Athletes criticized for promoting Unhealthy Foods

A new report is critical of professional athletes who promote foods, which are not healthy. For example, Peyton Manning pushes Papa John pizzas. Serena Williams is a spokesperson for Double Stuff Oreos. LeBron James suggests people need to eat at McDonalds. The report also says teenagers are being bombarded by these advertisements. Maria Bragg, a researcher who worked on the study, says it is not clear if the athletes eat the foods they hawk. However, she says it is clear the products they endorse are considered unhealthy. “We can’t draw any conclusions on what their diet is or what they are eating or how much of the products they endorse that they are actually eating, but they are promoting them and so that is alarming.” The study says it is clear bad foods are following the same trends as tobacco advertising did around five decades ago, adds Bragg.  “Our hope would be that athletes would stop endorsing unhealthy products and in the past athletes used to endorse tobacco products and it became a liability for them.” The report appears in the journal Pediatrics.