Marketing Can Change Kids’ Brain Activity—and the Food Industry Is Spending $2 Billion a Year to Push Them to Junk Food

‘It’s a battle played out every day in the United States: Kids persistently beg their parents for one of the sugary cereals or drive-through hamburgers they saw in a commercial while watching Saturday-morning cartoons, and eventually the worn-out parents give in, even though they know it’s unhealthy.
It has long been understood that when kids are victorious in that power struggle, it can lead to obesity and other diet-related health problems. But a new study shows that the food advertisements—which kids see in staggering numbers and which amount to $2 billion worth of ad buys per year­—may change the area of the brain that controls just how much children are apt to desire sugary cereals, candy, and fast food.’
Read more: Marketing Can Change Kids’ Brain Activity—and the Food Industry Is Spending $2 Billion a Year to Push Them to Junk Food