Report urges Ontario to ban junk food ads to kids under 12

Enlarge Image

A customer holds a tray containing their lunch at a fast food outlet in Toronto on Tuesday October 23, 2012. Ontario should ban junk food and fast-food ads aimed at kids under the age of 12 and stop the promotion and display of junk food at the checkout if it wants to fight childhood obesity, a new report is recommending.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO - Ontario should ban junk food and fast-food ads aimed at kids under the age of 12 and stop the promotion and display of junk food at the checkout if it wants to fight childhood obesity, a new report is recommending.

Fast-food restaurants and those in grocery stores should also display calorie counts on their menus, a government-appointed panel said Monday in the report.

The proposed bans are just a few of the many recommendations in the wide-ranging report that aims to reduce the number of kids who are overweight or obese.

That number has jumped 75 per cent over the last 30 years, said Health Minister Deb Matthews. In 2004, 27.5 per cent of Ontario kids between the ages of 2 and 17 were overweight or obese.

"The most devastating part of this trend is that obesity will mark our DNA, changing our metabolism and genetically reprogramming future generations of children to be at greater risk of being overweight," the report states.

It's a growing problem that's also taxing Ontario's health-care system, the report said. Last year, the province spent $4.5 billion caring for people struggling with obesity.

"This is a very expensive problem too," Matthews said. "So we simply must take action and we must take action now."

She said she'll consider all the recommendations in the report, but wouldn't commit to implementing the bans.

Kelly Murumets, who co-chaired the panel that wrote the report, said she knows they're contentious proposals.

"I don't think everyone in the province is going to love all of these recommendations, so there will be some pushback on some of them," she said.

But there are many retailers and food manufacturers that are already implementing those practices, she said.

"And so what we're really suggesting is that needs to be universally implemented and really level the playing field."

More than 30 years ago, Quebec banned ads for toys and fast food aimed at children under 13 in print and electronic media — believed to be the first law of its kind. Other countries have followed suit.

Last year, a report looking at the impact of the law in Quebec found that it resulted in fewer children eating fast food and weighing less than their North American counterparts.

A rule barring restaurants, cafeterias and concession stands from selling soda and other high-calorie drinks in containers larger than 473 millilitres goes into effect in New York City next week. Disney plans to ban all junk-food advertising from its TV channels, websites and radio programs starting in 2015.

Matthews should move quickly to join other jurisdictions that have restricted such advertising, said NDP health critic France Gelinas, who has advocated for a ban since 2005. But the minister may be hesitating because the food industry will oppose it, she said.

"They were the ones who were pushing against me the hardest," Gelinas said.

The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association said it wants to be "part of the solution" to childhood obesity. Many of its members are already working to post calorie counts on menus and menu boards in chain restaurants.

The government should educate kids about eating right, not ban ads and displays of pop and junk food, said Christine Elliott, deputy leader of the Progressive Conservatives.

"We in the PC party don't support banning things," she said.

"We think it's more important that people are educated and then can make their own choices based on the good information that they can get about diet and nutrition and the importance of exercise."

The panel didn't push for a so-called fat tax on what it calls "high-calorie, low-nutrient foods," saying it isn't necessary yet, so long as their recommendations are implemented.

In 2004, the Ontario Liberals scrapped plans for a fat tax for meals under $4 after a public outcry partly orchestrated by the fast food industry.

They also bowed to pressure from the restaurant industry when they harmonized sales taxes in 2010, providing a surprise exemption for fast-food value meals.