Here is a selection of noteworthy news related to child nutrition. Most of the commentary is mine. I have provided a link for each if you want to read the full story.

It is amazing, and quite encouraging to hear a school Principal say “Childhood obesity, it’s our tsunami, it’s our Katrina”. These are the words of Dr. Yvonne Sanders-Butler of Browns Mill Elementary School in Lithonia, Georgia, which decided to go “sugar free” 10 years ago.

There are no bake sales here, no birthday cupcakes, no cookies or ice cream!

What is even more amazing is what Dr. Yvonne says about the achievements of the school as a result of this policy. In the first six months of the sugar ban, disciplinary incidents went down 23 percent, counseling referrals decreased 30 percent, and in the first years of standardized test scores, reading scores improved 15 percent! Browns Mill was named a national blue ribbon school and a Georgia school of excellence in 2005.

Read the full story here. Also check out the Achieving Academic Excellence Through Nutrition And Exercise page of the school.

News of infant formula made with melamine contaminated milk in China broke in September 2008. In China alone, 4 children died and 53,000 got sick as a result of this reckless act. According to health experts, ingesting melamine causes kidney stones, urinary tract ulcers, and eye and skin irritation. It also robs infants of much-needed nutrition.

Several countries in Asia, Africa and Europe banned products made from Chinese sourced milk. Later in the year, the European Union (EU) banned all baby foods made with Chinese milk.

However, more relevant for the US consumers is this follow-up announcement from the FDA’s director Stephen Sundolf:

“Amounts of the industrial chemical melamine or the melamine-like compound called cyanuric acid that are below 1.0 ppm [1,000 parts per billion] do not raise public health concerns”

Although, 1.0 ppm may appear to be a very small amount, a key question, however, still remains unanswered. Why should there be any trace of this “industrial” chemical melamine in infant formula in the first place? Melamine is a synthetic chemical used in making hard plastic materials, however it can also be produced inside the body from an insecticide called  Cyromazine. It is possible that these chemicals are transferred at ppm levels from food packaging, labeling and raw materials in the food supply. In addition to establishing a “safe” limit, there should be an attempt to remove these chemicals entirely from the supply-chain during production of infant/baby food products.

Read the full story here.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual report on food security showed that 691,000 children lived in homes where families had to eat non-balanced meals and low-cost food, or even skip meals because of a lack of money. Now this is personally troubling to me! How can it be that on one hand we have an overabundance of food, and a rapidly growing problem of childhood obesity, while at the same time, there are so many children who are growing up hungry. Quite clearly a paradox.

In her recent post Addressing Hunger and Obesity with “Change” Policy, my blogger friend Rebecca Scritchfield is hopeful that Tom Vilsack, when confirmed as President Obama’s Agriculture Secretary, will follow up on his pledge to put “nutrition at the center of all food assistance programs”. Clearly, there is a need for creative ideas to solve this problem. It should be embarrassing to see a child go hungry in America.

Read the full story here.

I found this correlation quite surprising. Dr. Graham MacGregor of St. George’s Hospital Medical School, London, England, who authored a study published in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association in February 2008 told this to CNN:

“Salt is playing a hidden role in the obesity epidemic by causing more intake of sugary soft drinks. Children get habituated to a salty taste. Much of the obesity epidemic is in the hands of the food industry. The most important thing possible is to cook fresh food as much as possible — those meals will have very little salt at all. Virtually no products use salt as a preservative anymore. Choose bread with less salt, choose cereals with less added salt. Try to avoid these very salty ready-made foods.”

Read the full story here.

Consider this – 44 major food and beverage marketers spent $1.6 billion to promote their products to children under 12 and adolescents ages 12 to 17 in the United States in 2006. It is likely that a similar amount was spent in 2007 and 2008. Further, this marketing is “integrated”, that is, it combines the old (TV, print) with the new (internet, sweepstakes, in-store promotion) media.

In analyzing the data, the report calls for all food companies “to adopt and adhere to meaningful, nutrition-based standards for marketing their products to children under 12.” The need for such an advice proves that there is room for improvement in both the message and the products which are targeted for this age group.

Read the full report here.

