“Restricting the advertising of unhealthy foods and beverages is a political action based on scientific evidence”

The Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzón, has assured that restricting the advertising of foods and beverages with high levels of sugars, fats and salt is “a political action based on scientific evidence.”

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As the head of the ministry has argued at the inauguration of the Food Advertising seminar aimed at minors, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been recommending the regulation of this type of advertisements for a decade because “there is unequivocal evidence that they are related to the childhood obesity “.

“The criterion cannot be arbitrary, but based on scientific evidence. For this reason, we incorporate the nutritional profiles of the WHO. From here we extract an element of political action that allows us to regulate advertising directed at children with the fundamental objective of protecting them and guarantee that we neutralize one of the vectors by which overweight rates are so high in our country, “the minister explained.

In his opinion, the advertising of unhealthy food and beverages is “especially harmful” when it is aimed at children because “it has the ability to modulate behaviors and causes habits to shift towards more intensive consumption of sugary and fatty products, which worsen throughout adult life. “

To this must be added, as Garzón has warned, that the purchasing power of families is an “essential factor” in the purchase decision, being the consumption of healthy foods “more frequent in families with a higher income level.”

You are not alone: ​​the OECD notes that overweight girls and boys perform poorly in school, which directly affects their self-esteem and further education.

For all these reasons, Garzón has defended the measures put in place by the ministry to promote sustainable and healthy consumption and has promised to continue working in a “comprehensive and participatory” way with both civil society and the food industry, to which has defined it as “part of the solution”.

“We are not always going to agree on the formula and we are not arbitrators, but actors with a very clear objective: to make the health of the most vulnerable prevail,” the minister remarked.

In this sense, Garzón has indicated that the regulatory proposal that Consumption is preparing to restrict the advertising of unhealthy foods and beverages and that will see the light in 2022 will “contribute to our children having healthy consumption and lifestyle habits that allow them to have better physical and mental health “.

In addition, he has considered that the fact that Spain is “at the forefront of this type of regulation” and thus resembles countries such as Portugal or Norway is a “source of pride”.

Food, the fundamental axis of individual and collective health

In this context, the Minister of Consumption recalled that food has a “decisive impact on our individual health and that of the planet” and has opted for “reflection and collective learning” to address a problem “as worrying” as of obesity.

“In Spain it has been a real public health challenge for more than two decades. More than half of the Spanish adult population, 53%, is overweight. And, of these people, 16% suffer from obesity”, has highlighted.