Focus Area: Diet Quality & Healthy Weight

Dietary Quality of Americans by Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation Status: A Systematic Review

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This paper provides a systematic review of recent U.S. studies on dietary quality, food consumption, and spending among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants as compared to income-eligible and higher-income nonparticipants. Twenty-five studies that were peer reviewed, published between January 2003 and August 2014, and provided data on dietary quality and intake of SNAP participants More

Unsavory Choices: The High Sodium Density of U.S. Chain Restaurant Foods

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Drawing from a larger study on restaurant nutrition, this cross-sectional study reports on the sodium density of 30,073 menu items from 237 unique U.S. chain restaurant brands in 2010. Sodium density, defined as mg sodium per 1000 kcal, was evaluated with descriptive statistics and stratified by restaurant characteristics (service model and cuisine), menu type (regular More

Barriers to Equity in Nutritional Health for U.S. Children and Adolescents: A Review of the Literature

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This review summarizes growing evidence of disparities in the social and physical environments of U.S. children and adolescents that likely contribute to increased risk for obesity and poor nutrition. The review examines literature on disparities in nutrition and healthy food access in school, child-care, and residential neighborhood environments, food production and marketing practices, and cultural More

News Media Coverage of Trans Fat: Health Risks and Policy Responses

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This study analyzed news media coverage of trans fat in the U.S. food supply in the two largest circulation U.S. newspapers and three major television networks from 1998 to 2008. Using content analysis methods, researchers examined the agenda-setting and framing functions of the news media in shaping perceptions about the health risks of trans fat. More

A Review of Snacking Patterns Among Children and Adolescents: What are the Implications of Snacking for Weight Status?

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Given the growing contributions of snacks to dietary intake and the need for effective strategies to reduce and prevent obesity, it is important to consider whether snacking behaviors are associated with high body mass index (BMI) in childhood. This review summarizes U.S. research that has examined trends in snacking behaviors and its contributions to dietary More

Associations of Food Stamp Participation with Dietary Quality and Obesity in Children

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Studies suggest that participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—the largest federal nutrition assistance program in the U.S.—may be associated with suboptimal dietary patterns among adults, but these associations have not been extensively examined among children. This paper discusses the results of a study that examined the overall dietary quality among a national sample More

Contextual Influences on Eating Behaviours: Heuristic Processing and Dietary Choices

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Over the past few decades, behavioral economics, social psychology, and neuroscience research has suggested that people are often irrational and their choices are frequently the consequence of automatic, hard-wired, instinctual processes made without conscious awareness. This paper reviews some of the evidence that dietary behaviors are, in large part, the consequence of automatic response to More