The Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has released a new brief updating its annual report on trends in TV food advertising to young people. Documenting changes “in the total number of food-related TV ads viewed by children and adolescents from 2002 to 2013,” the brief concludes that despite the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), “the total number of food and beverage ads viewed by children has increased by 8% and advertising to adolescents increased 25% since 2007.” Although youth exposure to food-related TV ads apparently peaked in 2004, Rudd Center alleges that the number of food- and beverage-related TV ads viewed by children younger than age 12 has only increased since companies adopted CFBAI in 2007. According to the brief, TV ads for fast-food restaurants represented 23 percent of food-related ads viewed by children and 28 percent of ads viewed by adolescents in 2013. In…
Tag Archives obesity
A recent review of literature on the impact of the economic environment on obesity has purportedly concluded that “effective economic measures policies to curb obesity remain elusive.” Roland Sturm and Ruopeng An, “Obesity and Economic Environments,” CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, May 2014. Funded by the National Institutes of Health and RAND Corp., the study finds that U.S. obesity rates have continued to rise across all sociodemographic groups and geographic areas despite “increases in leisure time (rather than increased work hours), increased fruit and vegetable availability (rather than a decline in healthier foods), and increased exercise uptake.” Calling into question “some widely held, but incorrect, beliefs,” the study’s authors suggest that decreasing prices have played a primary role in food consumption patterns. Noting that consumers today spend only one-tenth of their disposable income on food, the researchers report that taxes on low-nutritional foods and other large price interventions “could…
The Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has issued new guidelines that aim to “educate media representatives on how to appropriately discuss the disease of obesity in the media.” Titled “Guidelines for Media Portrayals of Individuals Affected by Obesity,” the report notes that the media is an “important and influential source of information about obesity,” and the manner in which obesity, weight loss and weight maintenance are portrayed, described and framed by the media “profoundly shapes the public’s understanding and attitudes toward these important health issues and the individuals affected by them.” Describing the media as “an especially pervasive source of stigmatization against people with obesity,” Rudd Center researchers note that photographs and videos tend to portray people with obesity as headless (i.e., only from the shoulders down), from unflattering angles (e.g., with only their abdomens or lower bodies shown), and engaging in stereotypical behaviors (e.g., eating unhealthy foods…
The California Senate has passed a bill (S.B. 1000) that would require all sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) containing more than 75 calories per 12-ounce serving to carry labels warning of obesity, diabetes and tooth decay. Milk-based beverages and 100 percent fruit and vegetable juices would be exempt. Introduced in February 2014 by state Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel) and co-sponsored by the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, the “Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Safety Warning Act,” is backed by the California Medical Association, Latino Coalition for a Healthy California and California Black Health Network. Noting “overwhelming evidence” linking obesity and the consumption of sweetened beverages,” and claiming that SSBs are the “single largest source of added sugars in the American diet,” the bill specifically seeks to “protect consumers and promote informed purchasing decisions . . . about the harmful health effects that result from the consumption of drinks with added sugars.” If passed by…
“Fed Up,” a new documentary produced and narrated by Katie Couric, with appearances by food experts Marion Nestle, Michael Pollan and Michele Simon, among others, chronicles the struggle of obese children who have purportedly become addicted to food. While the film claims that unethical advertising, snack ubiquity, enabling parents, and poor school environments have contributed to America’s obesity epidemic, it primarily places the blame on this nation’s obsession with sugar and the government’s alleged capitulation to the food industry and its lobbyists, referring to them as pushers of “the new tobacco.” The film also features scientists Robert Lustig and David Ludwig, as well as real-food advocate Mark Bittman. See NPR The Salt, May 19, 2014. Issue 524
As the World Health Assembly opened its 67th session in Geneva, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan reportedly expressed her deep concern about the increasing incidence worldwide in childhood obesity, stating, “Our children are getting fatter.” Chan announced the formation of a high-level Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity. Chaired by Peter Gluckman, the chief science advisor to New Zealand’s prime minister, the commission will produce a consensus report detailing measures that would be most effective in addressing the issue in different countries around the world. Its recommendations will be announced during the 2015 World Health Assembly. Two international membership bodies called on governments convening in Geneva to develop a global convention to address obesity, similar to the legal framework for tobacco control. The World Obesity Federation and Consumers International (CI) have launched their campaign by calling for controls on food marketing, improvements to nutrition information labels, the reformulation of…
A federal court in Missouri has determined that a man who alleges employment discrimination and retaliation in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on the basis of his severe obesity has sufficiently stated his claims and may proceed with his action. Whittaker v. America’s Car-Mart, Inc., No. 13-0108 (D. Mo., order entered April 24, 2014). The plaintiff allegedly began working for the defendant in August 2005 and was discharged from his general manager position in November 2012, purportedly because of his disability. He claims that the defendant regarded him as having a physical impairment under the ADA and “as being substantially limited in a major life activity, walking, as a result of his obesity.” To support its argument that the alleged disability “is not an actual disability under the ADA unless it is related to an underlying physiological disorder or condition and that plaintiff fails to allege that his…
A study examining the link between parental body mass index (BMI) and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has reportedly claimed that paternal obesity “is an independent risk factor for ASDs in children.” Pal Suren, et al., “Parental Obesity and Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders,” Pediatrics, April 2014. Noting that previous research focused only on the role of maternal pre-pregnancy obesity in neurodevelopmental disorders, the study’s authors relied on data from 92,909 children enrolled in the Norwegian Mother and Child Study to estimate the relative risk of ASDs using logistic regression models. The results evidently showed that “maternal obesity (BMI ≥30) was only weakly associated with ASD risk, whereas paternal obesity was associated with an increased risk of autistic disorder and Asperger disorder.” In particular, the study reported that (i) the risk of autistic disorder was 0.27 percent in children of obese fathers and 0.14 percent in children of normal-weight fathers, and…
A research abstract presented at the American Heart Association’s (AHA’s) Epidemiology and Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism Scientific Sessions 2014 has claimed that “overweight or obese teenagers who eat lots of salty foods may show signs of fast cell aging.” According to a March 20, 2014, AHA press release, researchers with the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University analyzed the telomere-to-single-copygene ratios of 766 participants ages 14-18 who were divided into two groups representing low-sodium intake (an average of 2,388 mg/day) and high sodium intake (an average of 4,142 mg/day). The abstract’s authors noted that overweight and obese teens in the high-intake group had telomeres “that were significantly shorter” than the telomeres of normal weight teens in the same intake group. “Even in these relatively healthy young people, we can already see the effect of high sodium intake, suggesting that high sodium intake and obesity may act synergistically…
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) recently published two research articles related to fast food and obesity, including a study claiming that “individuals who are genetically predisposed to obesity may be more susceptible to the adverse effects of eating fried foods.” Qibin Qi, et al., “Fried food consumption, genetic risk, and body mass index: gene-diet interaction in three US cohort studies,” BMJ, March 2014. Relying on food consumption data from three cohort studies involving 37,000 men and women, researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School also assigned participants “a genetic risk score based on 32 known genetic variants associated with BMI and obesity.” The results evidently showed that “eating fried food more than four times a week had twice the effect on BMI for those in the highest third of genetic risk as those in the lowest third.” “This work provides formal proof…
