“Companies propose curbing junk food ads for kids?”

“Companies propose curbing junk food ads for kids?”

The nation’s largest food companies say they will cut back on advertising unhealthy foods to children. The move by General Mills, Kellogg and other industry giants comes as the federal government released stricter standards for marketing junk food to children.

An online search did not produce a copy of the coalition’s new marketing standards. That’s not good. Without access to the standards, there’s no way to measure change and hold the food marketers accountable.

Childhood obesity in America has more than tripled in the past 30 years. Junk food consumption is linked to the alarming increase. Let’s do more than hope that the companies are on the up and up. Let’s demand to see their new marketing standards.

Community Groups Tackle Childhood Obesity

Community Groups Tackle Childhood Obesity

Saving the nation’s children from the ravages associated with childhood obesity is the mission of the Pioneering Healthier Communities (PHC) coalitions, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through the YMCA. One hundred ninety PHCs are operating throughout the United States and have the potential to impact up to 34 million Americans. These grassroots leaders are working on behalf of children and families by increasing access to physical activity, healthy food and food choices.  Additionally, these community activists are working to change policies and laws that hinder their progress toward achieving those goals.  In Marion County, Ohio, where over 30 percent of the youth are overweight, the PHC is also adding a “multi-platform network that provides continuing and consistent education on healthy eating and physical activity” and working collaboratively with other community-based organizations to ensure Marion is a healthy community for all its residents.

For more on the Marion, Ohio PHC, read: http://www.marionstar.com/article/20110703/OPINION/107030328

Babies and Food Giants

Babies and Food Giants

Photo caption: In Motts for Tots apple juice, a popular fruit juice parents serve their children, a 200ml serving comes with 13 grams of sugar and 50 calories. An equal-sized serving of Safeway brand apple juice dishes up about 23 grams of sugar and 93 calories.

 

An article on CNN today draws attention to a growing epidemic of obesity in infants. Several factors come into play to affect a child’s health, but one issue of growing importance is nutrition labeling. Often, parents just aren’t aware of what they’re feeding their children. "There's a disconnect in people's minds. The mothers don't know. They're used to thinking juice is good; juice is fruit. What they don't tell them is all the sugar in the package," says Dr. Sandeep Gupta, director of Pediatric Overweight Education and Research Program at Indiana University Health. At a stage when physical and mental health development is critically important and equally sensitive, why isn’t more being done to protect kids by enlightening parents?

One answer: Lobbying. In a summary of a recent opinion piece by Kelly Brownell (director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University), the issue of the food industry’s lobbying capabilities comes into plain view. As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration attempts to redesign and clarify the traditional food label, more direct grouping may not be an option. “Food industry’s powerful lobby would block such a black-and-white system that categorized every food as either healthy or unhealthy.”

 

 

So for now, parents are stuck with labels depicting quantitative components, rather than an understandable translation of what they’re actually getting. And the babies are paying the price.

Troubling Trend: More Young Adults Living With Diabetes

Troubling Trend: More Young Adults Living With Diabetes

When we are young we think we can avoid health-related issues that happen to “to the other older person.” By that, meaning we can consume all the chips, fries, burgers, pastries, pizza and sodas we want, believing that time and youth can reverse any possible damage? Wrong. According to leading diabetes experts, more people in their 20s and 30s are coping with Type 2 diabetes, which used to be rare in those under 40. Younger type 2 diabetes patients are not just worried about college, dating and entertainment choices but now trying to participate in such activities with high blood pressure, poor eyesight, obesity, kidney problems and possibly congestive heart failure. It just doesn’t happen to the “older guy.” Healthy food choices are important at every age. We shouldn’t let an early death win.

For more on this troubling trend, read USA Today article.

Health reform is education reform

Health reform is education reform

Only one in 10 high school kids meeting the minimum goals for physical activity

America's teens are drinking too many sugary drinks and not getting enough exercise, according to new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only one in 10 high school boys and girls are meeting the minimum goals for physical activity outlined by in the CDC's recently released "Healthy People 2020" report. The findings appear in the June 17 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6023a1.htm?s_cid=mm6023a1_w.

