August 2008 - Child obesity: what can be done and who will do it?

Lobstein T.
The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 2008. 67(3):301-6

Dietary behaviour is strongly influenced by the dietary environment, shaped by food supplies, investment policies and advertising, to create an obesogenic food market. Substantial resources have been invested in food production of a sort that does not promote better health; agriculture and food supply sectors have benefited from decades of public-sector support, but this practice has encouraged the production of meat, dairy, oils and sugar and the withdrawal from sale of fruit, vegetables and fish. The result is an 'obesogenic economy', i.e. a market economy that encourages weight gain, in which children are a prime target.

Interventions in the obesogenic market need to be considered and several opportunities are described in the present paper. Recent moves to strengthen national and international food policies aimed to promote healthier behaviour have been undertaken, but they will need political support if they are to be fully implemented. Alliances of public health interests can help to create that political support and promote health-enhancing environments.

June 2, 2008 - Study finds positive link between childhood nutrition and literacy

What children eat affects more than their health - it impacts their future. New research conducted by Paul Veugelers, a professor at the University of Alberta, has shown that overall diet quality affects academic performance. Click here for more information.

January 23, 2008 - Cooking lessons to be made compulsory in UK schoolsAs part of the UK government's child obesity strategy, compulsory cooking lessons for teenagers at schools in England are on the menu. From this September, every 11 to 14-year-old in the 85% of schools currently offering food technology classes will be taught practical cookery. The remaining 15% of secondaries will be expected to teach the compulsory classes by 2011.

Download the government's full Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives strategy here. Or the press release here.

December 28, 2007 - Children in the Gobi Desert are better fed than ours. With few exceptions, Toronto schools feed our kids crap. Toronto Life article by James Chatto.

One hot, healthy meal a day is surely the minimum every Canadian child deserves. When that requirement has been met, we can start to repair the broken connection between our children and healthy food, teaching them why it’s important, why local and seasonal ingredients are a good thing, and how best to cook them. We can point out how hunger leads to anger, despondency and an inability to learn, and how eating together is a fundamental part of any successful culture. Having gone to school in England makes me a child of privilege in the Canadian context, because I was guaranteed lunch along with my fractions and Latin verbs. I would love to see all Toronto children turn up their noses at roast lamb and peas because they were too full to care.

December 12, 2007 - Food companies sign EU ad pledgeAn alliance of food companies including Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Mars and Burger King have signed a European Union pledge to stop marketing junk food to children under 12 years old.

The group of 11 companies, which represent more than 50% of the food and beverage advertising spend in the EU, have agreed to stop running junk food ads on TV, in print and on the internet to under-12s by the end of 2008.

November 29, 2007 - ONE X ONE children's charity and Assembly of First Nations announces investment in National First Nations School Nutrition Program

ONE X ONE Foundation, a charitable organization committed to fighting poverty and preserving the lives of children in Canada and around the world, and the Assembly of First Nations, the national organization representing First Nations citizens in Canada, today announced
the launch of "National First Nations School Nutrition Program", a national
outreach initiative designed to provide First Nations children who live in
poverty with a school nutrition program. Ten First Nations schools and
communities across Canada will benefit from the investment beginning in
January 2008, with more schools scheduled to participate over the next year.

November 21, 2007 - Regulating and Litigating in the Public Interest: Regulating Food Marketing to Young People Worldwide: Trends and Policy DriversThe pressure to regulate the marketing of high-energy, nutrient-poor foods to young people has been mounting in light of concern about rising worldwide levels of overweight and obesity.In 2004, the World Health Organization called on governments, industry, and civil society to act to reduce unhealthy marketing messages. Since then, important changes have taken place in the global regulatory environment regarding the marketing of food to young people. Industry has developed self-regulatory approaches, civil society has campaigned for statutory restrictions, and governments have dealt with a range of regulatory proposals.

Still, there have been few new regulations that restrict food marketing to young people. Despite calls for evidence-based policy, new regulatory developments appear to have been driven less by evidence than by ethics.

Corrina Hawke's article appears in the American Journal of Public Health (November 2007, Vol 97, No. 11)

November 1, 2007 - Eat Right Be Active resourcesDeveloped by the Nutrition Resource Centre as part of Ontario’s Action Plan for Healthy Eating and Active Living, these resources aim to assist families, caregivers and professionals to support healthy eating and physical activity in the early years.

