Category: Issue 510
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Researchers Find Some Populations More Sensitive to Fast Food Price Changes
University of North Carolina Gillings School of Public Health researchers have apparently assessed the “subgroup-specific effects of fast food price changes on fast food consumption and cardiometabolic outcomes,” reporting greater sensitivity to fast food price changes among sociodemographic groups with a disproportionate burden of chronic disease. Katie Meyer, et al., “Sociodemographic Differences in Fast Food…
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Food and Beverage Marketing in Schools Target of New Study
A recent study examining national trends in school nutrition environments has reportedly concluded that “most U.S. elementary, middle and high school students attend schools where they are exposed to commercial efforts aimed at obtaining food or beverage sales or developing brand recognition and loyalty for future sales.” Yvonne Terry-McElrath, et al., “Commercialism in US Elementary…
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Bittman Issues Call to Action on Healthful Food Policies
New York Times op-ed writer Mark Bittman has authored a commentary urging the federal government to adopt policies and incentives to benefit growers and consumers “with products that [are] less damaging to the environment and public health.” Focusing on three broad food categories—“industrially produced animal products,” “junk food” and “real food”—Bittman explains how certain policies…
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CSIRO Uses RFI Sensors to Track Flight of the Honey Bee
The Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) has reportedly launched a new research initiative designed to monitor honey bee behavior using tiny radio frequency identification (RFI) sensors. According to a January 15, 2014, CSIRO news release, researchers have for the first time fitted 5,000 bees in Hobart, Tasmania, with 2.5-by-2.5 millimeter sensors as…
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Report Says UK Obesity Crisis Was Underestimated
A recent report issued by the U.K.’s National Obesity Forum suggests that a 2007 prediction that 50 percent of the British population would be obese by 2050 significantly underestimated the scale of the country’s obesity crisis. Titled “State of the Nation’s Waistline,” the report notes that “it is entirely reasonable to conclude that the determinations…
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Harvard Law School Adopts New Focus on Food Law
According to an article appearing in the January 2014 issue of the Harvard Law Bulletin, Harvard Law School has established a food law and policy clinic in light of “more and more people deeply concerned about what they’re eating and what it means for our health, the economy, the environment, social justice, and even national security.”…
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IOM Issues Caffeine Workshop Summary
The National Academies’ Institute of Medicine (IOM) has issued the summary from an August 5-6, 2013, workshop titled “Caffeine in Food and Dietary Supplements.” Convened at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, workshop participants included “scientists with expertise in food safety, nutrition, pharmacology, psychology, toxicology, and related disciplines; medical professionals with pediatric…
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Food Activist Targets Gatorade Ad in New York AG Complaint
Food activist and blogger Nancy Huehnergarth has reportedly filed a complaint with the New York attorney general (AG) over a purportedly deceptive “viral advertising campaign” from 2013 featuring a mobile game that promoted Gatorade® as a performance enhancer while denigrating water as “the enemy of performance.” According to a news source, gamers using the app…