There’s a critical need to improve the quality of school meals and to create more opportunities for students to be physically active.

Does a Happy Meal Make Everybody Happy?

Does a Happy Meal Make Everybody Happy?

Well, the answer to this question for some concerned parents and groups is “No.” The marketing to children of processed meals, loaded with sodium, high in fat, and sugar coated with a “toy inside” has been argued as irresponsible and contributing to our nation’s out of control childhood obesity rate.  The Corporate Accountability International (CAI) presented a proposal yesterday to McDonald’s shareholders asking them to consider links between fast food and childhood obesity—and more importantly, the company’s responsibility to correct. McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner refuted the proposal, stating McDonald’s would “continue to advertise to our customers responsibly about our menu and about lifestyle choices and leave the personal responsibility up to them.” Skinner claimed that the fast food company takes “responsible advertising very seriously.”
True, it is the responsibility of parents to make healthy, safe decisions for their children. By all accounts, most parents do everything to protect their children from harm. However, what if you live in a community with little access to healthy foods? With hungry kids, little in your wallet and McDonald’s just around the corner, should the Happy Meal make you happy for its existence?

Read more: “McDonald’s Stands Its Ground: Advertising to Children OK”

Sack Lunches Get the 'Sack' in Chicago School

Sack Lunches Get the 'Sack' in Chicago School

First Lady Obama's "Let's Move" campaign has inspired communities, families and schools to lead healthier lifestyles by exercising and choosing better foods. However, Little Village Academy on Chicago's West Side went a step further by banning sack lunches. Parents were packing their kids' lunches with chips, cookies and sodas. Under the new policy, students can either eat the $2.25-per day cafeteria meal or go hungry.

Is this extreme? Though the $45 monthly school meals contain colorful fruits, vegetables and healthy entrees, parents are angry. In light of today's economic environment, this may break family budgets already strained. Generally, it costs more to eat healthier but buying groceries you can stretch out as opposed to purchasing daily meals is not cost-effective. Sack lunches by themselves are not the problem. Educating families on what items go into the sack lunch is an approach for harvesting more seeds of success and personal responsibility.

Highlighted Clip for Monday, April 18, 2011:

"Chicago school bans packed lunches"

By: Jenn Savedge

A small school in Chicago is making big news on the lunch line these days. Little Village Academy on Chicago's West Side no longer allows students to bring food from home to eat for lunch. So it's either eat the cafeteria food or go hungry. As you might expect, the policy has parents all around the nation in an uproar.

Healthy Communities: Improving Ourselves Inside and Out

Healthy Communities:

Improving Ourselves Inside and Out

Yesterday’s release of nationwide county health rankings prepared by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, paints a detailed picture of community health disparities and improvements. The annual rankings allow people to compare their county with others in the state on multiple health factors set against national benchmarks.  For communities experiencing poor health seeking to improve next year’s rankings, external progress may include: adding more farmer’s markets and urban grocery stores, providing greater and affordable access to health care, creating jobs in high unemployment areas or constructing safer sidewalks for pedestrians and bicyclists.  Such gains could certainly reposition these ailing communities on track to better health in the coming years. So what about health challenges that aren’t easily visible? Scientists at the University of Buffalo have been studying different situations that prompt overeating in children. Studies suggest overweight children who feel left out or ostracized are likely to eat more, contributing to or exacerbating chronic illnesses like Type 2 diabetes or high cholesterol. We  may have add the grocery store but still have a child who fills up on junk food to ease internal pain. First Lady Michelle Obama is addressing this through her “Let’s Move” campaign, yet it needs a community commitment and compassion toward each other to succeed, not one of apathy, indifference. Creating healthy communities will require solutions that heal us inside and out.  

Highlighted Clip for Thursday, March 31, 2011:

"Ostracized overweight kids eat more"

By Nanci Hellmich

When overweight children feel left out or ostracized, they tend to eat more and exercise less, new research shows.

Two Young Super Stars Driving Social Change

Two Young Super Stars Driving Social Change

Happy Birthday to the White House kitchen garden and Twitter!  The two March prodigies turned two and five, respectively, this week with lots to show for their young years. The garden has influenced the nation’s eating habits. Twitter has transformed the way the world communicates.

