Manipulated exposure to television-style healthy food advertising and children's healthy food intake in nurseries

The detrimental impact of currently disproportionate amounts of digital food advertising for processed foods high in sugar, salt, and fat (HSSF) on children's food intake and dietary health is well-documented. The potential of digital healthy food advertising to encourage healthy eating in children is much less researched. A pre-test post-test control group design was used to compare the effect of specifically designed, television-style advertisements for healthy food versus toys on 172 three-to seven-year-old children's exclusively healthy food intake (vegetable, fruit, whole-grain) in five nurseries in Germany. Within- and between-group comparisons demonstrated the effectiveness of healthy food advertising exposure to increase children's healthy food intake. Three exposures to a 1-min-advertisement for healthy food were sufficient to increase children's healthy food intake by as much as three portions. Children in the control condition ate less healthy foods following viewing of a control advertisement (a matched toy advertisement). We concluded that digital healthy food advertising is likely to increase children's healthy food intake sufficiently to help children meet daily recommended amounts of vegetables, fruit, or whole-grain bread, and that this encouragement may be required as decreases in healthy food intake were found when healthy foods were merely available.