A 2024 article by Lela Nargi of The Guardian discussed the issue of potable water in schools and how inconsistent regulation can put children at risk for under-hydration or lead exposure. The article highlighted a 2022 study by NPI's Christina Hecht and collaborators and included quotes from Hecht, who described the development of legislation for drinking water in the federal child nutrition programs. In 2010, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act made free potable drinking water a requirement during meal times at all US schools participating in the National School Lunch Program and childcare facilities participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program. However, states' varied implementation of the law plus a lack of funding for drinking water needs has left some schools with inadequate water sources or compromised quality. While a 2019 USDA survey of 1,257 schools indicated a 95% compliance rate with the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, experts including Christina Hecht, who coordinates the National Drinking Water Alliance with the Nutrition Policy Institute, highlight how this survey did not collect adequate data to determine whether safe and appealing drinking water was truly accessible. Lead contamination is a primary concern. Hecht and partners' 2022 study found 13% to 81% of 5,688 schools in seven states with available data had tap water with lead levels above 5 parts per billion (ppb). For comparison, FDA requires that bottled water have no more than 5 ppb of lead while the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a maximum of 1 ppb for school drinking water. States have varying requirements for lead testing of school and licensed childcare drinking water and, while federal funds for testing have been available since 2016 through an EPA-administered program, it was only with the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 that federal funds were allocated to assist schools with remediation of lead in tap water.
- Author: Brianna Aguayo Villalon
- Editor: Danielle Lee
- Editor: Lorrene Ritchie
The excessive consumption of added sugars by Americans has surpassed the recommended levels outlined in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, highlighting a pressing public health concern.The Nutrition Policy Institute at the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources submitted a public comment in response to the US Food and Drug Administration's call for strategies to reduce added sugars consumption in the United States. The comment outlines 13 recommended actions for federal agencies and four recommended actions that other stakeholders can take to minimize added sugars consumption. Additionally, NPI urged the FDA to address safety concerns around the replacement of added sugars with low- and no-calorie sweeteners, specifically among children. Federal agencies and stakeholders have ample opportunities to decrease added sugars consumption in the US. and NPI emphasized the need for action on recommendations to enhance food safety and empower consumers to make healthier choices. The public comment period was open from November 6, 2023, to January 22, 2024. All submitted comments are available to view online on Regulations.gov.
The University of California's Nutrition Policy Institute released brief training videos to aid family child care home providers in promoting proper nutrition among young children. Current California law mandates only an hour of nutrition training for child care providers licensed after 2015, omitting over 30,000 providers who care for nearly 310,000 children. To address this gap, NPI has unveiled seven brief videos, each under 60 seconds, in English and Spanish. These videos, which can be freely used by educators, align with evidence-based recommendations for what and how to feed infants and toddlers. They were developed for the one-hour online trainings, "Infant and Toddler Feeding Recommendations for Family Child Care Home Providers," available in Spanish as well. While California providers can access the trainings for free, those outside the state can access them for $15. Each training concludes with a completion certificate. The UC Nutrition Policy Institute collaborated with UCSF California Childcare Health Program, UCSF School of Nursing, UC Cooperative Extension, and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources News and Outreach in Spanish for this project, supported by a UC ANR grant.
- Author: Katherine Lanca
- Editor: Danielle L. Lee
- Editor: Lorrene Ritchie
Healthy default beverage laws require restaurants to list healthier beverages—such as water or unflavored milk as opposed to sugary drinks—as the default option for children's meals. These laws intend to address unhealthy beverage consumption by young children, directing consumers toward healthier beverage choices at no additional cost. New research evaluates the adherence of children's meals to healthy default beverage laws from online restaurant meal ordering platforms available in Los Angeles, Baltimore, and New York City. Among over 100 of the top-grossing restaurant chains sampled, fewer than 3% of online children meal orders in any jurisdiction adhered to the strictest interpretation of the healthy default beverage laws. Varying adherence to healthy default beverage laws by jurisdiction was found and may be attributable to differing definitions of a healthy beverage. For example, California's law considers non-flavored milk and water as healthy default beverage options, while Baltimore and New York laws also allow 100% juice and flavored milk. Policy can be optimized by clearly defining healthy beverages, bundled children's meals, and what constitutes adherence to the law for online ordering platforms. The study, published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, was conducted by Daniel Zaltz and Sara Benjamin-Neelson of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Danielle Lee, Gail Woodward-Lopez, and Lorrene Ritchie of the Nutrition Policy Institute, and Sara Bleich of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with partial support from a grant from the National Institutes of Health (no. T32DK062707).
- Author: Danielle L. Lee
- Editor: Lorrene Ritchie
Healthy Eating Research (HER), a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, conducted a rapid Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to understand how improving school nutrition standards could impact the nutritional quality of school meals, school meal participation, student dietary consumption, students' health and wellbeing, and academic performance. The HIA features several studies conducted by the Nutrition Policy Institute, including a study showing the effectiveness of removing flavored milk from schools in reducing added sugar intake without compromising the intake of milk-related nutrients. Another showed that schools successfully implemented the school meal nutrition standards per the 2010 Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act. It also features a study showing that limiting competitive foods offered in California schools didn't lead to significant revenue loss and improved schools adherence to nutrition standards. Overall, the HIA evidence reviewed suggests that aligning school meal nutrition standards with the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans could have significant positive implications for child nutrition and health and is likely to increase student participation in school meal programs, improve food security, increase school food service revenue, and improve academic performance.