Many junk food advertising in India don’t tell us how much sugar, salt, or unhealthy fat is in their products. People who care about public health want to stop these ads because they’re making health problems worse. The current rules don’t do a good job of stopping ads that trick kids and teenagers.
A group that studies nutrition looked at these junk food advertising and found that none of them give us the most important information about how much sugar, salt, or bad fat is in the food. People who want to protect public health are asking for a law that would ban these ads. They say that junk food is making more and more people sick in India.
Dr. Arun Gupta, who works with a group called Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest, said, “The current rules can’t stop most of the tricky ads for packaged junk food or food that’s high in fat, salt, or sugar. We need a clear law that says no to misleading ads.”
When they looked at 43 junk food advertising, they found that they often used famous people, emotions, and claims that couldn’t be proven. They were trying to get kids to buy these unhealthy foods. Nupur Bidla, who studies society and works with the same group, said, “If you look at any packaged food ad, it’s usually full of bad stuff like salt, sugar, and chemicals. They show these foods as healthy, and we see more than 200,000 of these ads on just 10 TV channels each month. That’s why we call it ‘The Junk Push.'”
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The activists also pointed out that the Food Safety Standards Authority of India hasn’t made clear rules about how food should be labeled on the front of the package, and they’ve been waiting for over a year. They also want high taxes on junk food to make people less likely to buy it.
Dr. Srinath Reddy, from the Public Health Foundation of India, said, “Junk food doesn’t give our bodies the right nutrients we need to grow and be healthy. Instead, it gives us too much salt, sugar, bad fat, and chemicals. Even though science tells us we shouldn’t eat these foods often, more and more people are because of ads and businesses pushing them. We need to fight against this by telling people the truth about how these foods are bad for their health and making strong rules to stop the Junk Food Advertising.”
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