There has been much discussion in the media recently about the censoring of junk food advertising, especially to children. One such article can be seen here.

This topic definitely raises an interesting debate and there is no doubt that minimising the advertising of junk food will make people less inclined to eat such feeds, but the question must be asked ‘Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to educate the population on making healthy food choices?’.

Being an exercise physiologist, my feeling is that we will get more long-term benefits through education in areas such as food selection, portion control and cooking methods than we will by simply removing advertising. The removal of advertising does not make the product available, it simply means it is less ‘in-your-face’. If we are able to better educate the population on healthy lifestyle habits then this will assist in making better long-term food selection and thus hopefully reducing the rate of obesity.

If there is a particular interest in protecting our children from obesity, then perhaps the national focus should be on school-based nutrition and exercise education.

I know this is easier said than done. There are definitely no easy answers.