The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued a 78-page proposed rule revising school breakfast and lunch nutrition requirements as a way to combat childhood obesity. Noting that implementation would improve dietary habits and protect children’s health, the rule is part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 recently signed into law. Based on recommendations released in 2009 by the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine, the revisions reportedly represent the first major overhaul to school meals in 15 years. Among other things, the proposal calls for meals served to approximately 32 million school children to (i) include more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free and low-fat milk; (ii) limit sodium and saturated and trans fats; and (iii) help meet nutritional needs of children within their established calorie minimums and maximums. “We understand that these improved meal standards may present challenges for some school districts, but the new law provides…
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A federal court in New York has entered an order approving the pre-trial discovery and motions scheduling order agreed to by the individual plaintiffs remaining in the litigation alleging that fast-food marketing caused adverse health effects related to obesity. Pelman v. McDonald’s Corp., No. 02-7821 (S.D.N.Y., order filed December 15, 2010). Under the terms of the agreement, fact discovery will close November 30, 2011; expert discovery will close April 30, 2012; and briefing on motions for summary judgment will end August 30, 2012. The court denied the plaintiff’s motion for class certification in October; additional details about the ruling appear in Issue 370 of this Update.
A literature review and meta-analysis of global studies published since 1980 has reportedly found a “weak association” between parents’ dietary intake and that of their children, suggesting to lead author Youfa Wang that “family environment plays only a partial role” in people’s eating patterns. Youfa Wang, et al., “Do children and their parents eat a similar diet? Resemblance in child and parental dietary intake: systematic review and meta-analysis,” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, November 2010. According to a December 8, 2010, press release, researchers with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, National Institute of Aging and University of Zaragoza compared “parent-child pairs’ dietary intakes, by type of parent-child pairs (for example, mother-daughter vs. father-son), world regions and dietary assessment methods, and over time.” Their findings apparently indicated “differences in parent-child dietary intake resemblance, across nutrients and dietary assessment approaches,” with parent-child correlations for energy and total fat intakes…
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (S. 3307), which first lady Michelle Obama called “a groundbreaking piece of bipartisan legislation that will significantly improve the quality of meals that children receive at school and will play an integral role in our efforts to combat childhood obesity.” President Barack Obama (D) is expected to sign the $4.5 billion bill, approved in a 264-157 vote on December 2, 2010. The measure was approved by the U.S. Senate in August. The legislation allows the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to set new nutritional standards for all foods sold in schools, including lunch lines and vending machines, and will require schools to offer more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products. Its provisions also make it easier for qualified children to receive free school meals and provide funding for 21 million after-school meals annually in…
Choices Magazine, an outreach publication of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, has released its 3rd Quarter 2010 issue focusing on the economic implications of rising U.S. obesity rates. Topics include medical costs and implications for policymakers; consumer behavior; farm policy; the diverse effects of food assistance programs; nutrition labeling; taxes on sweetened beverages; and the “behavioral economics” associated with what Americans eat.
A judge from the U.S. Court of International Trade, sitting by designation in a New York federal district court, has determined that the obesity-related claims filed in 2002 against McDonald’s Corp. cannot be pursued as a class action. Pelman v. McDonald’s Corp., No. 02-7821 (S.D.N.Y., decided October 27, 2010). Essentially, the court found that individual causation issues predominated over common ones and that, as to any common issues, the plaintiffs had failed to show that the putative class was sufficiently numerous for the court to certify an issues class. A spokesperson reportedly indicated that the company was pleased with the decision, stating, “As we have maintained throughout these proceedings, it is unfair to blame McDonald’s for this complex social problem.” Teenagers alleging obesity-related health problems claimed that they were misled by the fast food chain’s deceptive advertising into believing that the food could be consumed daily without any adverse health effects.…
Corporate Accountability International Deputy Director Leslie Samuelrich contends in a recent AlterNet article that fast food companies “spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year marketing a dangerous product to America’s children.” She claims the companies deny putting children at risk and, instead, blame parents for their children’s obesity problems. According to Samuelrich, nonprofits and government agencies that promote healthy eating habits are not engaged in a “fair fight” with the industry, noting for example that the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation spends $100 million annually to address childhood obesity, while “major food and beverage corporations spend at least $1.6 billion in the United States every year—16 times more—to convince kids to eat unhealthy food.” Corporate Accountability International, describing itself as a corporate watchdog, says that it has been “waging winning campaigns to challenge corporate abuse for more than 30 years.” It has conducted campaigns against the tobacco industry, publishing materials…
An international research consortium has released a study that identifies 18 new gene sites linked to overall obesity and a related report that pinpoints 13 new gene sites connected to fat distribution. Published in the October 2010 online edition of Nature Genetics, the studies relied on data from approximately 250,000 participants to gain an understanding of why some people are susceptible to obesity. Researchers reportedly concluded that people with more than 38 genetic variants linked to increased body mass index were 15 to 20 pounds heavier than those who carried fewer than 22 of the variants. In the fat-distribution study, researchers found women were more inclined to have genetic variants that predicted fat development in the hips and thighs rather than the abdomen. Participating researchers told a news source that discovering which genes play a role in obesity could lead to underlying biological processes that could eventually help treat the condition. “If…
A recent study has suggested that mothers who consume diets high in trans fats could double the risk that their babies will have high levels of body fat. Alex Anderson, et al., “Dietary trans fatty acid intake and maternal and infant adiposity,” European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, September 2010. University of Georgia (UGA) researchers studied 95 mothers in three groups—those who fed their babies only breast milk, those who used only formula and those who used a combination—to determine the effect of trans fat intake through breast milk. They concluded that the mothers who consumed more than 4.5 grams of trans fats daily while breastfeeding were more than twice as likely to have babies with high percentages of body fat, or adiposity, than those who consumed less than 4.5 grams per day. “Trans fats stuck out as a predictor to increased adiposity in both mothers and their babies,” study co-author Alex Anderson…
A recent study reportedly claims that prenatal exposure to the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its breakdown product dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) is associated with accelerated growth and elevated BMI in infants born to normal-weight mothers. Michelle Mendez, et al., “Prenatal Organochlorine Compound Exposure, Rapid Weight Gain and Overweight in Infancy,” Environmental Health Perspectives, October 2010. Researchers apparently used data from Spain’s ongoing INMA [Infancia y MedioAmbiente] study, which assayed blood from approximately 500 expectant mothers for persistent chlorinated pollutants such as DDT and DDE, hexachlorobenzene, beta-hexachlorohexane, and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls. The authors concluded that, when compared to infants born to women in the lowest quartile for DDE exposure, those born to normal-weight mothers in the first quartile were at “a two times increased risk of rapid growth.” In addition, “DDE was also associated with elevated BMI at 14 months.” The study suggested, however, that the association only appeared true for normal-weight, as…
