Short communication Food cues in children’s television programs Cynthia Radnitz *, Shannon Byrne, Rachel Goldman, Martha Sparks, Meredith Gantshar, Kane Tung Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1000 River Road, Teaneck, NJ 07666, United States Worldwide, the prevalence of childhood obesity has increased since the 1980s in almost all countries for which data were available (Wang & Lobstein, 2006). Although the cause of this increase is neither simple nor unitary, one factor that has received a lot of attention is the ‘‘toxic’’ environment (Wadden, Brownell, & Foster, 2002) that characterizes modern society. In defining this environment, researchers have identified images of high fat, high sugar ‘‘junk,’’ food on television as an important element (Horgen, 2005). Since the prevalence of overweight children under 5 has also increased significantly, with 22 million children in this age group severely overweight (Kosti & Panagiotakos, 2006), we were interested in assessing how foods are presented in television programs geared toward very young children. Several studies have examined the content of food advertising aimed at children (e.g., Byrd-Bredbenner & Grasso, 2000; Harrison & Marske, 2005; Henderson & Kelly, 2005). In general, these studies have shown that food commercials are dominated by advertise- ments for high calorie foods with low nutritional quality (Batada & Wooten, 2007; Byrd-Bredbenner & Grasso, 2000; Kuribayashi, Roberts, & Johnson, 2001). Moreover, these commercial messages can impact children’s food preferences and consumption. Overall, children who watch more television tend to espouse more ‘‘pro junk food’’ attitudes and beliefs (Dixon, Scully, Wakefield, White, & Crawford, 2007), request more advertised foods/drinks (Cham- berlain, Wang, & Robinson, 2006), and consume more calories (Wiecha et al., 2006). Watching food advertisements, specifically, has been shown to impact food preferences in preschool children (Borzekowski & Robinson, 2001) and first graders (Goldberg, Gorn, & Gibson, 1978) and to increase calorie intake among 5- to 7-year- old children (Halford, Boyland, Hughes, Oliveira, & Dovey, 2007). Obese children may, in fact, be more sensitive to food advertise- ments (Halford, Gillespie, Brown, Pontin Eleanor, & Dovey, 2004). Compared to lean children, they can more easily recognize food commercials and tend to consume more food after exposure. Although there are several published reports addressing food advertising, there is a surprising dearth of research examining food cues depicted in television programming itself. In one study of prime time programming, 60% of all food references were for sugary and low-nutrient foods and beverages (Story & Faulkner, 1990). Of note, the programs analyzed in this study were shown in the evening hours and were designed to appeal to a general audience that did not include preschoolers. Hence, how food- related content is portrayed in television programs designed for preschoolers is relatively unknown. Indeed, an argument could be made that enthusiasm shown by television characters for high fat and/or sugary foods may hold more sway than TV commercials since children can develop very strong feelings for these characters. Modeling of healthy eating by television characters (Tapper, Horne, & Lowe, 2003) and parents (Young, Fors, & Hayes, 2004) has been show to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. Similarly, reports of children’s general snacking and snacking on unhealthy foods are correlated with those of their parents Appetite 52 (2009) 230–233 ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 16 January 2008 Received in revised form 24 June 2008 Accepted 15 July 2008 Keywords: Food Cues Children Television Preschoolers Nutrition Healthy Unhealthy ABSTRACT We examined the nutritional content of and characters’ attitudes toward foods depicted in Public Broadcasting System (PBS) television programs aimed at children under age 5. Two-hundred and forty- five episodes from 10 programs were rated, totaling 136 h. There was almost twice the total airtime for depictions of unhealthy (321.03 min) versus healthy (184.72 min) foods, and significantly higher ratings for excessive consumption and valuing (characters’ expressions of endorsement) of unhealthy versus healthy foods. Unhealthy foods were shown being valued significantly more than they were shown resulting in negative consequences. Our findings suggest concern for how foods are presented on children’s television programs. ß 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: radnitz@fdu.edu (C. Radnitz). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Appetite journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/appet 0195-6663/$ – see front matter ß 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2008.07.006