Food and non-alcoholic beverage marketing in children and adults: A systematic review and activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies

Food marketing impacts the food behaviors of children and adults, but the underpinning neural mechanisms are poorly understood. This systematic review and meta-analysis pooled evidence from neuroimaging studies of exposure to food marketing stimuli (vs. control) on brain activations in children and adults to clarify regions associated with responding. Databases were searched for articles published to March 2022. Inclusion criteria included human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies employing a contrast between a food marketing stimulus and a non-food/non-exposure control, published in English in a peer-reviewed journal, reporting whole brain (not Region of Interest [ROI] only) co-ordinates. Eleven studies met inclusion criteria, of which eight were included in the quantitative synthesis (Activation Likelihood Estimation [ALE] meta-analysis). Food marketing exposures (vs. controls) produced greater activation in two clusters lying across the middle occipital gyrus, lingual gyrus, and cuneus (cluster 1), and the postcentral gyrus, precentral gyrus, and the inferior parietal lobule/supramarginal gyrus (cluster 2). Brain responses to food marketing are most consistently observed in areas relating to visual processing, attention, sensorimotor activity, and emotional processing. Subgroup analyses (e.g., adults vs. children) were not possible because of the paucity of data, and sensitivity analyses highlighted some instability in the clusters; therefore, conclusions remain tentative pending further research.

Consuming media, consuming food: investigating concurrent TV viewing and eating using a 7-d time use diary survey

OBJECTIVE

One explanation for the relationship between TV viewing and obesity is that people may (over)eat while watching TV. The current study investigated associations between TV viewing and the time spent on (concurrent) eating in a naturalistic setting among a general population sample.

DESIGN

Preregistered secondary data analyses were performed of a diary survey in which respondents reported their time use in 10-min blocks for 7 d.

SETTING

Concurrent TV viewing and eating was operationalised as all blocks in which TV viewing and eating occurred simultaneously. Furthermore, the TV content respondents watched was coded as food-related (i.e. culinary content) or non-food related.

PARTICIPANTS

The sample composed of 2292 adults (58·9 % female) in the Netherlands, aged ≥ 20 years, from all educational levels (18·1 % low, 29·8 % middle and 51·4 % high).

RESULTS

More than half of the respondents (51·3 %) reported concurrent TV viewing and eating at least once during the 7-d diary period. The average eating occasion was longer in duration while watching TV (v. without media use), and the total time spent on eating was longer on days of concurrent TV viewing and eating (v. days of eating without media use). The percentage of TV viewing time spent on concurrent eating did not differ between food-related and non-food-related TV content.

CONCLUSIONS

Eating while watching TV was related to an increased time spent on eating. Even though energy intake was not assessed, these findings from a naturalistic setting provide further evidence that concurrent TV viewing and eating may contribute to overeating.

See the cake and have it too? Investigating the effect of watching a TV cooking show on unhealthy food choices

This study tested whether exposure to food-related (vs. non-food related) TV content would increase unhealthy food choices in unsuccessful restrained eaters (i.e., chronic dieters with low perceived self-regulatory success; PSRS), decrease unhealthy food choices in successful restrained eaters (i.e., chronic dieters with high PSRS), and would not affect food choices in unrestrained eaters (i.e., non-dieters). As such, we attempted to (1) explain previous mixed findings on behavioral effects of exposure to food-related TV content, and (2) generalize previous findings on successful and unsuccessful restrained and unrestrained eaters' differential reactivity to isolated food cues (e.g., food words) to food cues embedded in TV content. In a one-factorial between-subjects experiment, participants viewed a cooking segment in which high-calorie cakes were prepared (n = 50) or a non-food segment (n = 62) of a TV show. The percentage of unhealthy (vs. healthy) food choices in a computerized choice task served as dependent variable. Eating restraint and PSRS were measured afterwards. In contrast to the hypothesis, no three-way interaction between TV content, eating restraint, and PSRS on the percentage of unhealthy food choices was found. However, it was found that overall, people with lower levels of PSRS made a higher percentage of unhealthy food choices compared to people with higher levels of PSRS. Contrasting findings from previous research using isolated food cues, this study showed no evidence of unsuccessful restrained eaters' heightened susceptibility to food cues in TV content, possibly explained by a lower salience of or attention to food cues.

Preference for and understanding of graphs presenting health risk information. The role of age, health literacy, numeracy and graph literacy

OBJECTIVE

To investigate 1) younger (< 65) and older (> 65) adults' preference for and understanding of graph formats presenting risk information, and 2) the contribution of age, health literacy, numeracy and graph literacy in understanding information.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

To assess preferences, participants (n = 219 < 65 and n = 227>65) were exposed to a storyboard presenting six types of graphs. Understanding (verbatim and gist knowledge) was assessed in an experiment using a 6 (graphs: clock, bar, sparkplug, table, pie vs pictograph) by 2 (age: younger [<65] vs older [>65]) between-subjects design.

RESULTS

Most participants preferred clock, pie or bar chart. Pie was not well understood by both younger and older people, and clock not by older people. Bar was fairly well understood in both groups. Table yielded high knowledge scores, particularly in the older group. Lower age, higher numeracy and higher graph literacy contributed to higher verbatim knowledge scores. Higher health literacy and graph literacy were associated with higher gist knowledge.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Although not the preferred format, tables are best understood by older adults.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Graph literacy skills are essential for both verbatim and gist understanding, and are important to take into account when developing risk information.