Eating Disorders: Family Eating Out-of-Home: A Review of Nutrition and Health Policies.
Family eating out-of-home: a review of nutrition and health policies.
Filed under: Eating Disorders
Proc Nutr Soc. 2012 Nov 27; 1-14
McGuffin LE, Wallace JM, McCrorie TA, Price RK, Pourshahidi LK, Livingstone MB
Childhood obesity is a growing problem worldwide. In recent years, out-of-home (OH) eating has been highlighted as one of the many factors contributing to the obesogenic environment. This review seeks to identify a range of existing guidelines for the provision of healthy food options for families who eat OH frequently. Nationally available nutrition policies were identified using targeted and untargeted searches of the internet to identify established strategies for providing food for children in the family eating out sector in America (US), Australia, Canada and the WHO’s European Region (EUR). These were categorised on the basis of eleven pre-defined criteria including: family eating out sector included as stakeholder; inclusion of children’s food OH; cost strategies for healthier food choices; provision of nutrition information for customers; nutrition training of catering staff; and monitoring and evaluation structures. Fifty-five policies were reviewed, of which 71% addressed children’s food served OH, but principally only for food available in schools. Two voluntary programmes, from Colorado and Slovenia, were identified as possible best practice models as they met a majority of the evaluation criteria. The most frequently used strategy by policies to promote healthier eating OH was the provision of nutrition information on menus, while monitoring and evaluation plans were poorly incorporated into any OH strategies, thus raising issues about their effectiveness. This review has identified a range of initiatives that could be employed to make healthier eating OH more accessible for families. However, to establish best practice guidelines for healthier OH food choices further investigations are required.
HubMed – eating
Evaluation of Web-based Dietary Assessment Software for Children: comparing reported fruit, juice and vegetable intakes with plasma carotenoid concentration and school lunch observations.
Filed under: Eating Disorders
Br J Nutr. 2012 Nov 27; 1-10
Biltoft-Jensen A, Bysted A, Trolle E, Christensen T, Knuthsen P, Damsgaard CT, Andersen LF, Brockhoff P, Tetens I
Web-based Dietary Assessment Software for Children (WebDASC) was developed to estimate dietary intake in a school meal intervention study among 8- to 11-year-old Danish children. The present study validates self-reported fruit, juice and vegetable (FJV) intakes in 8- to 11-year-old children by comparing intake with plasma carotenoid concentration, and by comparing the reported FJV intake to actually eaten FJV, as observed by a photographic method. A total of eighty-one children, assisted by parents, reported their diet for seven consecutive days. For the same five schooldays as they reported their diet, the children’s school lunch was photographed and weighed before and after eating. In the week after the diet reporting, fasting blood samples were taken. Self-reported intake of FJV and estimated intake of carotenoids were compared with plasma carotenoid concentration. Accuracy of self-reported food and FJV consumption at school lunch was measured in terms of matches, intrusion, omission and faults, when compared with images and weights of lunch intake. Self-reported intake of FJV was significantly correlated with the total carotenoid concentration (0·58) (P < 0·01). Fruit and juice consumption showed higher correlations than vegetables with plasma carotenoid concentration (0·38 and 0·42 v. 0·33) (P < 0·01). A total of 82 % of the participants fell into the same or adjacent quartiles when cross-classified by FJV intake and carotenoids biomarkers. WebDASC attained 82 % reporting matches overall and a higher percentage match for reporting fruits compared with beverages. The present study indicated that WebDASC can be used to rank 8- to 11-year-old Danish children according to their intake of FJV overall and at school meals. HubMed – eating
School intervention incorporates farm to school programs to highlight healthy eating: a report from project healthy schools.
Filed under: Eating Disorders
Child Obes. 2012 Dec; 8(6): 584-7
Smith CA, Corriveau N, Aaronson S, Fitzgerald C, Heeres A, Eagle KA, Durussel-Weston J
Development of Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Quality Standards for Out-of-School Time Programs.
Filed under: Eating Disorders
Child Obes. 2012 Dec; 8(6): 572-6
Wiecha JL, Hall G, Gannett E, Roth B
Background: Out-of-school time (OST) programs serve over 8 million children per year and have ample opportunity to promote health through menu and physical activity choices. Until recently, however, the field has lacked a comprehensive set of operationalizable standards for healthy eating and physical activity. The National AfterSchool Association adopted voluntary healthy eating and physical activity quality standards (HEPAQS) in April, 2011. Methods: We describe the development of HEPAQS. This work reflects a social ecological model for changing children’s eating and activity behaviors through program-level interventions. The standards were developed using a national, mixed-methods needs assessment, review of existing standards and expert recommendations, and a participatory process of discussion, review, and consensus engaging 19 influential service and policy organizations and agencies in the Healthy Out-of-School Time (HOST) coalition, which we convened in 2009. Results: The HOST coalition approved a final version of the HEPAQS in January, 2011. The 11 standards address content, curriculum selection, staff training, program support, and environmental support for healthy eating and physical activity. In April, 2011, the HEPAQS were adopted by the National AfterSchool Association, and have subsequently been widely disseminated. Extensive adoption and implementation efforts are underway. Conclusions: The availability of a comprehensive set of standards for healthy eating and physical activity in OST provides practical information to help community-based youth-serving organizations participate in obesity and chronic disease prevention. A working awareness of their content will be useful to scientists undertaking health promotion studies in the out-of-school time setting.
HubMed – eating
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