Driven by the opportunity to make a significant impact on food policy, Claudia Nieto and Gabriela García, two PhD candidates from Mexico and visiting scholars at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Global Food Research Program (GFRP), are dedicated to tackling childhood obesity. Both researchers are affiliated with GFRP’s partner, the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) in Mexico, where reducing childhood obesity rates is a critical public health objective.
Claudia Nieto, a Vital Strategies Healthy Food Policy Fellow, investigates the effects of digital food marketing on children. Reflecting on her own childhood, she recalls being heavily influenced by marketing, particularly as a Hello Kitty enthusiast. This fondness led her to frequently request McDonald’s Happy Meals specifically to collect the Hello Kitty figurines. This personal experience fuels her research into how Cartoon Food marketing shapes children’s dietary choices.
“I often didn’t even finish the food, but I was determined to get all the toys,” Claudia explains. “Marketing wields considerable power in shaping children’s eating habits and preferences. Even preschoolers can recognize brand logos and name the brands.”
Claudia believes policy interventions are crucial to address these health challenges. Mexico took a significant step in 2021 by prohibiting the use of cartoon food characters on the packaging of foods high in calories, sugar, saturated fat, trans fat, or sodium, identified by warning labels. Claudia advocates for extending this ban and other marketing restrictions to encompass digital platforms and broaden the timeframe of television advertising regulations.
Currently, Mexico has limited regulations on advertising unhealthy foods during children’s television programming. “Advertisers can bypass restrictions by claiming a show isn’t specifically for children, allowing them to promote unhealthy foods even during popular programs watched by children like soccer games and soap operas,” Claudia points out. “We hope our research will contribute to more comprehensive policies.”
Gabriela’s path to nutrition research was also influenced by childhood food experiences. She recounts a memorable lesson from her father about unhealthy food. “I was drawn to brightly colored cereals with cartoon food mascots on the box. When I asked my father for one, he offered me plain cereal with a bag of sugar,” Gabriela recalls, laughing. “He jokingly warned me, ‘If you want to die, pour this whole bag of sugar on your cereal!’ It scared me enough to avoid adding the sugar. My friends often joke that this story proves I was destined to become a nutritionist.”
Gabriela García, a Fulbright Scholar, feels fortunate to have found nutrition as her field of study. “I realized I could make a real difference in people’s lives,” she says. She remembers the satisfaction of advising her first patient, an elderly woman in a hospital, on nutrition, and witnessing her health improve. This experience motivated Gabriela to expand her impact from individuals to communities and broader populations.
Gabriela’s current research evaluates the effectiveness of Mexico’s taxes on sugary drinks and non-essential foods. She is analyzing changes in household purchasing patterns since these taxes were implemented nearly a decade ago and assessing their long-term impact on children’s weight. “We have observed some positive effects, but people adapt to changes over time,” Gabriela notes. “Ideally, increasing the tax further could lead to more significant improvements.”
Both Claudia and Gabriela are enthusiastic about their time at UNC and with GFRP, and are also enjoying exploring the local food scene. “I’ve noticed a wide variety of packaged food choices in American supermarkets,” Claudia remarks. “It’s interesting to compare the nutritional information of processed foods here with the brands available in Mexico.”
Gabriela adds, “I’m really enjoying the social aspect of our group. People share dishes from their own cultures, which is fitting since we are all studying food and its effects on us.”
Gabriela and Claudia will continue their research at GFRP until June and October, respectively.
CLAUDIA’S RECENT PUBLICATIONS
The nature and extent of food marketing on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube posts in Mexico, Pediatric Obesity, Mar. 2023
Unhealthy Food: The Beverage Industry’s Digital Media Campaign to Stop the Approval of the Front-of- Package Labelling System in Mexico, ESR Review, Dec. 2022
GABRIELA’S RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Dietary patterns are associated with obesity in Mexican schoolchildren, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Mar. 2020
Contribución de los alimentos a la ingesta total de energía en la dieta de los mexicanos mayores de cinco años (Contribution of food to the total energy intake in the diet of Mexicans older than five years), Salud Pública de Mexico, Feb. 2020
