Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

Why my 5-year-old is helping with my PhD thesis

Qiuyu Julia Chen
Conditions
July 10, 2024
Share
Tweet
Share

My five-year-old daughter is helping me with my PhD thesis. I wish she didn’t have to.

No, she’s not a prodigy (even if she is very clever!), and I’m not that desperate for assistance. She just happens to be a subject matter expert.

My thesis in human nutrition is on food marketing to kids and every time we go to a grocery store together, I see that marketing at work. She is drawn like a magnet to the colorful, cartoon-heavy packages of appealing treats – almost all of them laden with saturated fat, sugar, and/or salt and minimal nutritional value.

Of course, most of the items are readily visible at a five-year-old’s height—especially in the checkout line, where we are usually forced to wait. It’s a struggle to leave without buying something.

My experiences with my child are certainly not unique. Likely every parent can relate. Food and beverage marketing to kids is everywhere, in the physical world and online, and it’s harming our kids. They are consuming too much junk food, which increases the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and stroke.

That’s why moving forward with the federal government’s commitment to adopt new regulations to limit such advertising and marketing is so important and urgent. Canada needs to do what has already been done in many other jurisdictions to limit kids’ exposure to unhealthy food and beverage marketing. It is one very important way we can help our children eat and drink healthier products.

This is a promise the federal Liberal government made when it came to power in 2015 – nine years ago. The required regulations to make this happen need to be issued now, before the end of June, to ensure they are finalized and in place before next year’s election – and before it becomes ten years without fulfillment of this key promise.

The new regulations are needed now because parents can’t do it alone.

I know because since I’m still in my 20s, it’s not that long ago I was a kid myself and was being targeted by the endless marketing of food and restaurant companies. I realize now that I was greatly influenced by that marketing. My mother is a great cook and always makes nutritious and delicious home-cooked meals for me. But whenever I had an extra allowance, I wanted to go to the nearby McDonald’s to get a kid’s meal so I could collect the toys that came with it. It was irresistible because they made it so.

Today’s kids are bombarded with even more marketing than I was, as I can see with my own child. Most Canadians agree—polls show that more than seven out of 10 Canadians want action to prevent the onslaught of marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to our kids.

It’s time for the federal government to take children’s health to heart and for the Prime Minister to fulfill his promise to protect Canadian children from being the targets of manipulative junk food marketing.

From my own recent experience, I know that it’s impossible for even the most dedicated, knowledgeable, and caring parents to overcome the huge influence of marketing everywhere. They need the kind of help and support that will come from the anticipated new regulations limiting what marketing activities can take place.

Fortunately, I am not alone in seeking change.

ADVERTISEMENT

I’m very pleased to participate in the Marketing to Kids Youth Council of the Heart & Stroke Foundation, a group of young professionals like me who share my concerns about this issue. Though we are a very diverse group, we all share direct knowledge of the negative impact marketing has had on our own diet choices and are committed to helping the next generation have an easier road toward choosing healthier food and beverages.

I hope my daughter will help lead the way. And I hope the Prime Minister and his government will keep the commitments they made years before she was born. We need action on food marketing regulations now.

Qiuyu Julia Chen is a post-graduate student in human nutrition.

Prev

Surviving medical residency: the untold story of resilience and hope

July 10, 2024 Kevin 0
…
Next

Avoid these common mistakes in your first doctor employment contract [PODCAST]

July 10, 2024 Kevin 0
…

Tagged as: Nutrition

Post navigation

< Previous Post
Surviving medical residency: the untold story of resilience and hope
Next Post >
Avoid these common mistakes in your first doctor employment contract [PODCAST]

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

  • What an occupational health lens reveals about clinician burnout

    Mara Buchbinder, PhD, Tania M. Jenkins, PhD, John Staley, PhD, Nancy Berlinger, PhD, and Liza Buchbinder, MD, PhD
  • Quality improvement: Helping boost everyone’s triple aim

    Michael A. Weiss, DO
  • a desk with keyboard and ipad with the kevinmd logo

    MKSAP: 45-year-old woman with type 2 diabetes mellitus

    mksap
  • Want to improve telehealth? Ask people with disabilities.

    Christina Khou, PhD and Colleen Stiles-Shields, PhD
  • Type 1 diabetes is no fun

    Ryan Ritchie
  • Does Chicago needs a rapid response to food sanitation and safety?

    Janice Phillips, PhD, RN and John Mazzeo, PhD

More in Conditions

  • Facing terminal cancer as a doctor and mother

    Kelly Curtin-Hallinan, DO
  • Why doctors must stop ignoring unintentional weight loss in patients with obesity

    Samantha Malley, FNP-C
  • Why hospitals are quietly capping top doctors’ pay

    Dennis Hursh, Esq
  • Why point-of-care ultrasound belongs in emergency department triage

    Resa E. Lewiss, MD and Courtney M. Smalley, MD
  • Why PSA levels alone shouldn’t define your prostate cancer risk

    Martina Ambardjieva, MD, PhD
  • Reframing chronic pain and dignity: What a pain clinic teaches us about MAiD and chronic suffering

    Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • America’s ER crisis: Why the system is collapsing from within

      Kristen Cline, BSN, RN | Conditions
    • Why timing, not surgery, determines patient survival

      Michael Karch, MD | Conditions
    • How early meetings and after-hours events penalize physician-mothers

      Samira Jeimy, MD, PhD and Menaka Pai, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • Why are medical students turning away from primary care? [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • Why “do no harm” might be harming modern medicine

      Sabooh S. Mubbashar, MD | Physician
    • The hidden health risks in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

      Trevor Lyford, MPH | Policy
  • Recent Posts

    • Beyond burnout: Understanding the triangle of exhaustion [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Facing terminal cancer as a doctor and mother

      Kelly Curtin-Hallinan, DO | Conditions
    • Online eye exams spark legal battle over health care access

      Joshua Windham, JD and Daryl James | Policy
    • FDA delays could end vital treatment for rare disease patients

      G. van Londen, MD | Meds
    • Pharmacists are key to expanding Medicaid access to digital therapeutics

      Amanda Matter | Meds
    • Why ADHD in women requires a new approach [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

Leave a Comment

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • America’s ER crisis: Why the system is collapsing from within

      Kristen Cline, BSN, RN | Conditions
    • Why timing, not surgery, determines patient survival

      Michael Karch, MD | Conditions
    • How early meetings and after-hours events penalize physician-mothers

      Samira Jeimy, MD, PhD and Menaka Pai, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • Why are medical students turning away from primary care? [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • Why “do no harm” might be harming modern medicine

      Sabooh S. Mubbashar, MD | Physician
    • The hidden health risks in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

      Trevor Lyford, MPH | Policy
  • Recent Posts

    • Beyond burnout: Understanding the triangle of exhaustion [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Facing terminal cancer as a doctor and mother

      Kelly Curtin-Hallinan, DO | Conditions
    • Online eye exams spark legal battle over health care access

      Joshua Windham, JD and Daryl James | Policy
    • FDA delays could end vital treatment for rare disease patients

      G. van Londen, MD | Meds
    • Pharmacists are key to expanding Medicaid access to digital therapeutics

      Amanda Matter | Meds
    • Why ADHD in women requires a new approach [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Leave a Comment

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...