As per the Fat Free TV Guide website launched by the Cancer Council, AFL has topped the list of more than 100 programmes showing junk food advertisements.

The council’s guide also contains links for the parents through which they could share information of the programmes on social networking sites, and could also directly register complaint to the TV networks. The Cancer Council NSW Nutrition Manager, Clare Hughe, said that through their reports they want to encourage parents to make their children eat healthy food.

Hughe further affirmed that in approximate six hours, children get exposed to 26 advertisements which promote chocolate, energy drinks and fast-food chains. Its effect on children is quite obvious. In this case, parents could play a big role.

They could explain children about the benefits of having healthy food and negative effects on the body by having food which contains high levels of fat, salt and sugar. Hughes said, “It is no coincidence the television networks, food manufacturers and advertisers know what kids are watching and when. Until we get tougher regulation, Fat Free TV gives parents the power to make healthier choices about what their children watch”.

It was quite a tedious task to rank the shows on the basis of advertisements. Hughes said that they took 14 weeks to monitor programmes on child TV shows. They then assessed the ingredients and energy content of all the advertised food products as per the recommended levels of Food Standards Australia and New Zealand.

On that basis, they found that ASL advertises most junk advertisements. Hughes said that now parents would be able to know the reason why their children pester them for junk foods at the tie when they visit supermarkets.