Emma J Boyland

• Psychology & Molecular Biology
• Professor of Food Marketing and Child Health at University of Liverpool

Background Online grocery delivery services (OGDSs) are a popular way of acquiring food. However, it is unclear whether OGDS use is associated with the healthiness of purchases and whether there are sociodemographic differences in OGDS use. If so, the increased prevalence of OGDS use may have implications for population diet, and differential OGDS...

Background Mandatory calorie labelling in the out-of-home food sector was introduced in England in 2022, and menu pricing strategies that ensure cost is equivalent to portion size (proportional pricing) have been proposed as a policy to reduce obesity. Food delivery app-based platforms now contribute significantly to diet, and evidence suggests tha...

Aim: This study assessed the impact of dapagliflozin on food intake, eating behaviour, energy expenditure, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-determined brain response to food cues and body composition in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D). Materials and methods: Patients were given dapagliflozin 10 mg once daily in a randomized, double-...

Background Online grocery delivery services (OGDS) provided a way to reduce physical contact with others during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, OGDS may not have been equally available to all households and may have exacerbated health inequalities. Pre-pandemic, OGDS use was more prevalent among higher-income households and was associated with some...

Background Commercial advertising and sponsorship drive the consumption of harmful commodities. Local authorities (LAs) have considerable powers to reduce such exposures. This study aimed to characterize local commercial policies across all English LAs. Methods We conducted a census of all English LAs (n = 333) to identify local commercial policie...

Videogame livestreaming platforms are an emerging form of digital media, popular with young people, where users watch gaming influencers play videogames. Food and non-alcoholic beverage (hereafter: food) brands have a substantial presence on these platforms, yet no studies have examined the impact of this food marketing on young people. This system...

Dietary temptations and lapses challenge control over eating and act as barriers toward successful weight loss. These are difficult to assess in laboratory settings or with retrospective measures as they occur momentarily and driven by the current environment. A better understanding of how these experiences unfold within real-world dieting attempts...

Background The transition from childhood to adolescence is characterised by enhanced neural plasticity and a consequent susceptibility to both beneficial and adverse aspects of one’s milieu. Methods To understand the implications of the interplay between protective and risk-enhancing factors, we analysed longitudinal data from the Adolescent Brain...

The World Health Organization recommends that member states enact policies to limit unhealthy food marketing to children. Chile enacted relatively stringent laws that restrict unhealthy food marketing to children in two phases, beginning in 2016. Dillman-Carpentier and colleagues examined the incremental effectiveness of the first and second phases...

Background Digital food marketing is increasing and has an impact on children's behaviour. Limited research has been performed in Latin America. Objectives To determine the extent and nature of Mexican children's and adolescents' exposure to digital food and beverage marketing during recreational internet use. Methods A crowdsourcing strategy was...

Digital media has become an integral part of adolescents' lives. Mirroring this trend, food and non-alcoholic beverage (hereafter: food) brands increasingly promote products in digital media to maximise reach with young consumers. Videogame livestreaming platforms, where individuals can broadcast or watch streamed videogame footage, are a growing f...

Food and beverage marketing appealing to children and adolescents has an impact on their food preferences, purchases requests, consumption patterns, health outcomes, and obesity. The objective of this study was to assess the nature and extent of food and beverage marketing on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube posts in Mexico. This was a content anal...

Purpose of Review Protecting children from unhealthful food marketing is a global priority policy for improving population diets. Monitoring the nature and extent of children’s exposure to this marketing is critical in policy development and implementation. This review summarises contemporary approaches to monitor the nature and extent of food mark...

Introduction Industries that produce and market potentially harmful commodities or services (eg, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, less healthy foods and beverages) are a major influence on the drivers of behavioural risk factors for non-communicable diseases. The nature and impact of interactions between public bodies and ‘harmful commodity industries’...

Objective Assess viewer engagement of a food advertising campaign on the livestreaming platform Twitch.tv, a social media platform that allows creators to livestream content and communicate with their audience in real-time. Design Observational analysis of chat comments across the Twitch platform containing the word “Wendy’s” or “Wendys” during a...

