Industry Progress to Market a Healthful Diet to American Children and Adolescents

In a 2005 report, Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity, an IOM expert committee concluded that prevailing food and beverage marketing practices did not support a healthful diet and provided recommendations to guide diverse stakeholders to promote a healthful diet to children and adolescents. This paper reviews the available evidence between December More

What Role Can Child-Care Settings Play in Obesity Prevention? A Review of the Evidence and Call for Research Efforts

This article summarizes the scientific literature on state regulations, practices and policies, and interventions for promoting healthy eating and physical activity, and for preventing obesity in preschool-aged children attending child care. Findings of the review indicate that most states lack strong healthy eating and physical activity regulations for child-care settings. Assessments of child-care settings suggest More

Analyzing the Legal Authority of State Attorneys General to Limit Unfair and Deceptive Digital Food Marketing to Children

Food marketing that employs computers and mobile devices to engage young people has exploded in recent years and can directly target and geo-locate children, often without parental knowledge. State Attorneys General (AGs) have authority to protect the public from Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices (UDAP). Digital marketing that bypasses parents and is designed to More

Evaluating the Impact of a California Statute Regulating Beverages Served in Licensed Child-Care Settings

Because lifelong diet habits are shaped in early childhood, California Food Policy Advocates worked with the California Legislature to successfully pass legislation creating healthy beverage standards for all licensed child-care settings. California is among the first states to establish such standards for licensed child care. This project seeks to evaluate the impact of these standards. More

Examining the Impact of the Sale of Competitive Foods and Beverages in Schools on Adolescent Weight

This study will examine the potential effects of regulating the sale of competitive foods and beverages in schools, a lever which policy-makers may use to positively influence children’s consumption behaviors to reduce the prevalence of obesity among children. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 provides the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) with increased capacity More

Evaluating the Quality of Child-Care Nutrition, Physical Activity and Screen-Time Practices to Inform Policies to Prevent Childhood Obesity

Prior research evaluating children’s diets and physical activity report the need for improvements to ensure their daily nutrition and activity needs are met while in child-care settings. Limited research has examined nutrition and physical activity policies of child-care programs. This study will evaluate the quality of these policies in relation to observed practices, staff awareness More

Framing Messages for Taxes on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages

Evidence indicates that sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes may reduce rates of childhood obesity, particularly among high-risk populations. However, state and local efforts to enact SSB taxes have been unsuccessful, and public opinion research indicates limited support for these policies. Enactment of SSB taxes will be unlikely without public support, yet little research is available to More

Encouraging Consumption of Water in School and Child Care Settings: Access, Challenges, and Strategies for Improvement

Children and adolescents are not consuming enough water. Since children spend most of their day in school and child care settings, ensuring that safe, potable water is available in these settings is essential. This article identifies challenges that limit access to drinking water, including deteriorating drinking water infrastructure, limited drinking water availability, insufficient federal meal More

State Sales Taxes on Soda and Snack Foods

RWJF’s Bridging the Gap hosts a web page highlighting the program’s research related to state-level taxes on snack foods, soda, and other sweetened beverages. State-level sales tax rates are provided for sugar-sweetened soda in each of the 50 states as well as in the District of Columbia (D.C.) as of January 1, 2011. For researchers, More