- Author: Katherine Lanca
- Editor: Danielle L. Lee
- Editor: Christina A Hecht
- Editor: Lorrene Ritchie
A new study from the Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of California's Nutrition Policy Institute found that in 2016-2018, many students in the US attended public schools that did not have a drinking water lead-testing program in place. Of the seven states in this study, only one was found to require schools to test for lead, though all seven states included some level of guidance on what to do when lead concentrations are too high. Drinking water is important for proper hydration and oral health and can serve as a substitute for sugary drinks. Unsafe drinking water can lead to a variety of negative impacts on health. Moreover, if students and families are not assured that water has been tested and found safe, they may avoid drinking it. Improving federal guidance, educating school staff, and increasing technical and financial support for more widespread testing programs can reduce students' lead exposure. The study was published in the American Journal of Public Health. Researchers include Angie Cradock, Jessica Barrett, Chasmine Flax, and Mary Kathryn Poole from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Laura Vollmer from the University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Christina Hecht with the Nutrition Policy Institute. The research was supported by Healthy Eating Research (grant 280-0799), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U48DP006376), and a training grant in nutrition from the National Institutes of Health (DK 007703–22).
- Author: Danielle L. Lee
- Contributor: Gail Woodward-Lopez
A new study from University of California researchers suggests that most fast food restaurants in low-income neighborhoods in California are not offering beverages online in a way that is consistent with the state's healthy beverage law for children's meals sold on the restaurant's website and popular online ordering platforms like DoorDash, GrubHub, and UberEats. California's Healthy-By-Default Beverage law requires restaurants to offer only plain or sparkling water with no added sweeteners, unflavored milk or unflavored non-dairy milk as the default beverage in children's meals. The law also requires that menus, menu boards and advertisements for children's meals include only approved default options. Researchers found that less than six percent of the observations they made on the online ordering platforms of 245 fast food restaurants across low-income California neighborhoods were offering children's meal beverages that were consistent with the Healthy-By-Default Beverage law in its most restrictive interpretation. This is cause for concern as online ordering platforms are gaining popularity. The study was published online in the journal Public Health Nutrition by Nutrition Policy Institute researchers Hannah Thompson, Anna Martin, Ron Strochlic, Sonali Singh, and Gail Woodward Lopez as part of the NPI CalFresh Healthy Living evaluation.
- Author: Danielle L. Lee
- Editor: Lorrene Ritchie
Current recommendations encourage caregivers of young children to delay the introduction of sugar-sweetened beverages–beverages with added sugars such as soda, sweetened fruit drinks like lemonade, sweetened teas, and sports drinks–until after the child turns two-years old. A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior by University of California researchers further supports this. When researchers evaluated the diet of over 2200 young children across the nation enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children–also known as WIC–they found that those given SSBs during the first two years of life had lower diet quality at three years old. In contrast, the researchers found that delaying the introduction of 100% fruit juice during the first two years of life was not associated with lower diet quality. Study authors include Isabel Thompson, Patrick Bradshaw, and Mahasin Mujahid from UC Berkeley, Lorrene Ritchie from the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Nutrition Policy Institute, and Lauren Au from UC Davis. Researchers used data from the WIC Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices Study-2, a federal study conducted with funding from the US Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service.
Parents play an important role in influencing what their kids eat and drink. Harvard, Wayne State University, Stanford, and University of California researchers discovered in a new study that parents who read kids' storybooks with messaging on healthy beverages are more likely to serve their children healthier beverages–such as water–and are less likely to serve their children sugary drinks. Parents who read the storybooks are also more likely to consider sugary drinks as unhealthy beverages. The study was conducted with a diverse group of over 2000 parents with children aged six months to five years old. Parents in the study read pages from the children's book Potter the Otter: A Tale About Water, developed by FIRST 5 Santa Clara County to encourage young children to drink healthy beverages. The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Study co-authors include Anna Grummon, Dina Goodman, Meg Salvia, and Aviva Musicus from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Christina Hecht from the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Nutrition Policy Institute, Rebeccah Sokol from Wayne State University, and Anisha Patel from Stanford. The study was funded by FIRST 5 Santa Clara County. The book, which is approved for use in SNAP-Ed programming, is available for free in English and Spanish in digital format online.
In the United States, over 25 million people work and learn at colleges and universities, consuming an untold number of meals, snacks, and beverages while on campus. Unlike in K-12 schools, higher education institutions are not governed by federal policies to ensure that foods and beverages sold on campus meet minimum nutrition standards. While many universities participate in voluntary campus wellness initiatives, only one university–the University of California (UC), Berkeley–has officially adopted a comprehensive, campus-wide nutrition policy, the Food and Beverage Choices (FBC) Policy. Researchers at the UC Nutrition Policy Institute and UC Berkeley collaborated with the FBC policy implementation team to publish a case report in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, presenting detailed information on the development, establishment, implementation and evaluation of the FBC policy. The report includes discussion of the challenges and barriers encountered during policy implementation and offers valuable insight for other universities seeking to develop and implement their own nutrition policies. The report was developed by Zachary Rickrode-Fernandez of Center for Environmental Health and UC Berkeley, Janice Kao of the UC Nutrition Policy Institute, and Mary Lesser and Kim Guess of UC Berkeley.