First Lady Michelle Obama planted the White House vegetable garden in the spring of 2009 with the help of local elementary school children.  Yielding a constant supply of fresh produce, the garden is a centerpiece of the First Lady’s campaign to end childhood obesity. Obama’s message, one supposes, is that gardening is good for the heart, soul and mind. There’s nothing quite more rewarding than planting a seed, nurturing its growth, and harvesting the fruits of your labor.

Launched on March 21, 2006, Twitter has revolutionized the way people around the world communicate. Creator Jack Dorsey equipped everyday people with a powerful tool to make the globe a better place. 

Highlighted Clips for Tuesday, March 22, 2011:

"The White House Kitchen Garden turns two"

By: Nikki Schwab and Katy Adams

While the first family has been traveling abroad, the little veggie garden in their backyard turned two years old over the weekend.

 

"Twitter turns five: Celebrating the service that changed the way we communicate"

By: Melissa Bell

Five years ago, a message was sent out across the Internet: Sent by Twitter co-creator Jack Dorsey, it ushered in a program that has revolutionized the way news is delivered and credited for spurring on social unrest in the world. Will that tweet go down in history along with Alexander Graham Bell’s “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you”?

Camden Childhood Obesity Rate Tops National Average

Camden Childhood Obesity Rate Tops National Average

Although obesity in children has reached epidemic proportions nationally, in Camden, NJ, the rate of obesity among children ages 3-19 is a staggering 40 percent. In response, the Camden-based Campbell Soup Company in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids, Food Trust and others, today pledged $10 million to dramatically decrease childhood obesity and hunger in Camden in the next decade.  The 10-year strategy includes providing increased access to affordable, healthy food; expanding availability of and participation in physical activity and physical education; and increasing nutrition and health education.  

Highlighted Clip for Wednesday, March 9, 2011:

"Campbell Soup Company Unveils Ten-Year Plan to Reduce Childhood Obesity and Hunger in Camden"

Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB - News) today unveiled a plan to reduce childhood obesity and hunger in Camden, Campbell’s home since 1869. The company will invest $10 million over ten years with the goal of reducing childhood obesity and hunger in Camden’s 23,000 children by 50 percent.

Let’s Eradicate Childhood Obesity!

Let’s Eradicate Childhood Obesity!

Three cheers for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recognition that childhood obesity can begin long before school age. In a statement released yesterday, AAP said, “Feeding babies solid food before four months of age increases the babies' chances for becoming obese toddlers.”  The report also found that babies who are breast fed for at least the first four months of their lives are less likely than their formula fed counterparts to become obese.  This month,  the AAP joined First Lady Michelle Obama in support of her Let's Move! initiative to end childhood obesity within a generation!  It is so important for parents to begin the process of healthy eating while their children are infants and commit  to healthy living for the entire family.

Highlighted Clip for Tuesday, February 8, 2011:

Solid Foods and Infants, New Research From the AAP

Feeding babies solid food before four months of age increases the babies' chances for becoming obese toddlers, says the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Smoke and mirrors... Or is Wal-Mart serious about a new corporate image?

Smoke and mirrors...  Or is Wal-Mart serious about a new corporate image?

One can only hope that first lady Michelle Obama’s praise of Wal-Mart’s healthy foods campaign, announced yesterday at a Washington, DC-based community center, is not misconstrued nor lets the retail giant off the hook for past transgressions.  The Arkansas-based corporation’s history of opposing workers’ right to unionize, paying low wages and not offering benefits are still major concerns, and little has been done or said by the corporation to suggest a significant shift in these practices.  No one denies that the chain’s push to provide healthy and affordable foods in underserved communities is a step in the right direction.  But we still need evidence that Wal-Mart is cleaning up its anti-worker business practices along with its growing expansion into inner-city neighborhoods.

Highlighted Clip for Friday, January 20, 2011:

White House support of Wal-Mart food initiative shows new tone toward retailer

Perry Bacon Jr. and Nia-Malika Henderson

Four years ago, leading Democrats were virtually at war with Wal-Mart.