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Overweight and obesity are on the rise worldwide.

But not only corporations are criticized - according to Foodwatch, influencers also have a bad influence.

Viktoria and Sarina are stars among young girls.

The two successful German influencers are each followed by between one and two million young people on the major platforms Youtube, TikTok and Instagram.

In addition to a glittering world full of horses and dogs, you can regularly see drinks from Coca-Cola, fast food from McDonald's and cakes from Coppenrath & Wiese.

Simon Desue, another super influencer with over four million fans, has started a competition on TikTok to quickly eat a lot of currywurst at McDonald's.

His video was viewed over half a million times.

The consumer organization Foodwatch looked at the reach of these and numerous other new stars in a current study.

And comes to the conclusion that food companies have long been relying on stars from social media on a large scale to market sweets, sugared drinks and fatty snacks specifically to children.

“With the help of influencers, the companies send their advertising messages to the parents and directly into the children's room and onto the cell phones of young people,” explained Luise Molling from Foodwatch.

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The organization sees the legislature as having an obligation.

She calls for restrictions to reduce the exposure of children to advertisements for unbalanced diets.

Not only are they particularly vulnerable to the messages.

Improper nutrition in youth not only leads to obesity, but can also have significant long-term health consequences, triggering diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease.

The German government has so far relied on the advertising industry's voluntary self-regulation.

Their effects are manageable, however.

A study by the scientific advisory board at the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture last summer compared countries with different restrictions on children's marketing between 2002 and 2016. While the consumption of unhealthy food has fallen by 8.9 percent in the case of legal requirements, it is with voluntary requirements 1.7 percent increased, without specifications by 13.9 percent.

Elsewhere, in the discussion about junk food, online channels are now also explicitly taken into account - and not just for young consumers.

The British government is currently preparing the toughest restrictions.

A bill going through the consultation process will completely ban online advertising of foods high in fat, salt and sugar.

Viral advertising campaigns, native advertising, influencers and advertising placements in games are also expressly mentioned.

Investors put retail giant Tesco under pressure

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"I am determined to help parents, children and families in the UK make healthier choices about what they eat," said Health Secretary Matt Hancock as he presented the proposed rules.

He specifically pointed out that children would spend more and more time online.

Time limits for certain forms of advertising are therefore difficult to implement.

With the planned advertising ban, the food trade and its role in poor nutrition and obesity is now also coming into focus.

For example, a shareholders' association is putting pressure on retail giant Tesco to do more to sell more healthy foods and beverages in supermarkets.

ShareAction's resolution proposal from last week calls for Tesco to regularly disclose the proportion of healthy food in its sales and to set goals for a significant expansion by 2030.

The project is already being supported by institutional investors such as Robeco and JO Hambro, who jointly manage a good 160 billion euros.

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But over 100 private investors have also joined the initiative.

At the general meeting of Tesco, with 27 percent market leader among the British supermarkets, it will be put to a vote in the summer.

It is about much more than a corporate moral responsibility.

"The financial risk of inaction is just too great to do nothing," said ShareAction's Jessica Attard.

She points to the most recent regulatory efforts, which are by no means the first.

In Great Britain, for example, there has been a “sugar tax” on sweetened drinks for several years.

She is convinced that the restrictions on the sale of unhealthy foods will continue to advance rapidly.

"Retail companies that are not up there or on the way run the risk of significant penalties and also miss the potential to capitalize on the growing demand in this area."

Nutrition problems in the UK particularly in focus

Similar to the issue of climate change, investors are paying increasing attention to how companies in the food industry and retail are preparing for the fact that they could soon be subject to much more stringent regulation.

Although Tesco has taken small campaigns to market healthy foods, especially fruit and vegetables, ShareAction admitted.

The retail group is clearly lagging behind competitors like Sainsbury's or M&S.

Tesco emphasizes "working hard to make it easy for our customers to make healthy choices."

Nutrition problems have come into focus in the UK in recent months due to the corona pandemic.

Covid deaths are among the highest in the world.

At the same time, the country has more overweight people than almost any other country in Europe.

According to the 2019 NHS report, 28 percent of the population in England is obese and another 36 percent are overweight.

Too much weight is one of the risk factors for severe Covid 19 disease.

But the incentives for more regulation go far beyond the corona pandemic.

As early as 2016, the NHS estimated the direct medical costs caused annually by obesity to be six billion pounds per year.

The social consequences were then estimated at a further £ 27 billion.

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In Germany, a study by the University of Mannheim estimates that the consequences of being overweight in children today could cost the health care system over their lifetime costs of 393 billion euros.

Berthold Koletzko, professor at the Children's Clinic at the University of Munich, is convinced that it makes sense to start with the children's nutrition.

"At no age is nutrition more important than in childhood and adolescence." On the one hand, this applies to growth.

But what young people eat also shape their preferences in adulthood.

Paediatricians have long been calling for advertising aimed at children and adolescents to be restricted.

The medical professionals may be more successful if investors first make the goal their own.