UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health

Full citation: Bragg MA, Liu PJ, Roberto CA, Sarda V, Harris JL, Brownell KD. The use of sports references in marketing of food and beverage products in supermarkets. Public Health Nutr. 2013;16(4):738-742. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980012003163

Full citation: Roberto CA, Bragg MA, Schwartz MB, et al. Facts up front versus traffic light food labels: a randomized controlled trial. Am J Prev Med. 2012;43(2):134-141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2012.04.022

The language that health care providers use when discussing their patients’ body weight can reinforce stigma, reduce motivation for weight loss, and potentially lead to avoidance of future medical appointments, according to a study by the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale.

Full citation: Puhl R, Peterson JL, Luedicke J. Motivating or stigmatizing? Public perceptions of weight-related language used by health providers [published correction appears in Int J Obes (Lond).2013 Apr;37(4):623]. Int J Obes (Lond). 2013;37(4):612-619. https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2012.110

Cereal companies have improved the nutritional quality of most cereals marketed directly to children, but they also have increased advertising to children for many of their least nutritious products, according to a report by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity.

In 2009, the Rudd Center issued Cereal FACTS. The report documented the nutritional quality and marketing of cereals to youth and found that cereal companies aggressively marketed their worst products to children as young as two years old. Three years later, using the same methods as the original Cereal FACTS, this report quantifies changes in cereal-company marketing to children.

Full citation: Andreyeva T, Luedicke J, Middleton AE, Long MW, Schwartz MB. Positive influence of the revised Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children food packages on access to healthy foods. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2012;112(6):850-858. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2012.02.019

Full citation: Schwartz MB, Henderson KE, Falbe J, et al. Strength and comprehensiveness of district school wellness policies predict policy implementation at the school level. J Sch Health. 2012;82(6):262-267. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-1561.2012.00696.x

Access to healthy food in underserved communities has improved significantly after changes in federal nutrition and food assistance programs, according to a study by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. Published in the June, 2012, issue of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the study shows that the revisions in food packages for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) have increased the availability and variety of healthy foods in WIC-authorized and non-WIC convenience and grocery stores.