UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health

Full citation: Harris JL, Pomeranz JL. Infant formula and toddler milk marketing: opportunities to address harmful practices and improve young children’s diets. Nutr Rev. 2020;78(10):866-883. https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuz095

Full citation: Powell LM, Andreyeva T, Isgor Z. Distribution of sugar-sweetened beverage sales volume by sugar content in the United States: implications for tiered taxation and tax revenue. J Public Health Policy. 2020;41(2):125-138. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-019-00217-x

70% of teens surveyed report engaging with food and beverage brands on social media and 35% engaged with at least five brands, according to a new study from the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity published in the journal Appetite. The study, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, found that 93 percent of the brands that teens reported engaging with on social media were fast food, unhealthy snack foods, candy, and sugary drinks, which are primarily the brands that target them with traditional forms of advertising.

Researchers recommend that food and beverage manufacturers stop targeting teens with marketing for products that can harm their health. Currently, the food and beverage companies’ voluntary self-regulatory program, the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, only limits unhealthy advertising to children up to 11 years old. Researchers say the program should cover children up to at least 14 years old.

Public health and medical researchers have spent considerable money and time assessing the negative consequences of high weight in people, yet relatively less time focused on the language we use to describe the condition. On this episode, Rebecca Puhl joins to talk about research on obesity framing, stigma, and interventions.

Full citation: Puhl RM, Himmelstein MS, Pearl RL, Wojtanowski AC, Foster GD. Weight Stigma Among Sexual Minority Adults: Findings from a Matched Sample of Adults Engaged in Weight Management. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2019;27(11):1906-1915. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22633

Full citation: Fleming-Milici F, Harris JL. Adolescents’ engagement with unhealthy food and beverage brands on social media. Appetite. 2020;146:104501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2019.104501

Using data from the Rudd Center 2019 Children’s Drink FACTS report, this infographic explains report findings on product sales, nutrition content, and television advertising exposure.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Heart Association warn that sugary drink consumption threatens children’s health and policy strategies to reduce sugary drink consumption are “urgently needed.” Sugary drinks contribute almost one-half of added sugars consumed by children, and fruit drinks (fruit-flavored drinks with added sugars) are the most common type of sugary drink for young children. Utilizing the same methods as previous FACTS reports, researchers collected data on the nutrition content and on-package marketing of children’s drinks by category, company, and brand.

Many children’s drinks have added sugars. Soda may come to mind first, but children’s fruit drinks also have added sugar. This handout identifies other common sugary drinks and how to check the sugar content when reading nutrition labels.