We all witness, in advertising and on supermarket shelves, the fierce competition for our food dollars. In this engrossing exposé, Marion Nestle goes behind the scenes to reveal how the competition ...really works and how it affects our health. The abundance of food in the United States--enough calories to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child twice over--has a downside. Our over-efficient food industry must do everything possible to persuade people to eat more--more food, more often, and in larger portions--no matter what it does to waistlines or well-being. Like manufacturing cigarettes or building weapons, making food is big business. Food companies in 2000 generated nearly
School food environment policies may be a critical tool to promote healthy diets in children, yet their effectiveness remains unclear.
To systematically review and quantify the impact of school food ...environment policies on dietary habits, adiposity, and metabolic risk in children.
We systematically searched online databases for randomized or quasi-experimental interventions assessing effects of school food environment policies on children's dietary habits, adiposity, or metabolic risk factors. Data were extracted independently and in duplicate, and pooled using inverse-variance random-effects meta-analysis. Habitual (within+outside school) dietary intakes were the primary outcome. Heterogeneity was explored using meta-regression and subgroup analysis. Funnel plots, Begg's and Egger's test evaluated potential publication bias.
From 6,636 abstracts, 91 interventions (55 in US/Canada, 36 in Europe/New Zealand) were included, on direct provision of healthful foods/beverages (N = 39 studies), competitive food/beverage standards (N = 29), and school meal standards (N = 39) (some interventions assessed multiple policies). Direct provision policies, which largely targeted fruits and vegetables, increased consumption of fruits by 0.27 servings/d (n = 15 estimates (95%CI: 0.17, 0.36)) and combined fruits and vegetables by 0.28 servings/d (n = 16 (0.17, 0.40)); with a slight impact on vegetables (n = 11; 0.04 (0.01, 0.08)), and no effects on total calories (n = 6; -56 kcal/d (-174, 62)). In interventions targeting water, habitual intake was unchanged (n = 3; 0.33 glasses/d (-0.27, 0.93)). Competitive food/beverage standards reduced sugar-sweetened beverage intake by 0.18 servings/d (n = 3 (-0.31, -0.05)); and unhealthy snacks by 0.17 servings/d (n = 2 (-0.22, -0.13)), without effects on total calories (n = 5; -79 kcal/d (-179, 21)). School meal standards (mainly lunch) increased fruit intake (n = 2; 0.76 servings/d (0.37, 1.16)) and reduced total fat (-1.49%energy; n = 6 (-2.42, -0.57)), saturated fat (n = 4; -0.93%energy (-1.15, -0.70)) and sodium (n = 4; -170 mg/d (-242, -98)); but not total calories (n = 8; -38 kcal/d (-137, 62)). In 17 studies evaluating adiposity, significant decreases were generally not identified; few studies assessed metabolic factors (blood lipids/glucose/pressure), with mixed findings. Significant sources of heterogeneity or publication bias were not identified.
Specific school food environment policies can improve targeted dietary behaviors; effects on adiposity and metabolic risk require further investigation. These findings inform ongoing policy discussions and debates on best practices to improve childhood dietary habits and health.
The global surges in obesity and nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have created a need for decisive new food policy initiatives. A major concern has been the impact of ...ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and ultra-processed drinks on weight gain and on the risk of several NCDs. These foods, generally high in calories, added sugar, sodium, and unhealthy fats, and poor in fibre, protein, and micronutrients, have extensive negative effects on human health and on the environment (due to their associated carbon emission and water use). There is a growing tendency worldwide, and especially in South America, for food companies to add micronutrients to UPFs to make health claims regarding these products, to which food-regulating authorities refer to fake foods. Although more than 45 countries and smaller subregional or urban entities have created taxes on ultra-processed drinks, such as sugar-sweetened beverages, only a few have adopted taxes on snacks and other UPFs, and none have added major subsidies for truly healthy, fresh or minimally processed food for people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Another major focus has been on developing effective package labelling. A smaller number of countries have selected the most impactful warning labels and linked them with other measures to create a mutually reinforcing set of policies; a few other countries have developed effective school food policies. We herein present in-depth results from key countries involved in all these actions and in comprehensive marketing controls, and conclude with our recommendations for the future. This field is quite new; progress to date is substantial, but much more is left to learn.
Nowadays the food production, supply and consumption chain represent a major cause of ecological pressure on the natural environment, and diet links worldwide human health with environmental ...sustainability. Food policy, dietary guidelines and food security strategies need to evolve from the limited historical approach, mainly focused on nutrients and health, to a new one considering the environmental, socio-economic and cultural impact-and thus the sustainability-of diets.
To present an updated version of the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid (MDP) to reflect multiple environmental concerns.
We performed a revision and restructuring of the MDP to incorporate more recent findings on the sustainability and environmental impact of the Mediterranean Diet pattern, as well as its associations with nutrition and health. For each level of the MDP we provided a third dimension featuring the corresponding environmental aspects related to it.
