Tag: children
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Ontario Report Calls for Changes in Food Environment
A panel commissioned by Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care has issued a March 2013 report outlining a three-part strategy designed to curb rising childhood obesity rates by supporting families, changing the food environment and creating healthy communities. Titled “No Time to Wait: The Healthy Kids Strategy,” the report specifically recommends, among other things,…
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New Report Critical of Digital Food Marketing to Children
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity and the Berkeley Media Studies Group have published a report criticizing top cereal manufacturers for allegedly targeting children with “sophisticated online marketing techniques.” Andrew Cheyne, et al., “Marketing Sugary Cereals to Children in the Digital Age: A Content Analysis of 17 Child-Targeted Websites,” Journal of Health Communication,…
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Researchers Examine Effect of Advergames on Children’s Food Intake
Researchers with the University of Amsterdam’s School of Communication Research and Radboud University’s Behavioral Science Institute have published a study examining the effect of advergames on children’s actual food intake. Frans Folkvord, et al., “The effect of playing advergames that promote energy-dense snacks or fruit on actual food intake among children,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,…
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BPA Ban Proposed in New Jersey
Joining the nearly dozen states that have enacted laws to restrict bisphenol A (BPA) in food packaging—particularly with respect to children’s food and beverage containers—New Jersey lawmakers have introduced a bill that would make it illegal to sell or distribute food and beverage containers intended for use by young children that contain the chemical. The bill…
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UK Agency Upholds Complaint Targeting Weetabix App
The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint lodged by the Family and Parenting Institute (FPI) against Weetabix Ltd.’s product-branded app, concluding that the “WeetaKid” game, which prompted players to scan QR codes during game-play, “was persuasive and negative, and could lead children to understand that if they did not eat Weetabix they were…
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USDA Proposes New Rules for Snack Foods in Schools
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed new rules that would regulate the nutritional content of snacks, soft drinks and meals sold in school cafeterias, vending machines and snack bars. According to a USDA news release, the “Smart Snacks in School” proposal draws upon “recommendations from the Institute of Medicine, existing voluntary standards already…
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UK Agency Rules Cereal Ad Does Not Promote “Excessive Consumption”
The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has declined to uphold five complaints alleging that a TV commercial for Weetabix Ltd.’s Weetos breakfast cereal promoted “poor nutritional habits and an unhealthy lifestyle in children, because… it encouraged excessive consumption.” According to ASA, the ad in question showed a child eating Weetos for breakfast and later in…
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SSB Intake Allegedly Alters Cardiometabolic Markers in Children
A recent analysis of young children enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2004 has reportedly claimed that sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption “was independently associated with alterations in lipid profiles, increased markers of inflammation, and increased waist circumference in children.” Ethan Kosova, et al., “The Relationships between Sugar Sweetened Beverage Intake and…