Another day, another random study to make headlines — except this one just might give you pause. It comes from researchers at the University of Michigan, who question whether clothing retailers who put images of junk food on kids' graphic tees (such as pizza, ice cream, and doughnuts) could be doing more harm than good.
"Turning our kids into walking billboards of junk food reinforces the appeal of these foods," Dr. Megan Pesch shared in a press release for the study.
"Whether intentional or not, we are sending positive societal messages about consuming unhealthy food to children and their parents that may influence unhealthy eating behaviors long term," she added.
In fact, it was Pesch — a mother of three daughters and a developmental behavioral pediatrician — who recently noticed how hard it was to avoid things such as doughnuts and chips splayed across kids' T-shirts.
These unhealthy foods being celebrated as "fun, silly and positive" seems to be only increasing in popularity. So she and other researchers at the University of Michigan set out to see how prevalent the trend really was, and what (if any) impact it may have on kids' eating habits. The researchers finally published their findings this month in the journal Eating Behaviors.
Although Pesch is the first to note that the long-term effects aren't yet known, there were some interesting takeaways worth noting.
After spending a month looking at 3,870 clothing items from four major children's retailers (including Old Navy and Gymboree), the group turned up a lot of items with junk food images on them. In fact, one out of every 11 apparel items included a food graphic of some kind, and two-thirds of those foods were unhealthy.
But the gender differences between these kinds of clothing was somewhat stark when it came down to the kinds of food and messaging found on each.
Although boys' shirts often featured images such as pizza and other salty foods, the messages were more often than not geared toward being laid-back, cool, and having fun. Not so for girls.
The images and messages on girls' clothing often involved dessert-like foods, such as doughnuts and ice cream -- and the message was about staying sweet.
Unhealthy food imagery was also more likely to be found on girls' clothing than boys' items overall.
That's probably not a surprise. How many ice cream and lollipop T-shirts have you seen for girls over the years? A LOT. And that's probably because those items are deemed too "sweet" for boys' clothing (literally).
But the difference in messaging matters, said Pesch, because it may reinforce the subconscious ones girls already get about playing nice and not making a fuss.
"That may underlie some of these cultural expectations of girls' characteristics versus boys' behavior, specifically that girls are expected to be 'sweet,'" Pesch said.
When you put it that way, it does seem a bit more problematic -- but even study authors admit there's more research to be done.
Whether this kind of clothing directly impacts a child's eating habits remains to be seen, because the US is battling a child obesity problem that, quite frankly, has links to a myriad of different things. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls it a "complex health issue" affecting 1 in 5 school-aged children with a variety of risk factors involved — including genetics, metabolism, and negative childhood events.
Still, the study offers good food for thought (pun intended), for parents who may want to steer clear of reinforcing unhealthy food messages to their kids, whether that's out loud or even on the very clothing that they're wearing out in the world.