* Eat Right Be Active A guide for parents and caregivers
of preschoolers ages 3 - 5

* Eat Right Be Active A guide for parents and caregivers
of children ages 6 - 8

October 26, 2007 - BREAKFAST FOR LEARNING's 2007 Report Card on Nutrition for School Children gives Canadian children and adolescents a "D" when it comes to meeting the recommendations of the new 2007 Canada's Food Guide. The 2007 Report Card looks at children and adolescents (aged 4 to 18) to see how well they meet the recommended number of daily servings of Vegetables and Fruit, Milk and Alternatives and Grain Products.

This is the second year BREAKFAST FOR LEARNING has developed and released a Report Card on Nutrition for School Children and while the 2007 report shows that Canadian children and adolescents of all ages are doing well when it comes to milk and milk alternatives, there are serious areas of concern.
*Only 50% are getting the minimum number of servings per day of Vegetables and Fruit
*75% are not meeting the new Canada's Food Guide recommendations for Grain Products
*28% are eating French fries 2 or more times a week

There's a good reason why environmentalists should be interested in what children and teenagers eat. It has everything to do with their understanding and respect - for themselves, and ultimately for nature.Unfortunately, as Debbie Field, executive director of FoodShare in Toronto, points out, Canada is facing a crisis with so many young people who are overfed and undernourished, who are uninformed and unconcerned.

The only way people can get vitamins and minerals is to eat them. So, FoodShare is mounting a campaign to include food literacy in the curriculum for elementary and secondary schools.

Sept. 19, 2007 - B.C. Fruit and veggie program expands to 164 schoolsThe Province’s School Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program is expanding to include 164 B.C. schools, Gordon Hogg, Minister of State for ActNow BC, announced. Following the initial expansion in January of this year, ActNow BC, with funding from the ministries of Agriculture and Lands, Education, and Health, has committed to providing the fruit and vegetable program to an additional 113 schools, for a total of 164 schools, this fall.

The goal for the program is to offer every public school in B.C. the opportunity to participate in the program by 2010. The School Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program is part of the Province’s ActNow BC initiative to make B.C. the healthiest jurisdiction ever to host an Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

August 17, 2007 - President's Cancer Panel calls for regulation of food marketing to children. 2006-2007 Annual Report: Promoting Healthy Lifestyles Policy, Program, and Personal Recommendations for Reducing Cancer Risk. Enable effective regulation of food advertising, particularly in conjunction with children's television programming and in all other media targeting children. Voluntary efforts by the food and restaurant industries are a step in the right direction, but do not go far enough and lack governmental oversight.

Coordinate U.S. agricultural subsidy and public health policy related
to diet and nutrition to improve the food supply and help ensure
that all people have access to affordable, healthy food. Specifically:

4. Regulate and monitor food advertising in media targeting children.

July 19, 2007 - Early Child Development : A Powerful Equalizer. From the World Health Organization.

The early years of life are crucial in influencing a range of health and social outcomes across the lifecourse. Research now shows that many challenges in adult society—mental health problems, obesity/stunting, heart disease, criminality, competence in literacy and numeracy—have their roots in early childhood. Economists now assert on the basis of the available evidence that investment in early childhood is the most powerful investment a country can make, with returns over the lifecourse many times the amount of the original investment. Governments can make major and sustained improvements in society by implementing policies that take note of this powerful body of research while, at the same time, fulfilling their obligations under the un Convention on the Rights of the Child.

May 21, 2007 - Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing: Targeting Children & Youth in the Digital AgeThe Berkeley Media Studies Group and the Center for Digital Democracy released a new report that documents how major food, soft drink and fast food brands are deploying a panoply of new techniques--including cell phones, instant messaging, video games, user-generated video, and three-dimensional virtual worlds--to target children and adolescents, often under the radar of parents.

Examples cited in the report include:
* Coca-Cola's "My Coke Rewards" program offers special codes in its products that enable young people to access a website, where they can earn such rewards as downloadable ring tones and "amazing sports and entertainment experiences."
* Food marketers are commercializing online communities by aggressively moving into MySpace and other social networking sites. One technique is to create "branded profiles" that invite children and teens to become "friends" with popular spokescharacters.

May 11, 2007 - Artificial Food Additives Linked to Children’s Behavioral Problems
In a new study that may have major implications for the food industry, scientists at the University of Southampton have found what they believe is a definitive link between artificial food additives and hyperactivity and restlessness in young children. The research was commissioned by Britain’s Food Standards Agency. Researchers tested six artificial colorings; tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104), and allura red AC (E129) and one preservative, sodium benzoate. All of the tested chemicals were associated with some sort of medical risk, including hyperactivity, mood swings, asthma, allergic reactions, and intolerance.

