I don’t see this happening anytime soon, but… A new study finds banning fast-food advertising on TV in the U.S. could reduce the number of overweight children by as much as 18 percent. But the report’s authors at the National Bureau of Economic Research question whether it would be practical to make this happen – so far, only Sweden, Norway and Finland have done this. To give you an idea of just how many unhealthy ads kids see, check out this report on advertisements for unhealthy foods during children’s programming.

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Do your children watch television on Saturday mornings? If they do, they may be getting a big helping of bad nutrition whenever there’s a commercial break. A new report finds nine out of ten food advertisements during Saturday morning kids’ TV programs are for grub with poor nutritional quality. Nine out of ten!!!

During a sample of 27.5 hours of shows aimed at preschool and elementary school-aged children, 91 percent of food ads were for products high in fat, sodium or added sugars or they were low in nutrients. And nearly half of the four hours of ads were for food – that’s 281 commercials basically filled with junk.

The categories most commonly advertised during Saturday morning kids’ TV programs were ready-to-eat breakfast cereals and cereal bars, restaurants, and snack foods. Most of the advertised foods met the guidelines for vitamins and minerals, often because they were fortified. None of the 27 beverage ads met the recommended nutrition standards.

Wow – no wonder it’s so hard to get your kids to eat right.

The study is from the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the University of Minnesota and is in the April issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

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