A report from the American Academy of Pediatrics reccomends that overweight children (BMI between 85th and 95th percentile) and obese children (BMI > 95th percentile) be screened for fasting lipid profile regardless of family history of hyhpertension or other risk factors. Amazingly, it is recommended that such screening should take place after 2 years of age but no later than 10 years of age. For children over 8 years old, and with high LDL (bad cholesterol), cholesterol lowering drugs may be prescribed.

This is quite a radical recommendation which recognizes the rising epidemic of childhood obesity and its consequences on heart disease and other health conditions.

Read the full story here.

Here are a few other noteworthy stories suggested by my Twitter friends:

• @Andamom found the Blue Zones on Oprah Winfrey’s show very interesting where Dr. Mehmet Oz “goes deep inside these blue zones where people live longer than anyone else”. What is their secret? The four “hot spots” featured in the show were Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula; Sardinia, a Mediterranean island 120 miles off the coast of Italy; Loma Linda, California’ and Okinawa, Japan. In all cases, a lifestyle based on eating natural, un-processed foods, lots of hard work and connection with commiunity were the key ingredients to a long, disease-free life.
• @ayalalaufer referred to the work of Professor Charlene Elliott from the University of Calgary, Canada, in her post Fun food:” Is it nutritious? Is it even fun? to show how mixed messages are sent to kids about “nutrition” and “fun” when food products are advertised. Is it misrepresentation? Maybe, but seems like it is still all within the rules. I was amazed to read that “among the 326 fun foods that were of poor nutritional quality, 202 (62%) had nutritional claims”. She rightly suggests that there is no need for kids to have their own special food. Parents should encourage their children to eat what they themselves eat at each meal.
• In Can you really pressure kids to eat healthy? @ayalalaufer links to a study in the scientific journal Appetite which concludes that if you simply cannot build long-term healthy eating habits in your kids if you force or coerce them into eating healthy foods. This is consistent with what Dr. Spock says “children need to want to eat healthy foods”. If you try to force them too much, they will reject it and develop a life-aversion to it even if you think it is good for them.
• In her post Infant feeding choices and obesity, @phdinparenting links to a very interesting report which found that rats that consumed junk food during pregnancy and while breastfeeding had offspring that preferred junk food too. She cautions against switching to formula just because a breastfeeding Mom cannot give up her favorite snack and suggests that breastfeeding itself builds self-regulation in the baby and protects against overeating and obesity later on. It is important to draw a distinction between a pattern of frequent junk food consumption and occasional treat of a favorite snack.

Do you have a nutrition story from 2008 that caught your attention? Feel free to share in the comments section.

There is a certain perception, especially outside the US, that Americans are fat and lazy. Even our own media bombards us with stories of poor eating habits (think cheeseburgers and fries) and inactive lifestyle (think couch potatoes). Then there are alarming statistics on rising rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. And you really begin to pay attention, and raise the volume on the TV, if the story is focused on weight problems in children. After all, who would want their children to grow up in poor health?

But is it really that bad? Is it simply an American issue?

Check this out..

This came from a report issued by the WHO Regional Office for Europe following a November 2006 Ministerial Conference held in Istanbul, Turkey.

What’s wrong with this picture? Our media shows us images of slim, healthy-looking Europeans biking to work, eating healthy-looking food and living a stress-free life. On the other hand, the Americans are shown eating junk food, driving to work in gas-guzzling SUV’s and living a hectic stressed-out life. And all this is supported by “facts” and “numbers” with fancy charts and interviews with “experts”.

Now, let us not stop there…here is another interesting fact:

I don’t have anything against the Europeans or the Aussies. In fact, I have many good (and very healthy) friends from both of these continents. And before you get the urge to say that “you got your head in the sand“, let me say that we do need to pay attention to the numbers and make smart nutrition choices for ourselves and our children. After all, that is why I am writing this blog!

As a parent, it is natural to be concerned. Concern leads to caring; caring leads to action; and action leads to results. All I am trying to say is that it is not useful to be alarmed by the so called news in the mainstream media. In this age of short attention spans and low ratings, the media needs a big horn to get the message across. It is up to us to filter the noise, take a deep breath, and look at the data in a calm manner so we can make our own decisions.

It is my intention to help you do exactly that through this blog. Let me know how I am doing.