Food Prices and Body Fatness among Youths

This paper examines the effects of food prices on clinical measures of obesity, including body mass index (BMI) and percentage body fat (PBF) measures derived from bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), among youths ages 12 to 18. Using three waves of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data (1999-2000, More

Effects of Changes in Lunch-Time Competitive Foods, Nutrition Practices, and Nutrition Policies on Low-Income Middle-School Children’s Diets

This article discusses the results of the School Nutrition Advances Kids (SNAK) project which examined the effectiveness of various nutrition interventions on the diets of lower-income middle school students in Michigan. Schools were randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups: 1) completed an assessment of nutrition education policies and environments using the Healthy School More

Framing the Consequences of Childhood Obesity to Increase Public Support for Obesity Prevention Policy

This paper examines the effects of messages describing consequences of childhood obesity on Americans’ attitudes about obesity prevention policy and compares these attitudes by political ideology (conservative, moderate, and liberal). Using data from two nationally representative internet-based surveys with adult participants, researchers found that respondents considered several consequences of childhood obesity to be strong justification More

Healthy Characters? An Investigation of Marketing Practices in Children’s Food Advertising

This article assesses the nutritional quality of foods that are advertised with familiar children’s characters. It also examines how frequently familiar characters are paired with health messages in these advertisement. A total of 577 food advertisements that were aired on the most popular broadcast and cable channels during 2011 were included in the study. Researchers More

Meaningful, Measurable, and Manageable Approaches to Evaluating Healthy Food Financing Initiatives: An Overview of Resources and Approaches

Healthy food financing initiatives are a relatively new approach to improve access to healthy foods, enabling healthy food retailers to locate or renovate food outlets in underserved communities through one-time financing assistance. This paper provides guidance on using meaningful, measurable, and manageable methods to evaluate healthy food financing efforts. The authors outline a number of More

Validity of Secondary Retail Food Outlet Data: A Systematic Review

To characterize retail food environments and identify areas with limited retail access, researchers, government programs, and community advocates have primarily used secondary retail food outlet data sources. This systematic review examines the evidence for validity reported for secondary retail food outlet data sources for characterizing retail food environments. A literature search was conducted through December More

Community-Based Interventions in Prepared-Food Sources: A Systematic Review

Foods purchased from prepared food sources (ready-to-eat foods that can be eaten outside the home or brought back or delivered to the home to eat) are now a major part of the American diet and are linked to increased rates of overweight and chronic disease. Prepared food sources may be an important venue for obesity-prevention More

Impact of the Revised Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Food Package Policy on Fruit and Vegetable Prices

In 2009, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) was modified to align the WIC food packages with the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. As part of the revisions, WIC added a fruit and vegetable (F/V) voucher to the food packages. This paper describes a quasi-experimental study that examined whether F/V More