Black preschoolers, children and teens are exposed to nearly 50% more junk food adverts than their white counterparts.

These are the findings of a recent study by the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, examining TV food advertising towards kids.

The study attributes the huge disparity to the fact that blacks watch more TV than whites, however this doesn’t give a full explanation.

Atlanta Black Star reported:

According to the report, junk food companies have increasingly advertised on networks with particularly high African-American and adolescent viewerships such as Fuse, BET, Vh1 and Nick-at-Nite. Jumps in food-ads-per-hour also contributed to increased exposure to junk food ads for youths of all ages between 2008 and 2012.

“Higher rates of food advertising on youth-targeted networks explained greater adolescent exposure,” the study read. “However, greater television viewing and higher rates of advertising on youth- and black-targeted networks both contributed to black youths’ greater exposure.”

In 2012, the report found that Black youths viewed considerably more food ads compared with white youths of the same age. For instance, Black children aged 2 to 5 viewed 64 percent more food ads, while Black youths aged 6 to 11 saw 49 percent more ads than their white counterparts. Moreover, the younger African-American children viewed approximately two more junk-food ads per day than even the older white kids.

Researchers noted that this increased exposure to low-nutrition food ads also made Black children more vulnerable to becoming obese and developing other diet-related health issues. Data from 2011 to 2012 revealed a stark gap in child obesity rates between Black and white youths: Eleven percent of Black children aged 2 to 5 were obese during this time, while just 3.5 percent of white children were. The disparity got larger as the kids grew older, with 23.8 percent of African-American children aged 6 to 11 being obese compared to 13.1 percent of their white peers.

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