I just read a great post by Lisa Newton (CEO of Iowa Avenue), in which she exposes the amount of marketing money spent to encourage your children to drink pop, eat cereal and get fat.

Summary of Lisa’s Post

Food producers spend $867,761,000 per year marketing carbonated beverages, breakfast cereals and snack foods to your kids.

In comparison, $65,938,000 (or 8% of the pop/cereal/junk food budget) was spent marketing dairy products, fruits and vegetables.

Here is the full list

But wait, the government is taking steps to reverse the growth of childhood obesity.

Big government money.

“The Centers for Disease Control’s current annual budget for nutrition, physical activity, and obesity is about $41 million for Americans of all ages. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Team Nutrition, whose goal is to improve children’s eating and physical-activity habits, has an annual budget of about $10 million“.

$51 million?

That’s it?

Hell, Dick Cheney spent that much on shotgun ammo last year alone.

Let’s recap:

$867,761,000 per year spent on marketing carbonated beverages, breakfast cereals and snack foods to your kids.

In comparison, $65,938,000 was spent marketing dairy products, fruits and vegetables to your kids.

And the government spent $51,000,000 marketing healthy eating and exercise to your kids.

In total, just under 13.5% of the pop, cereal and junk food budget is spent on marketing healthy alternatives.

And we wonder why our kids are FAT.

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