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 …

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 …

August 9, 2011, Reuters, Amy Norton
Children are seeing fewer sugary, fatty foods advertised on TV, but unhealthy fare still makes up the bulk of food commercials they see, a new study suggests.
What’s more, researchers found, children were actually seeing more fast-food commercials in 2009 compared with six years earlier.
The study, reported in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, was aimed at gauging the effects of a voluntary food industry program called the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI).
The initiative began in 2006, in response to calls from the …

ABC, Kim CArollo, Oct 1, 2010
If there were ever a reason to cut back on kids’ consumption of cake, cookies, pizza and soda, nutrition experts say a new study highlights just how unhealthy young people’s diets really are.
Researchers from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md. analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and found that nearly 40 percent of calories consumed by children ages 2 to 18 were empty calories, the unhealthiest kind of calories.
Obesity Rates Rise in Some States, Fatty Food Abounds Everywhere McDonald’s to …

Los Angeles Times, Karen Kaplan, September 2, 2010
For many students, “back to school” means back to a vending machine diet. As you might guess, this isn’t necessarily a good thing for student health.
Vending machines are found in 16% of U.S. elementary schools, 52% of middle schools and 88% of high schools. About 22% of students in grades 1 through 12 buy food in vending machines each day – and those purchases added an average of 253 calories to their diets, according to a new study in the September issue of …

San Fransisco Chronicle, Rachel Gordon, August 11, 2010
Toys that have been synonymous with kids’ meals at fast-food restaurants could soon be banned in San Francisco under a new law proposed Tuesday if the food contains too much fat, sugar or salt.
Earlier this year, Santa Clara County became the first local government in the nation to adopt such a law, but it only applies to unincorporated areas and affects a handful of restaurants.
San Francisco’s proposal could have a far greater impact. The restrictions would pertain to all restaurants but effectively would target the dozens of …

The Huffington Post, Michelle Locke, July 15, 2010
It’s not hard to figure out that stocking school vending machines with sugary sodas and salty, fatty snacks is a bad idea. Replacing those culinary culprits with something more nutritious is tougher.
But a growing number of school districts around the country are trying anyway.
“I can’t say enough for what it does for the kids to have the junk out of the machines,” says Patricia Gray, who as former principal of San Francisco’s Balboa High School oversaw a switch to healthier snacks.
“It was …

The Guardian, Randeep Ganesh, July 7 2010
Beer companies, confectionery firms and crisp-makers will be asked to fund the government’s advertising campaign to persuade people to switch to a healthier lifestyle and, in return, will not face new legislation outlawing excessively fatty, sugary and salty food, the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, announced today.
In a move condemned by campaigners as the government “rolling over on their backs in front of the food lobby”, Lansley told a conference of public health experts that he wanted a new partnership with food and drink …

Los Angeles Times, David Lazarus, June 29, 2010
What to do about the obesity epidemic? Here’s a thought: Substitute “tobacco” for “junk food.” That provides a pretty clear road map about what government authorities should be doing to safeguard public health.
Unfortunately, officials are instead just reheating the same old leftovers.
Dietary guidelines issued recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture basically say Americans need to ease up on the salt, sugar and saturated fats, and instead eat more fruits and veggies.
This is the same advice given by the department three decades ago. …

The Economist, June 17, 2010 Share

FAST-FOOD firms have to be a thick-skinned bunch. Health experts regularly lambast them for peddling food that makes people fat. Critics even complain that McDonald’s, whose golden arches symbolise calorie excess, should not have been allowed to sponsor the World Cup. These are things fast-food firms have learnt to cope with and to deflect. But not perhaps for much longer. The burger business faces more pressure from regulators at a time when it is already adapting strategies in response to shifts in the global …