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Online restaurant meal ordering platforms in three U.S. cities do not adequately adhere to healthy default beverage laws for children’s meals
Published on: February 16, 2023

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).

Focus Area Tags: Family, Food, Health
Tags: Danielle Lee (26), Gail Woodward-Lopez (23), healthy beverage policies (7), healthy beverages (10), Lorrene Ritchie (105), peer reviewed publication (76), policy (29), retail food environments (15)
Study finds that SNAP-Ed interventions modified during the COVID-19 pandemic increased student fruit and vegetable intake
Published on: January 30, 2023

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed), known as CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL) in California, is the largest nutrition education program in the United States. CFHL supports healthy eating and active living in eligible California communities through direct education and policy, systems, and environmental changes, with a large portion of program activities taking place in schools. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced K-12 school closures, school-based in-person CFHL programming was adapted for online delivery. A new study examined the impact of modified CFHL program delivery during COVID-19 on dietary intake and physical activity among students in 47 intervention and 17 comparison schools. Researchers found that participation in CFHL during school closures significantly increased student fruit and vegetable intake. Findings demonstrate the protective effect of comprehensive nutrition and physical activity education programs during emergency social distancing measures. This study, published in the Public Health Nutrition journal, was conducted by Amanda Linares, Kaela Plank, Sridharshi Hewawitharana, and Gail Woodward-Lopez of the Nutrition Policy Institute with funding from the USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education.

Focus Area Tags: Family, Food, Health
Tags: Amanda Linares (7), COVID-19 (43), Gail Woodward-Lopez (23), Kaela Plank (9), Miranda Westfall (3), peer-reviewed publication (2), schools (35), SNAP-Ed (20), Sridharshi Hewawitharana (20)
Research brief on study that identified limited implementation of California’s Healthy Default Beverage law
Published on: November 4, 2022

A new research brief developed by the Nutrition Policy Institute describes a study that identified limited implementation of California's Healthy Default Beverage Law (SB 1192) for orders made online. The law requires restaurants selling children's meals that include a beverage to make the default beverage water, sparkling water, flavored water with no added natural or artificial sweeteners, or unflavored milk or non-dairy milk alternative. Researchers randomly sampled 226 fast food restaurants located in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) eligible census tracts in California and “ordered” 631 kids' meals from restaurant websites and three popular online ordering platforms. Researchers recorded beverage offerings as well as additional charges (“upcharges”) for beverages. Findings indicate that only 6% of orders reflected optimal implementation of the Healthy-by-Default Beverage law. Further, 41% of orders that offered water had an upcharge ($0.51 on average) and 11% of orders that offered unflavored milk had an up charge ($0.38 on average). No observations had upcharges for soda. The findings indicate that, in order to support California's SNAP-Ed goal for reducing sugar sweetened beverage intake, specific language, monitoring, and future legislation may be necessary to ensure the law is applied to online-ordering and in-restaurant self-service kiosks. The study and research brief were authored by NPI's Cal Fresh Healthy Living Evaluation Unit, including Hannah Thompson, Ron Strochlic, Sonali Singh, Kaela Plank, Anna Martin, and Gail Woodward-Lopez.

Focus Area Tags: Family, Food, Health
Tags: Gail Woodward-Lopez (23), Hannah Thompson (18), healthy beverages (10), peer reviewed publication (76), policy (29), research brief (21), Ron Strochlic (20), SNAP-ED (20), sugar-sweetened beverages (25)
Nutrition Policy Institute to share research findings at the 150th American Public Health Association Annual Meeting
Published on: September 8, 2022

The American Public Health Association holds an Annual Meeting & Expo for public health professionals to engage, collaborate, and network with the overarching goal of advancing the nation's health. This year's meeting in Boston, November 6-9, 2022 will celebrate 150 Years of Creating the Healthiest Nation: Leading the Path Toward Equity. Nutrition Policy Institute researchers will share findings that bring nutrition equity to the forefront of federal programs, school nutrition, community health, health literacy, and the food retail environment. A list of the poster presentations and live oral presentations is found below. 

Retail food environment: 

School meals: 

SNAP-Ed: 

WIC: 

Other: 

Focus Area Tags: Family, Food, Health
Tags: CalFresh Healthy Living (21), Caroline Long (5), Carolyn Chelius (5), Carolyn Rider (9), Christina Becker (7), Christina Hecht (58), conferences (43), equity (2), Erin Esaryk (8), Evan Talmage (7), Gail Woodward-Lopez (23), Hannah Thompson (18), Janice Kao (15), Ken Hecht (20), Lorrene Ritchie (105), Marisa Tsai (27), Monica Zuercher (9), physical activity (3), retail food environments (15), school meals (46), schools (35), SNAP-Ed (20), Sridharshi Hewawitharana (20), Wendi Gosliner (62), WIC (42)
NPI researchers present at ASN’s Nutrition Live Online 2022 on improvements to WIC to support participant food security and on access to school meals during COVID-19
Published on: June 8, 2022

The American Society for Nutrition's annual conference, Nutrition 2022 Live Online, happens virtually June 14-16, 2022. Nutrition Policy Institute researchers will share results at the conference from their latest studies on the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. Marisa Tsai will speak about ‘Larger WIC Cash Value Benefit for Vegetables and Fruit Is Associated With Lower Food Insecurity and Improved Participant Satisfaction in WIC Families With Children'; co-authors include Lorrene Ritchie from NPI. Amanda Linares will present a poster on ‘Association of Frequency of School Meal Consumption and Student Dietary Intake during COVID-related School Closures'; co-authors include Kaela Plank, Sridharshi Hewawitharana and Gail Woodward-Lopez from NPI. Both Tsai and Linares' presentations are available on-demand. University of California, Davis graduate student Alana Chaney will present live, online a poster on ‘Addressing Barriers to WIC Participation During COVID-19: A Qualitative Examination of California WIC Participants and Local Agency Directors'; co-authors include Lorrene Ritchie, Marisa Tsai and Nicole Vitale of NPI.

Focus Area Tags: Family, Food, Health
Tags: Amanda Linares (7), conferences (43), COVID-19 (43), Gail Woodward-Lopez (23), Kaela Plank (9), Lorrene Ritchie (105), Marisa Tsai (27), Nicole Vitale (7), school meals (46), Sridharshi Hewawitharana (20), WIC (42)
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