Research & Publications | Healthy Eating Research

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Potential Prevalence of Front-of-Package Labels on Packaged Foods in a Supermarket Chain in the Northeast United States Under Two Proposed Labeling Systems

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed a mandatory “Nutrition Info” label be placed on the front of packaged foods, showing whether products have low, medium, or high amounts of saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar. The agency has also considered a “High-In” labeling system, which would require labels on products with high levels More

Date: February 2026

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Food Marketing

Perspectives on Messaging Strategies to Increase Participation in Universal Free School Meal Programs: A Qualitative Study With Parents of Elementary School-Aged Children

At least eight U.S. states currently offer universal free school meal programs, providing meals at no cost to all students regardless of household income. While marketing campaigns may help increase student participation, limited research has examined what message content and design most effectively motivate parents to encourage school meal use. This qualitative study explored parents’ More

Date: December 2025

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Food Marketing School & After School

Upstream interventions in clinical settings focused on nutrition to prevent obesity during the first 1,000 days: A scoping review

Nutritional exposures during pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s life influence growth and risk for obesity. Upstream interventions that involve policy, systems, and/or environmental approaches may support equitable nutrition and healthy growth early in life. Yet little is known about application of these interventions in clinical settings. This scoping review characterized the More

Date: October 2025

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Diet Quality & Healthy Weight Early Childhood

Diet Quality and Weight Status are Predicted by Federal Nutrition Assistance Program Participation, Health, and Demographics

This study investigated whether demographic, social, and economic determinants of health, including length of time participating in safety net programs, are associated with diet quality and weight status in early childhood. Using the WIC infant and toddler feeding practices study-2, classification and regression tree identified the sequence of binary splits that best differentiated the sample More

A Meta-Ethnography to Determine Critical Constructs of Nutrition Security

This meta-ethnography aimed to examine and thematically analyze relevant qualitative studies to create a nutrition security conceptual framework. Following the 7-step process for a meta-ethnography, 6,831 studies were screened and eligible papers relating to nutrition security were included. Two researchers independently read and extracted data from each paper. This information was then combined, and 2 More

Date: March 2025

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Diet Quality & Healthy Weight

Managing Sophisticated Fraud in Online Research

Researchers increasingly conduct online surveys or experiments. Unfortunately, online approaches can attract fraudulent respondents from individuals who are ineligible, but respond to distort results or obtain study incentives. This can be difficult to detect. This paper aims to share lessons learned from a recent online study to support other researchers.

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Date: February 2025

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Food Marketing

Estimating Young Children’s Exposure to Food and Beverage Marketing on Mobile Devices

Food and beverage marketing drives poor diet quality and obesity risk among children. However, it is unknown how much young children are exposed to digital food and beverage marketing on mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. The objective of this study was to estimate how frequently young children, who are particularly vulnerable to advertising, view More

Keywords: Digital marketing

Date: December 2024

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Food Marketing

Evidence-Based Recommendations to Mitigate Harms from Digital Food Marketing to Children Ages 2-17

Digital food and beverage marketing is embedded in nearly every platform children use (websites, mobile apps, social media, video sharing, gaming, streaming TV), promoting unhealthy foods and beverages, which is harming children’s health. Healthy Eating Research convened an expert panel to develop evidence-based recommendations for actions to mitigate harms from digital food marketing to children More

Keywords: Digital marketing

Date: October 2024

Resource Type: Expert Panel Report

Focus Areas: Food Marketing

Centering equity in FDA regulation: Front-of-package food label effects in Latino and limited English proficiency populations

This project aims to determine the front-of-package label design that is most effective at helping Latino consumers identify and choose healthier products. The project also aims to explore whether the benefits of front-of-package design differ by English proficiency. Participants will include 4,000 US adults of parental age (18-55 years old) who identify as Latino. Participants More

Date: March 2024

Resource Type: Commissioned Research Project Summary

Focus Areas: Beverages Food Marketing

Toddler milk: a scoping review of research on consumption, perceptions, and marketing practices

Toddler milk is an ultra-processed beverage consisting primarily of powdered milk, caloric sweeteners, and vegetable oil. Pediatric health authorities do not support the use of toddler milk, and emerging evidence suggests that toddler-milk marketing practices may mislead consumers. However, studies have not synthesized the extent of toddler-milk marketing practices or how these practices affect parents’ More

Date: February 2024

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Beverages Early Childhood Food Marketing