Menu energy labelling has been implemented as a public health policy to promote healthier dietary choices and reduce obesity. However, it is unclear whether the influence energy labelling has on consumer behaviour differs based on individuals’ demographics or characteristics and may therefore produce inequalities in diet. Data were analysed from 12...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Young people are exposed to an abundance of advertising for unhealthy products (eg, unhealthy foods, tobacco, alcohol). Because of their developing cognition, children may not be able to understand the intent of advertising. However, advertising restrictions often assume that adolescents have critical reasoning capacity an...

Background There is evidence that commercially available behavioural weight management programmes can lead to short-term weight loss and reductions in glycaemia. Here, we aimed to provide the 5-year impact and cost-effectiveness of these interventions compared with a brief intervention. Methods WRAP was a non-blinded, parallel-group randomised con...

For many people, it is challenging to maintain a healthy weight in an environment that heavily promotes the (over)consumption of palatable yet often unhealthy food and beverages. Each year, billions of dollars are spent on food advertising, and the vast majority is for energy‐dense products, high in added fat, sugar, and/or salt. Even though tradit...

Alcohol is calorie dense, but unlike food products, alcoholic drinks tend to be exempt from nutritional labelling laws that require energy content information to be displayed on packaging or at point of purchase. This review provides a perspective on the likely efficacy of alcoholic drink energy labelling as a public health policy to reduce obesity...

Obesity is a chronic disease, in which treatment outcomes are highly dependent on patient and family adherence to behavioural recommendations. The role of healthy eating, physical activity, medication adherence as well as adherence to pre- and post-bariatric surgery protocols are of utmost importance for long-term treatment outcomes. Even the best...

Background Online grocery delivery services (OGDS) are becoming increasingly popular. The impact of OGDS on population diet and inequalities in food purchases is under-studied. This study examined how use of OGDS varies by sociodemographic characteristics and is associated with the amount and types of grocery purchased. Methods Food and drink purc...

Objectives: While the assessment of actual food intake is essential in the evaluation of behaviour change interventions for weight-loss, it may not always be feasible to collect this information within traditional experimental paradigms. For this reason, measures of food preference (such as measures of food value and choice) are often used as more...

BACKGROUND Online grocery delivery services (OGDSs) are a popular way of acquiring food. However, it is unclear whether OGDS use is associated with the healthiness of purchases and whether there are sociodemographic differences in OGDS use. If so, the increased prevalence of OGDS use may have implications for population diet, and differential OGDS...

Introduction: While international prevention guidelines recently advocated, in addition to moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) guidelines, for a minimization of sedentary time (SED), recommendations remain to be developed for youths with obesity. Methods: A literature search was conducted in PubMed, the Cochrane Library plus the refer...

Background There is convincing evidence that unhealthy food marketing is extensive on television and in digital media, uses powerful persuasive techniques, and impacts dietary choices and consumption, particularly in children. It is less clear whether this is also the case for outdoor food marketing. This review (i) identifies common criteria used...

Objectives In July 2020 the UK Government announced an intention to restrict advertisements for products high in fat, salt or sugar on live broadcast, catch-up and on-demand television before 21:00 hours; and paid for online advertising. As no other jurisdiction has implemented similar regulations, there is no empirical evidence about how they migh...

Importance: There is widespread interest in the effect of food marketing on children; however, the comprehensive global evidence reviews are now dated. Objective: To quantify the association of food and nonalcoholic beverage marketing with behavioral and health outcomes in children and adolescents to inform updated World Health Organization guid...

This systematic review examined the effectiveness of policies restricting the marketing of foods and/or non‐alcoholic beverages to children to inform updated World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Databases were searched to March 2020. Inclusion criteria were primary studies of any design assessing implemented policies to restrict food marketi...

Background Restricting the advertisement of products with high fat, salt, and sugar (HFSS) content has been recommended as a policy tool to improve diet and tackle obesity, but the impact on HFSS purchasing is unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of HFSS advertising restrictions, implemented across the London (UK) transport network in F...

Objectives The aim was to investigate the impact of a group-based weight management programme on symptoms of depression and anxiety compared with self-help in a randomised controlled trial (RCT). Method People with overweight (Body Mass Index [BMI]≥28kg/m²) were randomly allocated self-help (n = 211) or a group-based weight management programme fo...

