Private MD News

Televised food ads push an imbalanced diet

Category: Heart Health and Cholesterol

Individuals who have poor cholesterol may want to turn off the TV to avoid watching food advertisements, as a new study has found that the majority of televised commercials for food promote a diet that can cause higher cholesterol tests.

Researchers found that if an individual were to eat a diet consisting completely of food advertised on television they would consume 25 times the recommended amount of sugar and 20 times the recommended amount of fat, two factors known to elevate cholesterol.

Lead investigator, Michael Mink, said that the results of the study were startling for the degree to which they showed television advertisements push an imbalanced diet.

"The results of this study suggest the foods advertised on television tend to oversupply nutrients associated with chronic illness - like saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium - and undersupply nutrients that help protect against illness - like fiber, vitamins A, E and D, calcium and potassium," said Mink

The study suggested that more educational campaigns be launched to teach the public the dangers of basing their diet on food advertisements.