Keep junk food off children’s TV and the Internet

The many campaigns waged during the past decade to get American children to avoid unhealthy foods have not been fruitless. The national childhood obesity rate has stopped rising. Yet, neither is it falling. What kids need is not just a better diet, but also a better media diet.

The U.S. childhood obesity rate stands firm at 17 percent. And many overweight children and adolescents in the U.S. are growing even heavier. The number who are severely obese — with a body mass index of 35 or even 40 — has reached 4.6 million. Reducing childhood obesity will require moving beyond school-based strategies to address what and how much kids eat at home.

One way to do this is with a soda tax, such as the one proposed in Philadelphia that is now at the center of a disagreement between the Democratic presidential candidates. Hillary Clinton endorsed the local effort to put a 3-cents-an-ounce tax on sugary beverages, while Bernie Sanders denounced it because its burden would fall most heavily on the poor. What Sanders fails to acknowledge is the benefit of the tax would also be greatest for the poor — and their children — who consume a large share of sugary drinks. A nationwide soda tax could lower consumption of sugary drinks by 20 percent, according to one model.

Another approach is to limit the advertisements for high-calorie, low-nutrition foods that children see on television and online. Evidence accumulated through decades demonstrates that such ads cause children to eat more.

Finally, doctors need to come to a consensus about how best to prevent and treat childhood obesity, as specialists have for adult obesity.

Obese kids suffer all sorts of ill effects, from high blood sugar to low self-esteem. More often than not they turn into obese adults. Saving their lives — not to mention billions of dollars in medical costs and lost productivity — is going to take a more aggressive and concerted effort.

— Bloomberg View