How top sports leagues promote unhealthy eating behaviour
New York: Top sports leagues may be contributing to the escalating obesity epidemic among children and adolescents as the majority of food and beverages marketed through sponsorship of these events are unhealthy, says a US-based study.
"Unhealthy food and beverage promotion through organised sports is pervasive," said the study's lead investigator Marie Bragg, Assistant Professor at New York University School of Medicine.
"These organisations must put forth a better effort to protect their youngest and most impressionable fans," she added.
For the study published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers analysed Nielsen statistics of televised sports programmes among children 2-17 years of age.
The study found that, among the 10 most watched sports organisations, most of the food products were rated "unhealthy" under the guidelines of the Nutrient Profile Model, a profiling system that identifies nutritious value in Britain and Australia.
The US does not have a comparable measurement system.
The researchers examined sports sponsorship agreements covering 2006-2016 between food and beverage manufacturers and the 10 sports organisations with the most youth viewers.
These organisations were -- the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Hockey League (NHL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-even Little League Baseball and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
"The US is in the throes of a child and adolescent obesity epidemic, and these findings suggest that sports organisations and many of their sponsors are contributing, directly and indirectly, to it," Bragg said.
"Sports organisations need to develop more health-conscious marketing strategies that are aligned with recommendations from national medical associations," she added.
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Lalu Prasad slams BJP over heckling of woman singer
Chaos over "Raghupati Raghav..." at Vajpayee memorial
Patna, Dec 26: RJD president Lalu Prasad on Thursday slammed the BJP over alleged heckling of a woman artist who sang a bhajan, known to be a favourite of Mahatma Gandhi, at a function organised on the birth anniversary of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee a day ago.
The RJD supremo, on his X handle, alleged that the BJP leaders had taken exception to the phrase 'Sita Ram' and asked the singer to apologise before erupting in roars of "Jai Shri Ram".
The well-attended function was held on Wednesday at Bapu Sabhagar, a sprawling state-of-the-art auditorium in the heart of the city.
The septuagenarian alleged that the incident was "reflective of the misogyny that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar was known for" and its "disdain for females was resulting in disrespect for 'Sita Mata'."
However, BJP sources, who did not wish to be named, pointed out that the newspaper report shared by Prasad in an earlier tweet clearly stated that the furore was not over 'Sita Ram', but the subsequent stanza - 'Ishwar Allah Tero Naam'.
The sources claimed that party workers were opposed to the "recital of a line that was not part of the original verse composed by 15th-century poet Narsi Mehta, but inserted later, apparently in line with Gandhi's Hindu-Muslim unity plank".
संघियों और भाजपाइयों को “जय सियाराम, जय सीताराम” के नाम एवं नारे से शुरू ही नफरत है क्योंकि उसमें माता सीता का जयकारा है। ये लोग शुरू से ही महिला विरोधी है तथा “जय श्री राम’ के नारे के साथ आधी आबादी महिलाओं का भी अपमान करते हैं।
— Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) December 26, 2024
गायिका देवी ने कल कार्यक्रम में बापू के नाम पर… pic.twitter.com/fOGhxfWE16
