Thread by @amylaiting

Very pleased to share our new @PLOSMed paper where we evaluated the @TfL restrictions on #HFSS advertising: journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/a… 🧵 1/6

@CherryLawTW @l_cornelsen @petticrewmark @cthompson791 @martinwhite33 @NIHRSPHR

The policy was associated with a 1001 kcal reduction in weekly household energy purchased from HFSS products, equivalent to each person buying ~1.5 fewer standard size bars of milk chocolate each week. 2/6

The greatest reduction was for chocolate and confectionery, likely because there were no alternative products brands could advertise (as opposed to e.g. soft drinks where there are often zero or low calorie options). 3/6

There was some indication of greater reductions in households where the main food shopper was living with obesity, which would mean a well-targeted policy. Further research needed to confirm this! 4/6

However, reductions were relative to what we expected w/o the policy & were not absolute – the policy was associated with reduced growth in HFSS purchasing! So, cohesive policies across the whole food environment are needed to improve diet & reduce diet inequalities. 5/6

Nonetheless, our study provides evidence to support the use of advertising restrictions to reduce HFSS purchasing and such policies should be considered as part of obesity prevention strategies. 6/6