This chapter describes the evidence for industry advertising and marketing practices that have been used to promote highly processed branded food and beverage products with excessive energy, fat, sugars and sodium (HFSS) to influence dietary patterns and increase the health risks for children and adolescents. It describes a commercial marketing foo...

Objective To quantify the extent of food and beverage advertising on bus shelters in a deprived area of the UK, to identify the healthfulness of advertised products, and any differences by level of deprivation. The study also sought to assess the creative strategies used and extent of appeal to young people. Design Images of bus shelter advertisem...

Currently, food marketing for unhealthy foods is omnipresent. Foods high in fat, salt, and sugar (HFSS) are advertised intensively on several media platforms, including digital platforms that are increasingly used by children, such as social media, and can be bought almost everywhere. This could contribute to the obesity epidemic that we are facing...

Overweight and obesity is a global concern as a significant risk factor for non‐communicable diseases. Increased energy intake due to greater consumption of energy‐dense food or non‐alcoholic beverages high in fat, saturated fat, sugar or salt (‘HFSS food’) is the main explanation for population weight gain. The principal drivers underlying this co...

Introduction One in five UK children aged 10–11 years live with obesity. They are more likely to continue living with obesity into adulthood and to develop obesity-related chronic health conditions at a younger age. Regulating the marketing of high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) foods and beverages has been highlighted as a promising approach to obesit...

Background Restricting advertising of products with high fat, salt, and sugar (HFSS) content has been recommended as a tool to tackle obesity, but the impact on purchases is unknown. This study evaluates the impact of outdoor HFSS advertising restrictions, implemented across the London transport network in February, 2019, on HFSS purchases. Method...

Two studies investigating the impact of dried fruits eaten as a snack on weight control were designed to examine the effects of prunes and raisins on appetite (phase 1), and whether prunes undermine weight loss, due to the increase in energy density on drying, when included in a structured weight loss programme (phase 2). Phase 1 compared the effec...

Background Obesity disproportionately affects socially disadvantaged groups. Differential exposure to advertising of high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) foods and drinks has been proposed as one factor which may explain these social inequalities. This study explores sociodemographic differences in exposure to HFSS advertising and whether exposure is as...

Sport mega-events including the FIFA World Cup are a central component of consumer culture. Major brands are long associated with the World Cup, with many known for unhealthy products. This study quantified visual marketing references to unhealthy brands in the UK broadcasting of the 2018 Men’s World Cup. Eight matches were recorded, and all segmen...

Objective Prospective studies on relationships between hedonic hunger and BMI (Body Mass Index) during weight management are lacking. This study examined if hedonic hunger reduced during a behavioural weight management programme, and if hedonic hunger predicted future BMI. Methods Participants were 594 community-dwelling, UK-based adults(396 femal...

While the assessment of actual food intake is essential in the evaluation of behaviour change interventions for weight-loss, it may not always be feasible to collect this information within traditional experimental paradigms. For this reason, proxy measures of food intake (such as measures of food value and choice) are often used as more accessible...

Unhealthy marketing has been unequivocally linked to children's food preferences, requests, purchases and eating behaviors and hence to childhood obesity. Regulating children's exposure to such marketing has been identified as a key challenge to which States must rise. Regulation mandates the need for monitoring and hence for credible data that are...

Background Advertising of less healthy foods and drinks is hypothesised to be associated with obesity in adults and children. In February 2019, Transport for London implemented restrictions on advertisements for foods and beverages high in fat, salt or sugar across its network as part of a city-wide strategy to tackle childhood obesity. The policy...

Influencer marketing may be amplified on livestreaming platforms (e.g., Twitch) compared with asynchronous social media (e.g., YouTube). However, food and beverage marketing on Twitch has not been evaluated at a user level. The present study aimed to compare users’ self-reported exposure to food marketing and associated attitudes, consumption and p...

Objectives To explore sociodemographic differences in exposure to advertising for foods and drinks high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) and whether exposure is associated with body mass index (BMI). Design Cross-sectional survey. Setting UK. Participants 1552 adults recruited to the Kantar Fast Moving Consumer Goods panel for London and the North...

Background: Snacking is associated with a higher daily energy intake and dietary guidelines recommend snacks of no more than 200 kcal for adults and 100 kcal for children. The present study examines the energy content, nutritional quality and price of single-serving snack food products sold by major supermarket and coffee shop chains in the UK. M...

