Five For Fridays - Jul 31, 2009

Greetings! It’s Friday again, so here are 5 interesting nutrition stories of the week that caught my eye. Enjoy and drop a comment to let me know what’s on your mind.

Great ideas for nutritious snack combinations for kids

Check out these cool practical tips for snack combinations your kids are sure to enjoy! They are all very healthy and nutritious options, and best of all, you are likely to find most of the ingredients in your refrigerator or pantry already. Registered Dietitian Maryann Jacobsen, a guest writer on this blog, offers these ideas based on her knowledge of nutrition and real-life experience as a Mom. I am sure cookies and milk will be a hit with my son as well as whole wheat cracker with peanut butter or cheese! He also loves to snack on strawberries which are a great source of vitamin C. His twin sister on the other hand favors cheerios with milk and honey. Go for snacks that offer a combination of carbs, proteins and fat without too much sugar or salt. There is, after all, a smart way to let your kids enjoy snacks!

**The real cost of our addiction to cheap junk food**

It is no secret anymore that we are a country of BIG people! What may surprise you, or even give you little shock, is new data from the CDC that the cost of treating obesity-related diseases soared to $147 billion in 2008. That’s about a 100% increase over the last 10 years! Obese people spent nearly $1500 more than what people of normal weight did on medical costs in 2006. Even though it probably does not include those without health insurance, the message should be clear to everybody. The Dollar Value Meal may not put a dent in your wallet, but the extra calories with each meal will continue to add on and hit you later in life! Of course, some will argue that it has nothing to do with junk food but the fact that people just don’t exercise anymore. Whatever! There is a lot of talk about fixing the Healthcare system so it becomes affordable for everyone. I am sure that bringing technology to the doctor’s office and going paperless for medical records will help. But maybe we should also tackle the hidden (and rapidly rising) cost of obesity head-on. Else, the whole thing might come crashing down under its enormous weight!

Fat tax will reduce obesity say “experts”

A new report from the Urban Institute says that a 10 percent tax on fattening food would reduce consumption while raising more than $500 billion over 10 years. The idea is that if you tax these foods, their price will go up and people will eat less of them so they will not get obese. Just the way we have reduced smoking by taxing, warning labels and education, we can reduce obesity by following a similar policy. I think there are two problem with this logic. Although the link between cheap, junk food and obesity is clear (see above), that is not the only factor. Obesity is a multi-dimensional problem and I don’t think we can solve it simply by taxing fatty foods. And I don’t really buy the tobacco example – even with heavy taxation, legislation and restricted advertising over many years, people are still smoking! Second, the final price of these foods that a consumer pays may not go up by that much. This is because an easy way of dealing with the extra cost of taxation is to reduce the cost of operation (fire people, improve efficiency etc.) and decrease the product quantity. How far should we go in raising taxes before a real effect in prices is seen at the store?

We need to address the fundamental reasons why people prefer these foods. They are cheap, convenient, readily available and taste good. Why can’t we do all that for nutritious foods? Simply by lowering the supply chain costs of fruits and vegetables, we can bring their prices down and improve their availability. That is just one idea.

I think the approach should rather be to create conditions that lower the price of healthy options. Taxing fatty foods, or sugary beverages, I think is a very short-sighted approach which lacks creativity.

CDC offers interesting ideas for tackling obesity

When it comes to tackling obesity, the CDC suggests that we think global but act local. A new report entitled Recommended Community Strategies to Measure and Prevent Obesity in the United States offers simple ideas at the community level. Offer incentives for food retailers to locate in under-served areas, give out coupons to buy fruits and veggies, encourage people to buy “local” are some of the good ideas in this report. They came up with 24 strategies which can be organized in 6 categories -

promote availability of healthy foods and beverages
support healthy foods and beverages choice
encourage breastfeeding
encourage physical activities and limit sedentary activities among children and youth
create safe communities that promote physical activity
encourage communities to organize for change

I think these are smart ideas. Certainly, it will not happen overnight and will take resources and effort from everybody, but it reflects the right mindset on this problem. What do you think?

Hungry Monkey is now on my reading list

I love the title of this book! Ask any parent of a toddler and you will hear their struggles with a picky eater. This book is written by a “food-loving” father who wanted to find new recipes and new ways of cooking that could satisfy his own taste buds and still be acceptable to his 5 year old daughter. I came across a review of Hungry Monkey in the New Your Times which also offers a few selected recipes – they look very good. It is also a part parenting memoir, so I am sure there are some real-life examples and lessons learned. I definitely want to check it out, and when I do, I will write my review here.

Enjoy your weekend! And let me know what you think.

Photo source -Thiru Murugan on Flickr
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