Energy expenditure, heart rate, and upper limb and total body movement were assessed in 11- to 17-year-old adolescents whilst playing three active (Nintendo Wii) and one sedentary (XBOX 360) video games.
Cancer is far more easily prevented than cured. Winning the war on cancer will require a much larger investment in prevention to complement efforts to improve treatment. Progress can be made in cancer prevention, but will require a greater emphasis on public health programs and public policy.
Restricting the availability of unhealthy snacks in elementary schools led to a small increase in fruit and vegetable consumption among fifth-graders, a new study found. The findings were published in the January 2009 issue of The Journal of Nutrition. The study surveyed 10,285 fifth-graders at 2,065 elementary schools nationwide in the US. Original source: http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/139/1/142
UK researchers studying childhood diabetes found that childhood obesity is fixed by the age of five and suggested that the government should address more initiatives at children’s home environment and not just their school environment.
A new study in the Review of Agricultural Economics compares fast food and table service meals at restaurants. Results show that both are larger and have more calories than meals prepared at home, with the typical fast food meal being smaller and having fewer calories than the average meal from a table service restaurant.
Some of the interesting questions to be discussed include: Where does evidence fit in to public policy decision-making? How do policy-makers gather, use and evaluate evidence in decision-making? What challenges do policy-makers face in finding and using evidence? What types of evidence are most useful to policy-makers?
People with Type 2 diabetes on a high-fiber diet kept their blood sugar under better control when they ate foods like beans and nuts instead of the recommended whole-grain diet, researchers have found.
Epidemiological studies show coffee consumption to be correlated to large risk reductions in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Such correlations are seen with decaffeinated and caffeinated coffee, and occur regardless of gender, method of brewing, or geography. They also exist despite clear evidence showing that caffeine causes acute postprandial hyperglycemia and lower whole-body insulin sensitivity. As the beneficial effects of coffee consumption exist for both decaffeinated and caffeinated coffee, a component of coffee other than caffeine must be responsible. Read more in this review from Canada.
This review “The Scientific Basis for Law as a Public Health Tool” was published in November 2008. The researchers from CDC identified 65 systematic reviews of studies on the effectiveness of 52 public health laws: 27 of those laws were found effective, 23 had insufficient evidence to judge effectiveness, 1 was harmful, and 1 was found to be ineffective. This is a valuable, scientific foundation’”that uses the highest relevant standard of evidence’”for the role of law as a public health tool.
In April 2007 1525 shoppers answered questions assessed nutrition label use, understanding of the mandatory Nutrition Information Panel (NIP), and preference for and understanding of four nutrition label formats: multiple traffic light (MTL), simple traffic light (STL), NIP and percentage of daily intake (%DI). There were marked ethnic differences in ability to use the NIP to determine if a food was healthy, with lesser differences by income. Of the four label formats tested, STL and MTL labels were best understood across all ethnic and income groups, and MTL labels were most frequently preferred.