The British may eat badly, but at least they are aware of it. And even there, as in other countries, there are groups of people who are more aware than others of the close relationship between obesity, especially childhood obesity, and junk food.
Some people, however, act and, with a certain subtle intelligence, analyse what may be the more subtle causes of the simple fact that, if you eat junk food and over-sweetened drinks too often, you become obese … which is a well-established correlation witnessed by Americans ‘by weight’ … see to believe.
Someone then began to wonder why people (especially the young and very young) are so attracted to junk food of all kinds.
The answer is that, quite clearly, one of the causes is the advertising of those kinds of products, which is particularly present, insistent, winking and persuasive in the everyday lives of individuals.
They therefore seem to have realised that advertising ultra-processed products ( https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cibi_ultralavorati ) is a tool that works, … but that works less if you limit its pervasive power.
It therefore becomes a responsible and appropriate act for health to limit it when its ‘commercially positive’ effect (the one demanded by the advertiser companies) generates socially negative side effects which, need I emphasise it, affect people’s health (especially that of the young and very young) and thus also negatively impact the health system which, in turn, generates increased production and use of medicines… and so on.
Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister until 2022, had during his time in government formalised the presentation of a bill to ban TV advertising of the most caloric food and drink products before 9pm. It was to come into force from 2023, preventing commercials of those kinds of products from being broadcast on TV.
The hubbub of the news was amplified by the fact that the measure also involved the web (not to take care of it would have been short-sighted) and all forms of paid digital marketing, advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and paid search results on Google.
It is striking to note that it was experienced as a ‘commercial earthquake’ rather than a beneficial intervention aimed at reducing temptations to junk food with the stated and obvious aim of producing public health benefits.
Fortunately, it did not die there, and as of 1 October 2025, commercials for this type of product are banned before 9pm in the UK, in order to protect children and young people in particular, who are the main target of foods that – according to complaints by doctors and health organisations – threaten the health of consumers and contribute to the proliferation of cases of obesity, including obesity among young people, which is on the rise in the UK as in many other western countries.
The ban was formalised by the new Labour executive in a document submitted to the House of Commons by the Deputy Health Minister, Andrew Gwynne, who declared the need to ‘address the problem without further delay’.
It is not directly calculable the impact – albeit large – that obesity has on healthcare facilities and the community as a whole. It could, however, be deduced by looking at the terrible data affecting the USA where obesity affects 42% of the inhabitants while 31% are overweight and where, not surprisingly, the most important market for the new ‘thinness drug’ has been created.
On the other hand, it is easier to calculate the suffering of those who rely on those adverts. In the UK, around £400m is spent annually on online food advertising alone, and of this it is estimated that around £200m could be lost revenue for the country’s various broadcasters.
The food and publishing industries have made it known that they will not stand idly by. A kind of threat that also smacks of admission.
In ‘our house’ things could go so far as to imitate that kind of measure, although we are already seeing comments from well-known representatives of the advertising scene who go so far as to comment on how incredible it is that a historic democracy can impose food and communication limits on people and companies. To them, it would be necessary to point out that what is happening in the UK is not an imposition on how to eat (which, if anything, derives from the great effectiveness of the advertising hammering of those who tend to impose themselves at the expense of others) and that instead, ‘when and how much’ to communicate is about a conscious time constraint, very similar to our hypocritical ‘protected zone’.
Anything that carries with it potential contraindications should always contain a strong dose of social responsibility which, where it is lacking, should then be ‘imposed’.
Paying for space is a privilege of the few. Those who populate the world of communication, not only commercial communication, should always be aware of their social responsibility as well.
In Italy, the Istituto di Autodisciplina Pubblicitaria (IAP) is just one example, however perfectible, of how something akin to a government of that parallel world we call advertising is increasingly needed.
In the meantime, an epochal change in eating habits is taking place under the radar in Italy: new foods, different ways of cooking and consuming food, an unbridled rush to extreme eating habits from high-protein to vegan, from raw to processed, from fasting to nibbling (in English it literally means ‘chopping up’ or ‘nibbling’ food. It is a dysfunctional eating behaviour based on the frequent and irregular consumption of small, often high-calorie, nutrient-poor snacks without any real hunger or need).
Little is known about the health impact of these new ways of eating. Epidemiological studies investigating the diet of Italians in relation to health date back at least twenty years. Most of the recent epidemiological evidence on diet and health comes from studies that are dated or conducted in countries far removed from our own and with very different habits.
A research project that could fill this gap and answer many unanswered questions is being conducted by an important public institute that has always been in the forefront of cancer prevention and treatment. This is the National Institute of Tumours in Milan, which with the interesting YouGoody study https://www.yougoody.it/ invites Italians to participate in large numbers in its panel in order to be able to take a snapshot of old and new eating habits and identify which ones are associated with a lower risk of developing cancer and, more generally, with maintaining a good state of health.
Pietro Greppi +39 3351380769
Ethic advisor
Creator of the new paradigm in the poultry sector founder of – www.moreaboutchicken.com – www.nutriamocidibuonsenso.it – www.ioetesiamopari.it
Scarp de tenis – the first Italian street newspaper dedicated to the homeless
