Outside interviewed Nutrition Policy Institute researcher and physical activity expert Hannah Thompson for a March 31, 2024 article, “School Fitness Testing Is a Nightmare. Should We Get Rid of It?” In the article, Thompson addresses why cardiovascular fitness is a better predictor of children's future health than body mass index, which is commonly known as BMI. “Even in the ‘overweight' category, BMI is not necessarily predictive of poor metabolic health. Cardiovascular fitness is.” Her interview provided context to recent changes in school fitness testing in California. The California Department of Education suspended student body mass index reporting as part of FITNESSGRAM® data collection in January 2022, citing concerns about mental health, accessibility and gender equity. “PE is not supposed to impact BMI,” said Thompson. “The whole idea of physical education—apart from recess or other physical activity opportunities—is to help younger students build the foundation and skills to go on and be active later in life.”
National Public Radio's Shots health news interviewed Nutrition Policy Institute's Hannah Thompson on a 2022 study that showed that letters home from school on childhood obesity had no effect on student weight. The interview was featured in an April 9, 2024 NPR article titled “Arkansas led the nation sending letters home from school about obesity. Did it help?” Thompson is quoted, "It's such a tiny-touch behavioral intervention,” stating that parents don't know what to do with information about their child being overweight. “You find out your child is asthmatic, and you can get an inhaler, right?" Thompson said. "You find out that your child is overweight and where do you even go from there? What do you do?” Thompson and her collaborators' study findings are timely as school districts across the nation, including in California, are eliminating measurement of students' height and weight to calculate and report body mass index, commonly known as BMI, which is used as a proxy for body fat composition to assess for overweight and obesity. This is due to recent scrutiny from the American Medical Association of using BMI alone to assess obesity, given it does not consider differences across racial and ethnic groups, sex, gender and age.
The Nutrition Policy Institute, founded in 2014, is celebrating a decade of impactful research. The latest episode of the Spanish-language podcast, Charla y Café al mediodía, features NPI senior researcher Ron Strochlic discussing the Institute's history and achievements. The podcast highlights NPI's origins at the University of California, Berkeley's Center for Weight and Health and its significant research on sugar-sweetened beverage taxes, the CalFresh Market Match program, and improving access to drinking water in schools and nutritious food in California prisons. Former NPI student fellow, Anna Rios, shared how the NPI Student Fellowship supported her career development. Rios is now a Harvard Medical School-trained neuroscientist. The NPI Student Fellowship, developed in honor of NPI's founding co-director Patricia Crawford, was designed to diversify and bring more equity to the field of public health nutrition, offering a unique mentoring and training experience in applied research. The podcast, produced by Ricardo Vela from UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, News and Outreach in Spanish, is available online in both video and audio. In honor of NPI's anniversary, donations to the NPI Student Fellowship are encouraged. Contributions made by June 30, 2024, will be matched up to $10,000 by an anonymous donor.
- Author: Brianna Aguayo Villalon
- Editor: Monica Daniela Zuercher
- Editor: Wendi Gosliner
- Editor: Lorrene D Ritchie
School meals have been shown to be the healthiest source of food for US students on average and have been associated with multiple benefits to students. However, not all students eat school meals, even if they are eligible for free or reduced-price meals based on their family income. This study examined the association between parent perspectives about school meals and student meal participation during the school year 2021-22 in the context of the California Universal School Meals policy. NPI researchers surveyed 1,110 parents of California K-12 students and identified three groups of parental perceptions: positive perceptions (e.g. liking school meals and thinking that they are tasty and healthy), perceived benefits to families (e.g. school meals save families money, time, and stress), and negative perceptions (e.g. concerns about the amount of sugar in school meals and stigma). More positive parental perceptions about school meals and their benefits to families were associated with greater student meal participation, while more negative parental perceptions were associated with reduced student participation in school meals. Overall, study results emphasize that parent perceptions of school meals may affect student participation in school meal programs and that effective communication with parents to ensure parents are familiar with the healthfulness and quality of school meals may be critical for increasing meal participation rates. A podcast interview with researcher Monica Zuercher and a press release were published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, further explaining the research study findings. The research study was led by NPI researchers Monica Zuercher, Christina Hecht, Kenneth Hecht, Dania Orta-Aleman, Anisha Patel, Lorrene Ritchie, and Wendi Gosliner, as well as researchers Juliana Cohen, Deborah Olarte, and Leah Chapman with Merrimack College, Margaret Read with Partnership for a Healthier America, and Marlene Schwartz with the University of Connecticut.
The Nutrition Policy Institute, founded in 2014, is celebrating ten years of high-impact research. A new video in Spanish highlight's NPI's accomplishments and contributions to public health in California related to universal school meals, improving the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (commonly known as WIC), provide fresh food in correctional facilities, improving quality and access to drinking water in schools and child care, and promoting access to fresh produce for families in need by promoting CalFresh (nationally known as SNAP) benefit use at farmers Markets. The video also highlight's the NPI Student Fellowship which aims to foster diversity in the next generation of public health nutrition leaders. The Spanish video description is below:
UC ANR y NPI Celebran una década de impacto en la comunidad
Únete a nosotros para celebrar una década de logros del Instituto de Políticas de Nutrición (NPI). Descubre cómo nuestras iniciativas han transformado la salud pública en California:
- Comidas Escolares para Todos: Asegurando que cada niño tenga acceso a comidas nutritivas en la escuela.
- Mejoras al Programa WIC: Optimizando el apoyo nutricional para mujeres y niños de bajos ingresos.
- De la Granja a las Correccionales: Proporcionando alimentos frescos en instalaciones correccionales.
- Beca Estudiantil NPI: Fomentando la próxima generación de líderes en nutrición pública.
- Agua Potable en Escuelas: Garantizando la calidad del agua para una mejor salud infantil.
- Beneficios de CalFresh en Mercados de Agricultores: Promoviendo el acceso a productos frescos para familias necesitadas.
Tu apoyo es fundamental para continuar nuestra misión. Contribuye hoy y ayúdanos a seguir mejorando la nutrición en California.
The video, developed by the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resource's News and Outreach in Spanish, and a complementary news story, "Instituto de Políticas de Nutrición: 10 años de hacer que las opciones saludables sean más accesibles para todos," are available online.