UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health

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

Public health experts raise concerns that extensive exposure to advertising for calorie-dense nutrient-poor food negatively influences adolescents’ diets, but few studies have explored how food advertising affects children over age 12. This study examines adolescents’ attitudes about highly targeted unhealthy food brands and assesses the hierarchical relationship between TV exposure, intermediary measures of advertising effects, and healthy and unhealthy food consumption.

Full citation: Harris J, Sacco S, Fleming-Milici F. TV exposure, attitudes about targeted food ads and brands, and unhealthy consumption by adolescents: Modeling a hierarchical relationship. Appetite. 2022, ISSN 0195-6663, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2021.105804.

Against expert recommendations, sugar-sweetened beverages, especially fruit drinks, are consumed by young children. To assess caregivers’ reasons for serving sweetened fruit-flavored drinks and unsweetened juices to their young children (1–5 y) and perceptions of product healthfulness and drink ingredients, a cross-sectional online survey was administered to caregivers (n = 1614). Participants’ top reasons for providing sweetened drinks included child liking it, being inexpensive, child asking for it, and being a special treat.

Full citation: Jensen, M. L., Choi, Y. Y., Fleming-Milici, F., & Harris, J. L. (2022). Caregivers’ Understanding of Ingredients in Drinks Served to Young Children: Opportunities for Nutrition Education and Improved Labeling. Current Developments in Nutrition, 6(1), https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzab151

School meals can play an integral role in improving children’s diets and addressing health disparities. Initiatives and policies to increase consumption have the potential to ensure students benefit from the healthy school foods available. Research evidence supports the following strategies to increase school meal consumption. These findings are based on a paper supported by Healthy Eating Research, 7 a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Negative health consequences of excessive sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption have prompted recommendations for SSB taxation to improve diet and health. Over 40 countries and 8 local US jurisdictions have implemented SSB taxes to date. There is considerable interest in state SSB taxes in the USA, but state-level data on SSB consumption levels is lacking. This article uses proprietary data from the Beverage Marketing Corporation on beverage sales across all US retail channels to estimate state-level per capita SSB purchases in 2021.

Full citation: Andreyeva T., Large State Variation in Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Purchases: What We Learn from the Beverage Industry Data, Current Developments in Nutrition, Volume 5, Issue 12, December 2021, nzab128, https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzab128

One in eight people in the U.S. experience food insecurity (FI). To date, the food banking sector has been at the forefront of efforts to address FI, but the healthcare sector is becoming increasingly involved in such efforts. The extent of collaboration between the two sectors remains unclear. We explored food banking stakeholders’ views on the current state of partnerships between the two sectors.

Full citation: Abebe Gurganus E, Marfo NYA, Schwartz MB, Cooksey Stowers K. Stakeholders’ Perspectives on the Current Status of Partnerships between the Food Banking and Healthcare Systems to Address Food Insecurity in the U.S. Nutrients. 2021; 13(12):4502. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13124502.