Learn from the mistakes of others

Having read some of the Public Health research on obesity, I can see why this is an issue. The jury is still out on whether parents give in to the demands of children (marketers call this "pester power"), but there is plenty of evidence to show that children are much more susceptible to advertising than adults. Showing them adds for unhealthy food shapes their preferences - sometimes more than their parents do. Add to that friends who have also watched the adds, and whose parents don't bother teaching them healthy habits, and parents don't stand much chance of teaching them good eating habits. Generally speaking, advertising to children is a very dodgy area. I have read some pretty compelling arguments for banning advertising alltogether during children's TV programs.

To be clear, they're not trying to make children lose weight, they're trying to prevent children from being brainwashed into eating unhealthily.

The other issue is that people form preferences and brand loyalties early in life, which they may begin to express later. So your parents may not let you have unhealthy food, but the moment you can choose for yourself, you rush to the unhealthy yet "cool" option. It really does work - there's a reason companies pay so much for advertising. It's certainly a mainstay of alcohol and cigarette advertising - both things which are marketed to teenagers in the hope that they'll buy them when they're 18.

As for the legislation regarding health/obesity, sure, on an individual level it seems wierd. We all believe we aren't influenced by advertising, and that it's a personal choice to lose weight or not. But again, the population statistics disaggree, and health problems related to unfitness and obesity (note that unfittness is a much bigger risk than obesity BTW) are starting to cost our society big dollars in health care. It's pretty clear to the researchers in this area that advertising, convenience and cost are all stacked against having a fit healthy population. Unhealthy options are quicker, easier, cheaper and seem more appealing (thanks to the money spent on advertising them).

Personally, it looks to me like attempts to educate the population are falling behind the corporate juggernauts that drive our unhealthy environment.

Here's one example of how insidious the problem is. High fat and sugar conetent in food turn off our sense of fullness - we are then inclined to eat more, because we aren't satisfied. Fast food companies like McDonalds know this. They can sell more burgers/fries/whatever by loading them with fat and sugar. On top of that, increases in serving size create an impression of good value that is worth more to them than the small cost in ingredients. Money talks. Add to this the fact that these vast fast food franchises are cheap and convenient, and you have several very powerful reasons for people to eat there more than they should, some of which are innately physical and difficult to overcome.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I seriously doubt that hoping people will take controll of their own lives will work in an environment that opposes them at every turn. As velvetlink said above, it's hard to make a healthy choice when it's cheaper to buy Maccas and Coke.