Check out On the Future of Food. Prince Charles has taken up the challenge of promoting a saner, healthier food system to improve public health and protect our fragile planet. You can read a primer on Prince Charles' advocacy on behalf of food system reform here, at Civil Eats. 

Would you like fewer fries with that?

by Sarah Kliff for The Washington Post online 

A team of behavioral economics researchers find something surprising in this month’s “Health Affairs”: When fast-food patrons are offered a suggestion to downsize their portions, they actually do it.

Only 1 percent of customers spontaneously requested downsizing of a high-calorie, high-starch side dish in the baseline periods, when no explicit downsizing offer was made. Thirty-three percent of customers accepted the downsizing offer. As noted above, there was no significant difference in acceptance rates with and without the nominal discount. Customers who downsized did not compensate by choosing higher-calorie entrées, nor did they proceed to order lower-calorie entrees. Therefore, downsizing led to the purchase of significantly fewer mean overall calories.

Also notable: The presence of calorie labels did not seem to impact diners’ decisions to downsize, nor did it matter if a 25-cent discount was offered for the small portion of food.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - new reports on elementary school food and physical activity environments

Elementary Schools Are Making Some Progress in Efforts to Prevent Obesity, But Still Have Work To Do

New Research Examines Nutrition and Physical Activity in Nation’s Elementary Schools Two new studies from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Bridging the Gap program offer important insight about policies and practices that can help children eat healthy foods and be active at school. 

Nearly Half of Nation’s Youngest Students Can Buy Junk Foods at School
Problem most severe in the South, where obesity rates are highest.

Cookies, cakes and other junk foods were available to nearly half of U.S. elementary school students in vending machines, à la carte lines and school stores during the 2009–10 school year, according to a study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Unhealthy snack foods were strikingly more prevalent in schools in the South, where obesity rates are the highest in the nation.

• Read the study.
• Read the press release.

Elementary Schools Improving Some Nutrition Practices, Making No Progress on Physical ActivityMajor new report finds that elementary schools are making some improvements to school meals and allowing sales of only healthy beverages on campus.

Since the 2006–07 school year, more elementary schools are offering whole grains and low-fat milks for lunch, but schools have not cut back on foods that are high in fat, sugar and/or sodium, such as pizza and deep-fried potatoes. There also is an emerging trend among elementary schools to allow only healthy beverages, such as water, 100 percent juice and low-fat milks, to be sold outside of school meals. Schools have reported virtually no changes to physical education, recess or after-school programs that encourage physical activity. 

• Read the report.

Food Day

Center for Science in the Public Interest released a report on Food Day 2011 activities today. The report captures stories and photographs from how communities across the country marked Food Day. Take a look!

Why are obesity rates leveling off? in The Washington Post

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new data Tuesday showing that, after decades of obesity rates increasing in the United States, the rates look to have leveled off in the past decade: Since 2003, adult waistlines have stayed pretty much the same size. That’s good news, in terms of a troubling trend slowing. But it’s not great news: There are still 78 million Americans, about 35.7 percent of the adult population, that are obese.

Why the obesity rates have stayed constant is difficult for researchers to say. Some point to the growth of public health interventions, like bans on vending machines in schools ormandating recess for younger children. Health insurance companies have also gotten more aggressive in using wellness interventions and offering weight loss programs. Those changes, however, have been relatively recent, and its unlikely that they would surface in this data set.

If these kind of policies are working, why isn’t the country’s obesity rate slowing, rather than just holding flat? Time magazine’s Alice Park suggests that it might be too early to see results from relatively-recent obesity interventions. She points to anti-smoking efforts, which launched in earnest in the 1950s. It took until the 1960s to see serious results, and a notable decline in the country’s smoking rates...

Active Early Press in Green Bay

Active Early made the front page of the Green Bay Press Gazette on Saturday.

"The benefits of physical action for kids are enormous. They focus better, learn better and it's better for their long-term health. Our goal is to give them a love of it."

Check out Green Bay area day care takes steps to get children active early.

Update from Wood County: Get Active Makes Progress in 2011

Get Active Makes Progress in 2011, by DaNita Carlson for The Wisconsin Rapids Tribune

The close of 2011 marks nearly two years since Wood County became one of 50 communities across the country to receive a $2.3 million Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) grant.

During the past year, the CPPW national obesity prevention program, known locally as Get Active Wood County, has made tremendous progress toward attaining its goal of making healthy eating and active living an easy choice in Wood County.

Led by the Wood County Health Department, the Get Active coalition of local businesses, schools and nonprofit organizations has successfully implemented numerous initiatives focused on nutrition and physical activity that have, and will continue to have, an impact on local residents well into the future. Some of these initiatives include:

» For the second year, all six Wood County public school districts and YouthNet offered Fit-tastic, an after-school program that emphasizes healthy eating and active living. The program served more than 225 students during fall/winter 2011.

» All Wood County public school districts took part in the second year of Farm to School monthly taste tests. Students had the opportunity to taste test locally grown produce that included apples, watermelon, cantaloupe, slicer tomatoes, cherry and grape tomatoes and carrots. Taste tests will continue in school cafeterias monthly through June.

» Seventy-five percent of farmers markets in Wood County now accept FoodShare. The program bridged a gap between FoodShare participants and local farmers, helping reconnect participants to fresh, locally produced food and farmers to federal dollars. More than $4,000 FoodShare dollars were spent at the Wood County Farmers Market at Rapids Mall during the 2011 season.