The new environmental dimension of the MDP enhances food intake recommendations addressing both health and environmental issues. Compared to the previous 2011 version, it emphasizes more strongly a lower consumption of red meat and bovine dairy products, and a higher consumption of legumes and locally grown eco-friendly plant foods as much as possible.
To reveal students’ experiences and perspectives related to Universal School Meals (USM) under the federal coronavirus disease 2019 waivers during school years 2021–22.
Qualitative; 17 focus groups ...in June–July 2022.
Virtual; students from 9 California regions in public and charter schools.
67 students (n = 31 in high school, n = 36 in middle school) from a racially and economically diverse sample.
Students’ perceived benefits and drawbacks of USM.
Thematic analysis using an immersion-crystallization approach.
Students appreciated USM for increasing school meals’ accessibility, promoting food security by financially supporting families, reducing the stigma associated with school meals, simplifying the payment system, and enhancing school meals convenience. An increase in school meal participation was observed. However, concerns emerged regarding a perceived decline in food quality and quantity and increased food waste.
Universal School Meals showed promise in increasing access to meals, reducing food insecurity, stigma, and increasing participation. Addressing food quality, quantity, and waste concerns is critical for its sustained success. Policymakers need to advocate for the expansion and continuous refinement of USM, prioritizing stakeholder feedback. Ensuring adequate funding to balance meal quality and quantity while minimizing waste is essential for an adequate school meal policy.
In this paper we address the academic discourse on food insecurity and food security in Europe as expressed in articles published in scientific journals in the period 1975 to 2013. The analysis ...indicates that little knowledge has been produced on this subject, and that the limited research that has been produced tends to focus on the production of food rather than on people's access to food. The lack of knowledge about European food insecurity is particularly alarming in these times, which are characterised by increasing social inequalities and poverty, as well as shifting policy regimes. More empirical, comparative and longitudinal research is needed to survey the extent of food security problems across European countries over time. There is also a need to identify groups at risk of food insecurity as well as legal, economic, practical, social, and psychological constraints hindering access to appropriate and sufficient food.
Update of the Healthy Eating Index: HEI-2015 Krebs-Smith, Susan M.; Pannucci, TusaRebecca E.; Subar, Amy F. ...
Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics,
September 2018, 2018-09-00, 20180901, Letnik:
118, Številka:
9
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) is a measure for assessing whether a set of foods aligns with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). An updated HEI is released to correspond to each new edition ...of the DGA, and this article introduces the latest version, which reflects the 2015-2020 DGA. The HEI-2015 components are the same as in the HEI-2010, except Saturated Fat and Added Sugars replace Empty Calories, with the result being 13 components. The 2015-2020 DGA include explicit recommendations to limit intakes of both Added Sugars and Saturated Fats to <10% of energy. HEI-2015 does not account for excessive energy from alcohol within a separate component, but continues to account for all energy from alcohol within total energy (the denominator for most components). All other components remain the same as for HEI-2010, except for a change in the allocation of legumes. Previous versions of the HEI accounted for legumes in either the two vegetable or the two protein foods components, whereas HEI-2015 counts legumes toward all four components. Weighting approaches are similar to those of previous versions, and scoring standards were maintained, refined, or developed to increase consistency across components; better ensure face validity; follow precedent; cover a range of intakes; and, when applicable, ensure the DGA level corresponds to a score >7 out of 10. HEI-2015 component scores can be examined collectively using radar graphs to reveal a pattern of diet quality and summed to represent overall diet quality.
Product reformulation– the process of altering a food or beverage product's recipe or composition to improve the product's health profile – is a prominent response to the obesity and noncommunicable ...disease epidemics in the U.S. To date, reformulation in the U.S. has been largely voluntary and initiated by actors within the food and beverage industry. Similar voluntary efforts by the tobacco and alcohol industry have been considered to be a mechanism of corporate political strategy to shape public health policies and decisions to suit commercial needs.
We propose a taxonomy of food and beverage industry corporate political strategies that builds on the existing literature. We then analyzed the industry's responses to a 2014 U.S. government consultation on product reformulation, run as part of the process to define the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. We qualitatively coded the industry's responses for predominant narratives and framings around reformulation using a purposely-designed coding framework, and compared the results to the taxonomy.
The food and beverage industry in the United States used a highly similar narrative around voluntary product reformulation in their consultation responses: that reformulation is “part of the solution” to obesity and NCDs, even though their products or industry are not large contributors to the problem, and that progress has been made despite reformulation posing significant technical challenges. This narrative and the frames used in the submissions illustrate the four categories of the taxonomy: participation in the policy process, influencing the framing of the nutrition policy debate, creating partnerships, and influencing the interpretation of evidence. These strategic uses of reformulation align with previous research on food and beverage corporate political strategy.
•Proposes a taxonomy of food and beverage industry corporate political strategy.•Analyzes frames and narratives in the industry's responses to a public consultation.•Assess relationship between product reformulation and the industry's strategy.•Found the industry uses a highly similar narrative and framing of reformulation.•Findings align with previous research on the industry's corporate political strategy.
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