How Big Sports Leagues Push Junk Food on Kids

Kids and teens are seeing a lot of junk food ads while they’re watching sports, potentially creating associations between athletic feats and unhealthy fare, according to a new study.

The majority of advertisements during the 10 sporting events most watched by viewers aged 2 to 17 featured products that are bad for you, according to research published Monday in the health journal Pediatrics. Sports featuring athletes who are required to be at the height of their physical prowess accompanied by commercial breaks pushing junk food (and sometimes including the best athletes as pitchmen) inspired lead researcher Marie Bragg, assistant professor in the Department of Population Health at New York University School of Medicine, to dig into the topic.