Systematic biases may obscure or inflate associations with self-reported intakes. This cross-sectional survey aims to identify cognitive, behavioral, and social correlates of bias in children’s reporting of breakfast items on a self-completion questionnaire. 678 kids aged 9 to 11 years from 111 schools throughout Wales in 2005 participated. A larger percentage of less-healthful breakfast items (ie, sweet snacks and potato chips) were omitted from questionnaire self-reports. Children from lower socioeconomic status schools omitted more items than those from wealthier schools with omissions twice as high for less-healthful items than for more-healthful items within the lowest socioeconomic status schools.
Archive for category School nutrition
Self-reporting sucks VI
Oct 29
MyPyramid for Preschoolers
Oct 27
USDA today released their MyPyramid for Preschoolers for children 2 to 5 years of age. It covers not just what they should eat, but also their growth, physical activity, and what to do when they draw battle lines over food.
Lack of sleep, excessive television/computer screen time, stress, gambling, alcohol and tobacco use and other health-related issues are taking a toll on college students’ academic performance, according to a study just released by the University of Minnesota Boynton Health Service.
Enjoy these videos from U.S. News and World Report.
The aim was to examine rates of weight-based teasing before initiation of school-based childhood obesity prevention policies in Arkansas and during the 2 years following policy implementation. At baseline, 14% of children experienced weight-based teasing by parental report. The prevalence of weight-based teasing did not change significantly from baseline in the 2 years following school-based policy changes. Children and adolescents most likely to be teased because of weight were those who were overweight, obese, white, female, and 14 years or older, as well as those teased for other reasons. Adolescent report of weight-based teasing yielded similar patterns.
EU agriculture ministers, including Ireland’s Brendan Smith, have given broad support to the scheme, which aims to start next year to promote healthy eating and to tackle child obesity. An estimated 22 million children in the EU are overweight. More than five million of those are obese, and that figure is expected to rise by 400,000 every year. The scheme, proposed by EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, would see €90 million a year earmarked from EU funds, with each country matching the amount of cash that it receives from Brussels.
A ban on pupils having sugar in their cups of tea in a school canteen has been lifted, and replaced with a two spoonfuls-only rule. Watch this wonderful video with students protesting.
The Pro Children Intervention could not increase the fruit and vegetable consumption of the mothers of participating pupils, which might be explained by the low involvement in the project. But the research showed that higher involvement levels were associated with higher intake among children at follow-up.
Love Your Veggies Grants
Oct 12
Ten Elementary Schools to Receive $15,000 Grant to Promote Fresh Vegetable Consumption. A salad dressing maker, School Nutrition Foundation (SNF) and Produce for Better Health Foundation announced this years Love Your Veggiesâ„¢ grant program in the US. Innovative programs that will increase the access to, and consumption of, fresh fruits and vegetables in schools are invited to apply.
For the second straight year, “increasing the availability of whole grains” was the top response given by school nutrition directors when they were asked about changes they were making in school meal programs. According to the School Nutrition Association’s 2008 Back to School Nutrition Trends Report, 85.2% of schools cited whole grains.