Sponsorship deals between food and beverage companies and professional sports leagues may be contributing to the nation’s obesity problem, according to the director of the National Institutes of Health.
NIH Director Francis Collins cited a study that examined how deals between major sports leagues like the National Football League and Major League Baseball and food and beverage companies could create confusing messages about physical fitness and eating habits.
“Among the 10 sports organizations that young viewers watch most, from the NFL to Little League, the NIH-funded research team identified dozens of sponsors and hundreds of associated advertisements promoting food and beverage products,” Collins wrote in a blog post. “The vast majority of those ads touted unhealthy items, including chips, candies, sodas, and other foods high in fat, sodium, or sugar, and low in nutritional value.”
He added that these relationships mean the sports leagues are effectively encouraging bad eating habits.
“It’s clear that when it comes to better understanding the varied causes of obesity and advancing toward more effective ways to help people keep the weight off, we’ve got our work cut out for us,” Collins added. “But if sports organizations have the power to encourage unhealthy eating habits, perhaps more health-conscious marketing strategies by these influential organizations could help tip the balance — and the scale — in a healthier direction. We call on them to re-examine their current approach.”
The NIH-funded study sought to explore the paradox of sports fans celebrating athletes “at the pinnacle of physical fitness while being bombarded by advertisements in the stadium and on TV that promote unhealthy eating habits,” Collins said.
The study comes as federal figures show that in 2015-2016, more than 18 percent of young people in America were obese, along with nearly 40 percent of American adults.
The study found that food and non-alcoholic beverage deals accounted for almost 20 percent of all corporate sponsorships for the leagues in 2015.
“The NFL had the most, followed by the [National Hockey League] and Little League,” Collins said.
Of the more than 173 promoted food products that were promoted by the leagues in 2015, more than 75 percent were unhealthy.
