Television advertising is one of the main factors behind the rise of obesity in Brazil, says a University of Sao Paulo doctoral thesis. After studying 640 hours of TV commercials, psychologist Paula Carolina Nascimento says in her thesis that 57.8 percent of the foods promoted are high in sugar, fat and salt.

The study evaluated the nutritional status of 816 impoverished primary school students, and found 11.4 percent obese and 12.4 percent overweight. It also found that their parents buy foods “based on the commercials they see on TV, without shopping lists that would indicate better planning of expenses,” Nascimento told Tierramérica.

The data indicate that television is “an environmental factor associated with excess weight,” but do not necessarily show a causal relation, she concludes.