Objective: To quantify the extent of food and beverage advertising on bus shelters in a deprived area of the UK that has no restrictions on this activity, to identify the healthfulness of advertised products and the creative strategies used and extent of appeal to young people, and to identify differences by level of deprivation.Design: Images of a...

While outdoor advertisements are common features within towns and cities, they may reinforce social inequalities in health. Vulnerable populations in deprived areas may have greater exposure to fast food, gambling and alcohol advertisements, which may encourage their consumption. Understanding who is exposed and evaluating potential policy restrict...

Objective To formally test a hierarchy of effects model linking exposure to television (TV) advertising for unhealthy foods with child body weight through purchase requests, purchases, and consumption. Design A nationally representative cross-sectional online study in the United Kingdom. Participants A total of 2,260 parent-child dyads (children...

Eating, physical activity and other weight-related lifestyle behaviors may have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and people with obesity may be disproportionately affected. We examined weight-related behaviors and weight management barriers among UK adults during the COVID-19 social lockdown. During April–May of the 2020 COVID-19 social lockdow...

Background Guidelines recommend that clinicians identify individuals at high cardiometabolic risk and support weight loss in those with overweight or obesity. However, we lack individual level data quantifying the benefits of weight change for individuals to guide consultations in primary care. Aim To examine how weight change affects cardiometabo...

It is well established that marketing of unhealthy food is highly prevalent and has a detrimental effect on children’s eating behaviours and diet. A new study highlights how a new type of social media influencer — children themselves — is contributing to this phenomenon.

Social media influencers (SMI) are individuals with large follower engagement, who can shape the thoughts and dietary behaviours of their audience. Concerns exist surrounding the spread of dietary misinformation by SMI, which may impact negatively on public health, yet no standards currently exist to assess the credibility of their information. Thi...

Background Restrictions on the advertising of less-healthy foods and beverages is seen as one measure to tackle childhood obesity and is under active consideration by the UK government. Whilst evidence increasingly links this advertising to excess calorie intake, understanding of the potential impact of advertising restrictions on population health...

Background To tackle childhood obesity, the UK Government is consulting on prohibiting the advertising of high fat sugar salt foods (HFSS) on television between 0530 and 2100. We sought to estimate the health impact of this policy in the UK. Methods Informed by a literature review, we adapted an existing multi-state lifetable model (PRIMETime) to...

Background: There is considerable heterogeneity in long-term weight loss among people referred to obesity treatment programmes. It is unclear whether attendance at face-to-face sessions in the early weeks of the programme is an independent predictor of long-term success. Objective: To investigate whether frequency of attendance at a community we...

Energy-dense food advertising affects children’s eating behaviour. However, the impact of high sugar food advertising specifically on the intake of sweet foods is underexplored. This study sought to determine whether children would increase their intake of sugar, and total energy, following high sugar food advertising (relative to toy advertising)...

While outdoor advertisements are common features within towns and cities, they may reinforce social inequalities in health. Vulnerable populations in deprived areas may have greater exposure to fast food, gambling and alcohol advertisements encouraging their consumption. Understanding who is exposed and evaluating potential policy restrictions requ...

Aims: We examined the impact of open-group behavioural weight management programmes on diabetes risk among i) those with BMI ≥28 kg/m2 and ii) those with non-diabetic hyperglycaemia (NDH). Methods: This was a secondary analysis of data from the WRAP trial, in which participants (N = 1267; ≥18 years, BMI ≥28 kg/m2 ) were randomised to: brief inte...

While most of the time unconsidered, child and adolescent obesity has been also associated with impaired brain health and function that can definitely affect their social interaction and integration, and then well‐being and mental health. The European Childhood Obesity Group recently gathered experts in the field who discussed the main available an...

Objective To assess the frequency, healthfulness and promotional techniques of television food advertising to children and adolescents in the Russian Federation. Design A cross-sectional study was conducted to monitor food and beverage television advertising. For the five most popular TV channels among children and adolescents, TV broadcasts were...

Media-saturated digital environments seek to influence social media users’ behaviour, including through marketing. The World Health Organization has identified food marketing, including advertising for unhealthy items, as detrimental to health, and in many countries, regulation restricts such marketing and advertising to younger children. Yet regul...

