• Reuters, Wednesday, August 10, 2011 10:15 AM

A new study says that while kids are seeing fewer sugary, fatty foods advertised on TV, unhealthy food still makes up the bulk of food commercials they see. In fact, the researchers, who reported results in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, found children were actually seeing more fast-food commercials in 2009 compared with six years earlier.

The study was aimed at gauging the effects of a voluntary food industry program called the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, which began in 2006 and includes 17 companies (Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, General Mills and Kellogg are among them.) The study found that by 2009, children were seeing fewer high-fat, high-sugar or high-sodium foods in TV ads, compared with what they were seeing in 2003. But 86% of ads were for fatty, sugary or salty products. And fast-food commercials were actually more pervasive in 2009. Children ages 6 to 12 saw about a third more of those ads than in 2003.

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