Aggressive food marketing is increasing obesity among children

Uganda is witnessing an explosion in the amount of information at our disposal. One area of concern, however, is marketing of sugar-laden drinks and fast foods, which has become increasingly pervasive on digital platforms.
Uganda faces twin problems when it comes to feeding its youngsters – for the village dwellers, malnutrition is rife and for those in urban areas, obesity is a growing concern. This article focuses on the latter.
Aggressive food marketing on radio, billboards, television, and social media is leading children and teenagers to demand for fast food and sugary drinks. The main risk factor for obesity and overweight in Ugandan children is the increased promotion of unhealthy foods and drinks high in sugar, salt, unhealthy fats, and artificial additives.
This has prompted nutrition transition, shifting eating patterns away from plant-based diets to ultra-processed foods. For instance, the Uganda Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) indicate 5 percent of children under five years are overweight or obese. Additional evidence shows a high prevalence of obesity (32.3%) and overweight (21.7%) in school-age children (ages 3 to 16).
Digital advertising has grown as more people, including children, have access to smartphones, social media sites, and the internet. Explosion in food delivery services means that one can order something with just a figure swipe.
Unhealthy foods and sugary beverages have also become cheaper (processed juices are bought at as low as UGX 500) for children and adolescents. Marketers are going out of the way to make children and teenagers feel they must have these foods and drinks. One campaign by a soda company portrays those who drink it as ninjas, riding a powerful motorcycle jumping over obstacles. That is not true.  
Such exposure is detrimental because it has both short- and long-term negative effects on children’s knowledge of nutrition, preferences, purchase behavior, consumption patterns, and diet-related health.
To safeguard the health of children in an era of aggressive marketing, regulatory measures should be implemented to restrict the marketing of unhealthy foods on platforms easily accessible to children and teenagers. This includes coming up with stringent guidelines for online advertising, with a particular focus on protecting children and adolescents. It is crucial to ensure that digital marketing practices promote the health and well-being of Ugandan children rather than exploiting them for commercial gain.
The government should develop a comprehensive framework to regulate digital food advertising in collaboration with food industry players. The aim should be prohibiting the targeting of children and vulnerable populations with advertisements for unhealthy foods, especially the use of celebrities and cartoon characters that persuade children to demand unhealthy foods, clear labeling of food products to help consumers make informed food choices, and incentivizing food industries and digital platforms to promote healthy food options and balanced diets.
Parents should limit screen time for their children and how much advertising they are exposed to. It is also important that parents desist from buying sugary drinks and unhealthy foods for their children because they have asked.
As Uganda embraces the opportunities brought by digitalisation, it is critical to understand, and devise means to reduce the potential risks to the health of our future generations. By enacting regulations that limit the marketing of unhealthy foods on digital platforms, the government can play a fundamental role in promoting the health of our children.
Blessing Atwine, Research analyst at EPRC, Makerere University