May 11, 2007 - As Child Obesity Surges, One Town Finds Ways to Slim. Read about one U.S. town's efforts to tackle childhood obesity.

Wall Street Journal -
"Most people think the battle against obesity takes willpower. But the town of Somerville knows it takes the will of an entire community. Sparked by a desire to curb childhood obesity, this town of 78,000 has undergone a subtle yet dramatic transformation in the past five years. Restaurants have switched to low-fat milk and smaller portion sizes. The school district has nearly doubled the amount of fresh fruit at lunch."

May 10, 2007 - Child poverty – this is not as good as it gets. Globe and Mail article by Laurel Rothman and Armine Yalnizyan.

"Canada's child and family poverty rate is down to 11.7 per cent in the latest Statistics Canada report, released last week. So why aren't anti-poverty activists breaking out the bubbly? Because that rate is exactly what it was in 1989, when parliamentarians unanimously declared it unacceptable, vowing to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000. It is always welcome news when the child poverty rate turns downward, but it's not time to celebrate something that was unacceptable a few years ago. In 1989, the Canadian economy had just begun to climb out of its deepest recession since the 1930s. Today, the economy is firing on all cylinders in most parts of the country, and it's been that way for years. Why such willingness to write off the fortunes of almost 12 per cent of this generation of children in a country that's enjoying such economic fortune? We don't believe this as good as it gets."

April 30, 2007 - Medical Associations Launch Canada's Child Health Initiative

The Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Paediatric Society and the College of Family Physicians of Canada launched Canada's Child Health Iniative (CHI). Following the recent Child Health Summit three documents were developed to deliver on the goals:
*The Child and Youth Health Charter
*The Child and Youth Health Challenge
*The Child Health Declaration

Immediate priorities for action:
*The Creation of a Commissioner for Canada's Children and Youth to advise, investigate, coordinate and report annually on the health and well-being of Canadian Children
*The Establishment of specific Child Health Goals,Targets and Policies to focus efforts, actions and investments as well measure and evaluate progress.
*The Development of an Aboriginal Child and Youth Strategy to address the special need of First Nations, Inuit and Métis children and youth.

April 27, 2007 - TV food ads increase obese children's appetite by 134%.

Advertisers know it, now a new study appears to prove it. Food ads make children want to overeat. University of Liverpool psychologists showed 59 children 10 food and 10 toy ads followed by a Scooby-Doo cartoon and then allowed the children to eat a range of snacks at will, from green grapes to potato chips and "chocolate buttons." Across the whole group, total calorie intake was significantly higher after the food ads, even among normal weight children. But among the overweight and obese, caloric intake at least doubled. What's more, none of the foods the children were allowed to eat were the ones advertised.

April 25, 2007 - The Institute of Medicine released a new report, Nutrition Standards for Healthy Schools: Leading the Way toward Healthier Youth. The standards call for:
*Tap water and healthy foods to be available in all schools
*Other foods meeting similar nutrient limits (like baked potato chips, sports drinks and diet soft drinks) to be available only in high schools and, often, only after school
*In-school food marketing promotions to be restricted
*Food not to be used to reward good behaviour and academic achievement.
(Click here to read it online)

Read the comment on the IOM report by the Centre for Science in the Public Interest.

April 16, 2007 - Food Industry Announces Children's Food Initiative
Under the new Canadian Children's Food & Beverage Advertising Initiative, 15 leading Canadian food and beverage companies will devote at least 50 per cent of their ads directed to children under 12 toward the promotion of healthy dietary choices and/or active living messages. New interpretation guidelines for children's food and beverage advertising have also been added to the Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children and the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards.

Commentary -
The up side:
What's encouraging is that the new guidelines state that all children's ads should be directed "with a view toward the healthy development of the child". This is the first time that child health has been mentioned in the codes.

The down side:
*Children's ad regulation still focuses only on individual ads rather than looking at the compound effects of the broader marketing environment.
*The inability of younger children to objectively evaluate ads still isn't addressed.
*There is no enforcement of ad regulations in media other than TV.
*There is no requirement for those in Advertising Standards Canada that are involved in applying the rules to have any formal expertise in child health or public health.

April 13, 2007 - From Tastes Great to Cool: Children’s Food Marketing and the Rise of the Symbolic
Juliet Schor and Margaret Ford. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics

* While industry has resolutely resisted increased healthy advertising, children’s advocates should stress the necessity of reducing screen time, getting food marketing out of schools, and cleaning up the internet.
* Children’s exposure to food marketing has exploded in recent years, along with rates of obesity and overweight. Children of color and from low-income families are disproportionately at risk for both marketing exposure and overweight.
* Comprehensive reviews of the literature show that advertising is effective in changing children’s food preferences and diets. Food ads are at the center of themes such as finding an identity, and feeling powerful and in control. These themes are so potent because they are central to children in their development and constitution of self.
* Reduction of exposure to marketing will undoubtedly be a central part of any successful anti-obesity strategy.

