake, body mass index (BMI), and socioeconomic status using postcode data.