» Seventeen businesses in Wood County are in the process of implementing healthy food worksite policies. Ten of these businesses also are updating worksite wellness policies that promote employee physical activity.

» Fifteen Wood County restaurants implemented, or are in the process of implementing a Smart Meal program where they label their menus with meals lower in calories, fat and sodium; and higher in fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

» Eighteen childcare centers and four Head Start centers throughout Wood County received child care curriculums that promote nutrition and physical activity. In addition, they are receiving assistance and support to update wellness policies that incorporate more physical activity and better nutrition into children's daily routines.

» Fourteen new Wood County facilities opened their doors as Shared Use Facilities, which allow community members to walk in or use space for physical activity or nutrition education.

The Get Active coalition would like to thank the entire Wood County community for advocating for and supporting all of the many Get Active initiatives. But the hard work can't stop now. With the start of 2012 comes the opportunity for everyone to make an effort toward sustaining the Get Active mission of creating a healthier Wood County.

The incentive to do so is great. Right now, two-thirds of Wood County adults are overweight or obese, and childhood obesity rates are higher than ever before. Obesity and other chronic illnesses related to a lack of physical activity and an unhealthy diet place substantial stress on the local economy, our community and all of us as individuals. Together, we can make a difference. Make it your New Year's resolution to Get Active, Wood County, and Cause. Community. Change. Get involved at getactivewoodcounty.org.

This is a great example of leveraging earned media as well. 

Link.

Childhood obesity best battled in schools, research finds, in Scientific American.

Obesity rate falls for New York schoolkids

In last week's New York Times. 

The number of obese New York City schoolchildren fell by 5.5 percent over five years, federal and city officials said Thursday, offering a glimmer of optimism about one of the country’s intractable health scourges.

The decline, documented by annual fitness exams given to most of the city’s kindergarten through eighth-grade students, was the biggest reported by any large city. Over all, the rate of obesity dropped in New York City to 207 children per 1,000 in the 2010-11 school year, down from 219 five years earlier, meaning that 20.7 percent were still considered obese.

“This comes after decades of relentless increases,” Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the city’s health commissioner, said Thursday. While the 5.5 percent drop may seem slight, he said, “What’s impressive is the fact that it’s falling at all.”

The results, published Thursday in a report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showed that the declines in obesity were sharply higher among middle-class children than among poor children. They were also higher among white and Asian children compared with black and Hispanic children, and among very young children — those entering kindergarten or first grade — compared with older children.

Still, the drops held up to some extent across all grades, races and economic levels.

“Because of coordinated, sustained action I am happy to say our children are benefiting from our campaign against obesity, which has plagued communities here in New York and across the nation for nearly three decades,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said.

Mr. Bloomberg said the 5.5 percent drop translated into roughly 6,500 fewer obese children in the public schools. He said that an overwhelming majority of parents think their children are fit and at a healthy weight, but that “the facts tell a different story.”

Dr. Farley attributed the progress partly to the city’s aggressive advertising campaign against sugary sodas, which he said may have altered what parents were providing to their children. The city has also tried to add healthier options to school lunch menus, enacted strict rules on the calorie and sugar content of snacks and drinks in school vending machines, and even put limits on bake sales, a move that caused some grumbling.

Buoyed by the results, city officials also announced Thursday that the restrictions on school vending machines were being expanded to machines in all city buildings, and that they were forming a multiagency task force to recommend further initiatives to combat obesity. Dr. Farley also noted that salad bars were now in cafeterias at many schools, including Public School 218, near Yankee Stadium, where the mayor and the commissioner announced the results at a news conference.

...

The decline in obesity was documented by the city in FitnessGrams, annual physical education tests that are now completed by most of the city’s kindergarten through eighth-grade students.

As a follow-up question, the New York Times asks, what has your school been doing to encourage healthy habits in students?

Childhood obesity work featured on Wisconsin Public Television!

Live54218, the obesity prevention group in Brown County, WI, was featured on Wisconsin Public Television's "Teen Connection" on Wednesday evening! You can view a 10-minute clip from this feature on YouTube:

Farm to School Summit - Register Now!

Farm to School is growing rapidly and it is time to share lessons of the many unique programs in this state, as well as the trends throughout the region and the United States.

Please join us for the first Farm to School Summit in Wisconsin – January 25th, 2012, in conjunction with the WI Local Foods Network conference on the 26th and 27th in Delavan, WI.

For more information and to register visit the Farm to School Summit page.

Top Ten Tips for Evaluating Evidence-Based Initiatives - upcoming webinar

The next webinar in Wisconsin’s Empowering Coalitions for Community Change series will be held on Thursday, December 1 from 11:00am – 12:00pm CT.

“Top Ten” Tips for Evaluating Evidence-based Initiatives

Presenter: Mary Michaud, Health Forward Consulting

Mary Michaud will share her “Top Ten” Evaluation Tips. Join us for ideas on how to connect with current evidence and how to evaluate initiatives in ways that are practical, useful and meaningful for stakeholders.

To join the webinar, simply click the link above. This and other webinar links (past and upcoming) may also be found HERE on the NPAO Program website.

Please forward to anyone who may be interested.

If you have any questions or technical difficulties, please contact Jordan.bingham@Wisconsin.gov.