NEW DELHI:A national think-tank on nutrition consisting of independent medical experts, paediatricians, and nutritionists has written an open letter to 16 celebrities, including Aamir Khan, Alia Bhatt, Katrina Kaif, Ranveer Singh and M S Dhoni, for promoting unhealthy food products that have high sugar, salt, and fat content.
The Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi) said that promoting unhealthy food goes against advertising rules and has requested that they check information on the government’s Dietary Guidelines for Indians before endorsing such products.
The open letter was also addressed to Kiara Advani, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sidharth Malhotra, Dilijit Dosanjh, Kapil Sharma, Tamanna Bhatia, Kriti Sanon, Yash, Rahul Dravid, Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah.
They drew their attention to the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 Section (28), which defines "misleading advertisement" about any product or service, “means an advertisement," which “deliberately conceals important information” and the Advertising Code Rule 7(7) “No advertisement shall be permitted which “endangers the safety of children or creates in them any interest in unhealthy practices..”
Referring to their latest report, ‘50 Shades of Food Advertisers,’ NAPi said many celebrities endorse unhealthy food products.
The report said that misleading advertisements for high-fat, sugar, or salt (HFSS) products are rising in India due to legal loopholes and inadequate monitoring.
The study highlighted that unhealthy food and drink marketing often uses emotional appeals, celebrity endorsements, and sensory triggers to portray these products as appealing choices.
In their open letter, NAPi said, “Promotion of unhealthy food products is associated with unhealthy dietary practices as these are mostly high in sugars/salt/fats and contain chemical additives.”
“These are addictive. Increased consumption of such food products is associated with worse health outcomes like obesity, diabetes, cancers and heart diseases,” the open letter said.
They quoted the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) dietary guidelines for Indians, which provide thresholds for “Nutrients of Concern”, i.e. sugar, fat, and salt in the food products (both solids and liquids), beyond which these are considered unhealthy.
The think-tank said these thresholds include more than 625mg of salt per 100 gm in solids and 175 mg/100 ml in liquids. Total sugar quantity is less than 30% of total energy in liquids and less than 10% in solids, and total fat is less than 30% in solids and liquids.
They hoped the celebrities and their managers and agencies would be able to identify unhealthy food products by seeing the thresholds before they endorse a product.
Dr Arun Gupta, a paediatrician and NAPi convenor said, ‘I would urge all the celebrities and agencies to refrain from advertising food products or beverages which contain sugar, salty or fats more than what the NIN thresholds say.”