Food and Beverage Marketing to Children and Adolescents: An Environment at Odds with Good Health? A Research Synthesis

Children in the United States grow up in environments saturated by food and beverage marketing, the bulk of it for foods low in nutrients and high in calories, sugars, salt and fat. Food and beverage companies reach children and adolescents using integrated marketing communications strategies, which encompass all forms of communication about products and services. More

Food Marketing in the Digital Age: A Conceptual Framework and Agenda for Research

This report provides a brief summary of how digital marketing works and the role it plays in promoting unhealthy food and beverages to children. Detailed in the report are key concepts of digital marketing; implications for young people’s health; challenges digital marketing concepts raise for researchers; and relevant theoretical models for understanding how the new More

Child and Adolescent Fast-Food Choice and the Influence of Calorie Labeling: A Natural Experiment

This article examines children’s and adolescents’ fast-food choices and the influence of calorie labels on adolescent and parent food choice in lower-income communities in New York City (NYC) and Newark, New Jersey (comparison city) before and after mandatory menu labeling began in NYC. Researchers found no statistically significant differences in calories purchased before and after More

Understanding the Rural Food Environment–Perspectives of Low-Income Parents

This article focuses on the food environment and food shopping habits of lower-income residents in rural Maine. Focus groups were conducted with lower-income parents of children enrolled in Medicaid/State Children’s Health Insurance Program in Maine to ask them about their food shopping habits, the barriers they faced when trying to obtain food, places where they More

Exploring Ways to Strengthen the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to Improve Nutrition for Low-Income Children

The objective of this research is to conduct a comprehensive survey of stakeholder groups to identify barriers and opportunities for improving nutrition in the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The survey will be designed with input from key informant interviews and distributed to over 500 key stakeholders involved with SNAP and other food assistance More

Survey of Child Care Providers of 2-5 Year Old Children

The survey was designed to be self-completed by child-care providers of 2-5 year old children at preschools, centers or family daycare homes. Adapted from the NAP SACC tool validated by Benjamin et al (2007), it assesses practices related to both feeding (28 items) and physical activity (13 items). Added was a frequency checklist of 21 More

Food Insecurity and Weight Status Among U.S. Children and Families: A Review of the Literature

Food insecurity disproportionately affects U.S. demographic groups of children and adults at greatest risk for obesity and may lead to weight gain through various pathways. This article presents a comprehensive summary of the current literature on the relationship between food insecurity and weight status, and the role federal food and nutrition assistance programs may play More

Relative Contribution of Energy Intake and Energy Expenditure to Childhood Obesity: A Review of the Literature and Directions for Future Research

Understanding the relative importance of overconsumption and physical inactivity to excess weight gain among children and adolescents can contribute to the development and evaluation of interventions and policies to reduce childhood obesity. However, there has been debate on whether energy intake or energy expenditure is the dominant contributor to childhood obesity. This review article evaluated More

Poverty, Food Insecurity, and Obesity: A Conceptual Framework for Research, Practice, and Policy

Recent trends in food insecurity in the United States parallel population increases in obesity. Historically, food insecurity and obesity have been viewed as distinct public health issues. However, since the mid-1990s, there has been growing interest in understanding the seemingly paradoxical relationship between these two issues. In this paper, the authors summarize findings from research More