March 28, 2007 - New study released from the Kaiser Family Foundation on the content of TV ads to children, Food for Thought: Television Food Advertising to Children in the United States.

- Tweens ages 8-12 see the most food ads on TV, an average of 21 ads a day, or more than 7,600 a year.
- Children ages 2-7 see the least number of food ads, at 12 food ads a day, or 4,400 a year.
- For each age group studied, food was the top product seen advertised.
- 32% of all ads seen by 2-7 year olds were for food
- Of all food ads in the study that target children or teens, 34% are for candy and snacks, 28% are for cereal, and 10% are for fast foods. Four percent are for dairy products and 1% for fruit juices.
- Of the 8,854 ads reviewed in the study, there were none for fruits or vegetables targeting children or teens.

"The Health Committee report calls on the federal government to move quickly to utilize the positive message of the Olympics to halt the increase in childhood obesity by the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. The Committee has also identified three key action items that can be immediately undertaken by the federal government to stem the occurrence of childhood obesity. They include:
- A comprehensive public awareness campaign
- Mandatory, standardized, simple front of package labelling
- The removal of trans fats from the Canadian diet, replaced with an alternative low in saturated fat"

March 26, 2007 - The Council for Early Child Development published the Early Years Study 2: Putting Science into Action, a follow up to the 1999 Mustard/McCain Early Years Study.

This second report focuses on the scientific evidence supporting the importance of early learning and care. The findings affirm that experience-based brain development in the early years of life sets neurological and biological pathways that affect lifelong health, learning, and behaviour.

March 22, 2007 - A bill was introduced into the House of Commons to prohibit all advertising to children. (Read the bill here.) MP Peter Julian (Burnaby-New Westminster, NDP) introduced the bill with these comments:

"What we see with children is an overload of commercials and advertising. Essentially, the bill would ban commercial advertising or promotion of products such as fast foods, drugs, cosmetics, and devices aimed at children younger than 13. This type of bill has already been in place in Quebec. We have found that the bill in Quebec has led to 3.5 million to 8.1 million fewer fast food meals being consumed by Quebec residents. This worked in Quebec to reduce junk food consumption."

March 16, 2007 - The UK Food Commission's Guide to Children's Food
Children deserve the best food and drink we can provide, but research shows that most children are eating too much saturated fat, sugar and salt, and not enough vegetables and fruit.

So what can parents and others who care for children do? We can learn what to watch out for. This poster aims to help you understand the tricks of the trade and to sort the good from the bad.

March 11, 2007 -
Evaluation of Food Industry Promises to Address Childhood Obesity

Published in the Journal of Public Health Policy, the authors conclude: "Government agencies, consumer advocates, lawyers, and investment analysts have all placed food companies on notice that childhood obesity requires new business practices. In response, companies have tinkered with product formulas and promised to shift marketing efforts toward "healthier" products, while continuing to make and promote unhealthier versions. This "we offer choice" business strategy suggests that food companies cannot resolve the childhood obesity dilemma on their own. For business reasons alone, they cannot – and will not – stop making and marketing nutritionally questionable food products to children. We see no way out of this dilemma except through regulatory intervention."

March 6, 2007 - Child Poverty in Ontario, Promises to Keep published today by Ontario Campaign 2000. Highlights:

—Ontario's child poverty rate is 17.4% - an increase from 15.1% in 2001 despite strong economic growth.
—Low income families are living in deeper poverty now than 12 years ago. An average low-income single parent family lives approximately $9,500 below the poverty line.
—Provincial benefits to lone parents on social assistance have dropped by 43% over the past 10 years; about 90% of these parents are lone mothers.

March 2, 2007 - Cases of diabetes have risen so dramatically in Ontario - and likely the rest of Canada - that the proportion of adults with the disease has already surpassed the World Health Organization's predicted global rate for a quarter-century from now, researchers say. Rates of diabetes grew most rapidly in people under the age of 50, especially young women. Poor diet, obesity and lack of physical activity are blamed.
› Go to the source - the Lancet study

Tell the Ontario Government how to improve Ontarians' health!
McGuinty Government is holding public consultations on the future of health care in March 2007
› Click here for information on locations and registration