AP, Marilynn Marchione, December 1, 2011
It’s true — apple juice can pose a risk to your health. But not necessarily from the trace amounts of arsenic that people are arguing about.
Despite the government’s consideration of new limits on arsenic, nutrition experts say apple juice’s real danger is to waistlines and children’s teeth. Apple juice has few natural nutrients, lots of calories and, in some cases, more sugar than soda has. It trains a child to like very sweet things, displaces better beverages and foods, and adds to the obesity problem, …

CBC News, December 1, 2011
Less than 10 per cent of entrees at children’s hospitals in the U.S. were considered “healthy,” a new study finds.
In the study, researchers used a nutritional scale to assess meals at 12 children’s hospitals in California. The researchers modified a widely-used nutrition tool to assess hospital cafeteria meals. Jeff Baughan/Associated Press
“Unfortunately, the food in many hospitals is no better — and in some cases worse — than what you would find in a fast food restaurant,” Dr. Lenard Lesser, the study’s primary investigator and a physician …

CNN Madison Park, November 30, 2011
Goodbye, free plastic toys inside Happy Meals — at least in one major California city.
A new San Francisco law goes into effect on Thursday that prevents fast-food restaurants from giving away trinkets, action figures and other toys in their kid’s meals unless their food meets nutritional requirements.
And McDonald’s kid’s meals do not. The meals have to be less than 600 calories and contain fruits (a half-cup) and vegetables (3/4 of a cup). They must have less than 35% of the total calories coming from fat, …

Associated Press/The Washington Post, November 29, 2011
The case of an 8-year-old third-grader weighing more than 200 pounds has renewed a debate on whether parents should lose custody if a child is severely obese.
Roughly 2 million U.S. children are extremely obese — weighing significantly more than what’s considered healthy.
A Cleveland Heights boy was taken from his family and was placed in foster care in October after county case workers said his mother wasn’t doing enough to control his weight. The boy, at his weight, is considered at risk for developing such …

Subway posters map how far you’d have to walk to burn off the calories from just one sugary drink
Oct. 24, 2011 – New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley today unveiled a new Health Department education campaign that describes how drinking just one 20 ounce soda a day translates to eating 50 pounds of sugar a year. The 30-second TV spot will air on major broadcast and cable TV stations over the next two months as a stark reminder to New Yorkers about how sugary drinks can lead to …

September 24, 2011, New York Times, Mark Bittman
To make changes like this more widespread we need action both cultural and political. The cultural lies in celebrating real food; raising our children in homes that don’t program them for fast-produced, eaten-on-the-run, high-calorie, low-nutrition junk; giving them the gift of appreciating the pleasures of nourishing one another and enjoying that nourishment together.
Political action would mean agitating to limit the marketing of junk; forcing its makers to pay the true costs of production; recognizing that advertising for fast food is not the exercise …

September 24, 2011, Voice of America
Heads of state and government representatives assembled at the United Nations this week to address the emerging threat of non-communicable diseases worldwide. One of those so-called “NCDs” is cancer.  For those whose lives have already been affected somehow by this deadly disease, the attention was long overdue.
The United Nations says this is a critical moment – and a lack of action on non communicable diseases, or “NCDs,” could pose a threat to global development
“You have the power to make sure that your development is moving …

September 26, 2011, Elena Conis, Los Angeles Times
Imagine: You’re hungry for an afternoon snack, just a little something to hold you over until dinnertime. You head down to the vending machine, drop in your change and walk back to your desk with … yogurt, some trail mix and a piece of fresh fruit.
That’s not quite the reality in most workplaces — at least not yet. But more and more vending machine companies are swapping out cookies and candy for granola bars and rice cakes.
The switch is driven by consumer demand …

September 14, Philly.com, Karen Heller
The offer from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to fund an antiobesity program, financed by the soda industry, just fizzled like so many flat colas.
We have a monstrous obesity problem, and Philadelphia could use the money. But saying no was the obvious choice for the Nutter administration, waging a campaign for healthier diets.
The choice was also right.
“It seems to me that accepting money from the beverage industry to fight obesity would be like taking money from the NRA to fight gun violence or from the tobacco industry …

September 23, 2011, Vancouver Sun, Sara Schmidt
Coca-Cola Ltd. has reduced drastically the amount of Vitamin A in one of its fruit drinks after nutrition experts complained the elevated level could pose a health risk.
The cola giant confirmed Thursday that its Orange Mango FUZE Vitalize drink is now boosted with about onethird of the amount of vitamin A it contained just a few months ago. The company began producing the reformulated beverage in June. The product no longer contains what the government calls the “tolerable upper intake level” for adults, and …