The Impact Of Usda Revisions On Food Packages On Nutritional Behavior And Obesity Among Children

“In 2001, the Surgeon General 's ‘Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity’ identified obesity as a key public health priority for the United States. Obesity rates were higher than ever, with 61% of adults nationwide overweight or obese (Brownell and Novak).” “ At present, approximately nine million children over 6 years of age are considered obese”(Koplan and Liverman). With the gravity of this situation well known, according to the public’s acknowledgement in these surveys, it is apparent and an accepted notion that things must be changed. Presumably one might think that it is as simple as that; that just like that things will change. In 2008 childhood obesity ranked number one of the biggest issues for problems concerning children in numerous states including New York. In conclusion ideas came about such as financing special menus and labels that publicize the health factors of food, but later polls show that “although 83 percent of New York State residents agree that childhood obesity is a major problem, more than a third refuse to pay even $10 a year in higher taxes to cut childhood obesity in half” (Cawley). These programs and new policies require excessive funding not even including publicizing them and enforcing them. This will inevitably lead to a tax increase or in addition money being drawn from other pressing issues. Money will be coming out of the pocket of each citizen from taxes along with an expected decrease in fast food and other

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Nutritional Services is a federal program that provides health care and proper nutrition to low income pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women during a crucial time for both mothers and babies. The mission of WIC is to “safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.” (Food and Nutrition Service, 2010).

This assignment will discuss a trust adapted version of the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST). It will demonstrate an understanding of theoretical knowledge used to develop the assessment tool. The assignment will focus on three components within the tool; discussing the reliability and validity when used in a clinical environment. A reflection of my own experience using the tool will be included and linked to aspects of reliability. Any issues with reliability will be identified and suggestions given on how they can be corrected to aid future use.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports 16.7 million children under the age of eighteen live in a household where consistent access to adequate amounts of nutritious food for a healthy life is not obtainable. This is called food insecurity. Although this is harmful to any individual, it has major implications for children. Nutrition establishes

        The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act (Public Law 108-265) was passed by Congress in 2004 (Corbin & McKenzie, 2008). The act requires all public schools, or schools with federal funding, to develop a wellness plan for the students (Corbin & McKenzie, 2008).  The policy is attached to increase opportunities for nutrition, physical education and encouragement of better food choices outside of school boundaries (Virgilio, 2009). While the sentiment is clearly positive, whether or not it works or favors certain populations is unclear. The Child Nutrition Act guidelines are a model, since some schools are not adequately funded, other vendors come into play that do not have the best interests of our children at

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Woman, Infants, and Children (WIC) was established in1972. This federally funded program’s primary focus is the nutritional harm that hunger, and poverty creates specifically for mothers, soon-to-be mothers, children and infants (Blau and Abramovitz, 2014). This program has seen an influx of participants over the many years since its existence. Recently, in 2009 WIC underwent major changes that would benefit both mothers and their children. WIC required its participants to buy healthier foods and pushed grocery stores to provide healthier foods for the participants (Block and Subramanian, 2015). Most recipients of WIC are low-income and more than likely live in neighborhoods with food deserts.

The rate of childhood obesity in New Jersey remains high, and put children at risk of developing chronic diseases in adulthood. Children living in low-income communities are more vulnerable due to several factors influencing their food choices. Thus, through the Nutritiously Me program, The Rak Foundation for Nutritional Awareness (RFNA) envisions to produce a healthy dietary behavior change among low-income communities of New Jersey.

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a federally funded public health nutrition program that provides various services to income-eligible women, breast feeding or postpartum women, infants, and children up to age 5 years old. The WIC program provides nutritional education and counseling, nutritious foods, breastfeeding support, and health care referrals if applicable to applicants. This program has been effective in the reduced rate of premature births, low birth weight babies, fetal and infant deaths, incidence of low iron (anemia), improved diet quality, increased immunization rates, increased consumption of key nutrients by pregnant women, and an increase access to earlier prenatal care.

WIC is a supplemental food program for pregnant and postpartum women and infants through the age of five years. The dieticians spoke of the food’s nutritional quality, the health benefits, how to sign up for WIC and the support given to mothers and children while on the WIC program. The dieticians reported they also provided referrals as needed for medical care, early childhood programs and additional food support options. The website reports that, “Nutrition education is the cornerstone of this public health program” (Hennepin County, 2016j). The website gives information on applying for WIC, education on the different food groups and information on buying fresh, local food from farmers markets (Hennepin County,

A large problem of childhood poverty is malnutrition. Since these children are growing up in poverty, many of the parents have a hard time supplying food for their kids. Surprisingly, there

Federally-funded school meal programs, including the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP), serve an average of 31.3 million lunches and 11.1 million breakfasts per day at a cost to the country of $11.1 billion in 2011 (Food & Nutrition Services, 2012). These federally-funded meals are an excellent opportunity for regulation of nutrition as well as education regarding healthy choices. Obesity is clearly a great threat to the health of our nation, and the federal government must step in to defend its citizens against this growing threat. Children are at the mercy of their families, their social conditions, and their schools, predisposing them to obesity through poor nutritional options and a lack of education; the federal government must intervene through regulation of school meals and snacks to protect children from the abundance of unhealthy options while also educating them and reducing childhood obesity.

In 2014 alone, 48.1 million Americans reported food insecurity, which is not having a reliable source of food (“Hunger and Poverty Facts”). Hunger affects everyone, but children especially feel the repercussions. Hunger can cause a number of physical issues including sickness, pain, weakness, anxiety and death. About 13 million children in America experience the effects of hunger, and because adolescence is a critical point of development, the impact of hunger on children can be very severe. Children who do not have enough food to eat can lack the necessary vitamins essential to childhood development. This can lead

Malnutrition is a serious health concern for people that are residing in Haiti, especially the children. Malnutrition has a serious effect on the body, “children [that] suffer from acute malnutrition are at a great risk for severe morbidity and mortality” (Roller, Gray, Previl, Forrest, 2014, p. 1094). There is no reason for these children to be suffering from malnutrition when there is such a simple solution to fix malnutrition. According to UNICEF the percent of children that are underweight and is considered moderate to severe is 11.4

Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) is defined by a weight for height ratio below -3z scores of the median WHO growth standards, through visible severe wasting or through the presence of nutritional oedema 1 . SAM affects twenty million children under the age of five worldwide where one million of these children die every year1. Senegal, a country in West Africa with an estimated population of 13 million people experiences a 20% mortality rate in children affected by SAM 2. This report will outline the current state of SAM in Senegal, programs and policies presented in Senegal in efforts to reduce the prevalence of SAM, evident gaps in these programs with a description of a suggested policy not currently employed and its implications.

After observing the latest statistics on the current generation of children in America, Michelle Obama setup the Nutritional Standards in the National School Breakfast Program, which set out to provide healthier meals to children everyday through the school (“USDA Unveils Historic Improvements to Meals Served in America’s Food”). This was what seemed like just the change the country needed to turn the tide in the fight against childhood obesity. This