Background: Consumption of large portions of energy‐dense foods promotes weight gain in children. Breakfast cereal boxes often show portions much larger than the recommended serving size. Objective: This experimental study investigated whether front‐of‐package portion size depictions influence children's self‐served portions and consumption. Method...

Exposure to influencer marketing of foods and beverages high in fat, sugar, and/or salt (HFSS) increases children’s immediate intake. This study qualitatively explored children’s understanding of, and attitudes towards, this marketing, to elucidate potential mechanisms through which exposure affects behavior. In six focus groups (n = 4) children (1...

Background: Children are inhabitants of a media-rich environment rife in extensive, sophisticated, and persistent techniques that are used to market unhealthy food. Exposure is known to influence children's attitudes, choices, and consumption, yet further research is required to explore the influence of contemporary techniques within online games....

Background: Consumption of large portions of energy-dense foods promotes weight gain in children. Breakfast cereal boxes often show portions much larger than the recommended serving size. Objective: This experimental study investigated whether front-of-package portion size depictions influence children's self-served portions and consumption. Me...

Food and beverage cues (visual displays of food or beverage products/brands) featured in traditional broadcast and digital marketing are predominantly for products high in fat, sugar and/or salt (HFSS). YouTube is hugely popular with children, and cues featured in content uploaded by YouTube video bloggers (influencers) has been shown to affect chi...

Obesity is often attributed to an addiction to high-calorie foods. However, the effect of “food addiction” explanations on weight-related stigma remains unclear. In two online studies, participants (n = 439, n = 523, respectively, recruited from separate samples) read a vignette about a target female who was described as ‘very overweight’. Particip...

Children’s favourite food and beverage brands use various tactics to foster positive associations and loyalty. This brand-consumer dynamic is frequently influenced by the use of implicit techniques and emotional appeals. Few studies have used physiological methods to examine the connections that brands build with children and the influence this has...

Children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing is one factor contributing to childhood obesity. The impact of marketing on children’s weight likely occurs via a cascade pathway, through influences on children’s food brand awareness, emotional responses, purchasing and consumption. Thus, building emotional attachments to brands is a major marketing...

Background: Limitations in current Australian regulatory provisions may be identified by demonstrating the effect of different marketing methods on children's recognition and attitudes toward unhealthy food brands. Objective: To investigate how exposure to different marketing techniques from television (TV) and online food advertising affects ch...

Background: Children are active on social media and consequently are exposed to new and subtle forms of food marketing. Objectives: To examine whether exposure to a YouTube video featuring influencer marketing of an unhealthy snack affects children's ad libitum snack intake and whether inclusion of an advertising disclosure moderates this effect...

Exposure to the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages is a widely acknowledged risk factor for the development of childhood obesity and noncommunicable diseases. Food marketing involves the use of numerous persuasive techniques to influence children’s food attitudes, preferences and consumption. This systematic review provides a comprehensive...

Restricting children's exposures to marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages is a global obesity prevention priority. Monitoring marketing exposures supports informed policymaking. This study presents a global overview of children's television advertising exposure to healthy and unhealthy products. Twenty‐two countries contributed data, captured...

Tobacco, alcohol and foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar generate much of the global burden of noncommunicable diseases. We therefore need a better understanding of how these products are promoted.The promotion of tobacco products through sporting events has largely disappeared over the last two decades, but advertising and sponsorship conti...

Objectives: To examine the impact of social media influencer marketing of foods (healthy and unhealthy) on children's food intake. Methods: In a between-subjects design, 176 children (9-11 years, mean 10.5 ± 0.7 years) were randomly assigned to view mock Instagram profiles of 2 popular YouTube video bloggers (influencers). Profiles featured imag...

Background: Negative personality characteristics have been implicated in promoting overconsumption of both alcohol and food. Furthermore, positive motivations (enhancement) and negative motivations (coping) may mediate the association between personality and alcohol or food (over)consumption. Objectives: This study hypothesized that i.) drinking...

Tobacco, alcohol and food high in fat, salt and sugar generate much of the global burden of noncommunicable diseases. Understanding and potentially controlling how these products are promoted is therefore needed. Here we summarize the literature on the marketing of harmful products through sport, highlighting the rapid expansion and increasing comp...