Food commercials 'get under the skin' of teens
Food commercials "get under the skin" of teens by activating reward regions
Washington: A new research has revealed that teenagers' neural response to food commercials may lead to future weight gain.
New research at Oregon Research Institute (ORI) suggested that food commercials "get under the skin" of teens by activating reward regions when they are viewing ads for milk shakes, or burgers, or colas, which results in weight gain and obesity.
Scientists Sonja Yokum noted that this research manifested how food commercials might be negatively impacting teens between the ages of 14 and 17 at-risk for obesity.
Yokum continued that this was important to consider in the debate about whether to restrict food advertising for unhealthy foods to young teens.
The study is published online in the August issue of Obesity: A Research Journal.