UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health

Adequate nutrition is an essential component of healthy aging. This study documents the quality of diets among older Americans and implications of healthy eating for their physical and mental health. Using a nationally representative longitudinal sample of adults aged ≥50 years, from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) 2010–2016 and food intake data from the 2013 Health Care and Nutrition Study (HCNS), the study evaluates the onset of health problems along the spectrum of diet quality measured by the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2015.

Full citation: Zhao, H., Andreyeva, T. Diet Quality and Health in Older Americans. Nutrients 2022, 14, 1198. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14061198

In 2019, Healthy Eating Research convened a panel of nutrition, charitable food system and food policy experts to create a set of evidence-based nutrition standards. Standards were developed based on a review of the literature and existing nutrition ranking systems, while also considering the operational needs and capacity of the charitable food system. This paper outlines the expert panel’s approach and summarizes the barriers and opportunities for implementing these standards across the charitable food system.

Full citation: Levi, R., Schwartz, M., Campbell, E., Martin, K., & Seligman, H. (2022). Nutrition standards for the charitable food system: challenges and opportunities. BMC public health,22(1), 495. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-12906-6

The USDA summer food programs provide meals for children when school is not in session. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges for food distribution programs, many regulations have been waived, providing opportunities for new approaches to meal distribution. The aim of this study was to identify practices designed to increase program participation during the summer of 2021.

Full citation: Bennett BL, Gans KM, Burkholder K, Esposito J, Warykas SW, Schwartz MB. Distributing Summer Meals during a Pandemic: Challenges and Innovations. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022; 19(6):3167. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063167

Weight-based disparities in mental health impair the well-being of youth with overweight and obesity, who comprise a growing majority of young people in the United States. This review summarizes research regarding the extent of weight-based disparities in youth mental health and describes the social underpinnings of these disparities across contexts.

Full citation: Lessard L., Lawrence S. Weight-Based Disparities in Youth Mental Health: Scope, Social Underpinnings, and Policy Implications. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2022; Vol. 9(1) 49–56. https://doi.org/10.1177/23727322211068018

Despite expert recommendations, US parents often serve sugar‐sweetened children’s drinks, including sweetened fruit‐flavored drinks and toddler milks, to young children. This qualitative research explored parents’ understanding of common marketing tactics used to promote these drinks and whether they mislead parents to believe the drinks are healthy and/or necessary for children.

Full citation: Fleming‐Milici, F., Phaneuf, L., & Harris, J. L. (2022). Marketing of sugar‐sweetened children’s drinks and parents’ misperceptions about benefits for young children. Maternal & Child Nutrition, e13338. https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.13338

Front-of-package claims and marketing messages used to promote fruit-flavored drinks and toddler milks with added sugars contribute to parents’ misperceptions about product nutrition and benefits for their young children, according to new research from the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health. The most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that children younger than age 2 consume no added sugars.

Using an embedded mixed-methods approach, this study assesses efforts to improve nutritional quality of inventory at food banks. All else equal, food banks with medium and high levels of nutrition-focused food banking strategy adoption had lower mean percentages of unhealthy inventory compared to those with none.

Full citation: Roth S, Feldman M, Schwartz M, Prelip M. A Mixed-methods Study of Nutrition-focused Food Banking in the United States. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition. 2022. http://www.doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2022.2030272

This study assessed the prevalence of electronic forms of weight-based peer victimization (i.e., cybervictimization) and its associations with adolescent health, as indicated by somatic symptoms, stress, depression, and sleep trouble. Thirty-three percent of adolescents reported at least one experience of weight-based cybervictimization, with elevated rates among those with overweight (45%) and obesity (60%).

Full citation: Lessard LM, Puhl RM. Weight-based cybervictimization: Implications for adolescent health [published online ahead of print, 2022 Jan 25]. Pediatr Obes. 2022;e12888. http://www.doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.12888

The Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) developed a 5-year initiative to strengthen wellness policies across their state by offering regional wellness workshops and providing coaches to work with individual districts. KSDE also developed the Wellness Impact Tool (WIT), a self-report measure districts use to document their practices at each school level related to Nutrition, Nutrition Promotion, Physical Activity, and Integrated School-Based Wellness. Kansas districts completed the WIT annually over a 5-year period. The current study evaluates the KSDE wellness initiative by examining the changes in WIT scores over time and by school level, and testing whether greater engagement with wellness supports (i.e., workshops attended and coaching sessions received) predicts higher WIT scores.

Full citation: McKee SL, Xu R, Schwartz MB. Assessing the Effects of a Statewide Training Initiative on Local School Wellness Policies [published online ahead of print, 2022 Jan 19]. Health Promot Pract. 2022;15248399211070808. https://www.doi.org/10.1177/15248399211070808.

Weight-based bullying is among the most prevalent forms of peer harassment and carries significant health consequences—particularly among adolescents who identify as a sexual and/or gender minority (SGM). This study examined how anti-bullying legislation that includes weight as a protected class (enumeration) contributes to the prevalence of weight-based bullying and its adverse health sequelae among SGM adolescents.

Full citation: Lessard LM, Watson RJ, Schacter HL, Wheldon CW, Puhl RM. Weight enumeration in United States anti-bullying laws: associations with rates and risks of weight-based bullying among sexual and gender minority adolescents [published online ahead of print, 2022 Jan 20]. J Public Health Policy. 2022;10.1057/s41271-021-00322-w. http://www.doi.org/10.1057/s41271-021-00322-w