Healthcare Topic: Childhood Obesity

Encouraging Risk in a Risk Adverse World

Danielle Marshall
Monday, January 1, 2012

 “It's the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance. It's the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance. It's the one who won't be taken, who cannot seem to give, and the soul afraid of dyin' that never learns to live.” -Amanda McBroom, The Rose

The Knowledge Gap of Practices in Child Care Settings: Progress on the Horizon

Karah Mantinan, MPH, RD, Sarah Lifsey
Thursday, February 2, 2012

With the passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, the United States Department of Agriculture will be revising the nutrition guidelines for the Child and Adult Care Food Program for the first time in decades. This represents an important time to align the program with the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans and to address the epidemic of childhood obesity that has developed over the past several decades. CACFP is a federal nutrition assistance program administered by the Food and Nutrition Service of the USDA.

One Step Past Prevention: New Tools to Limit the Incidence of Obesity

John E. Courtney, Ph.D.
Tuesday, February 2, 2012

Obesity is a rapidly growing concern in the United States—no pun intended. In 2010, about one-third (33.8 percent) of adults in the U.S., and approximately 17 percent of children and adolescents were considered obese. The government estimates that 30 percent of the Medicare population is obese.

New WIC Food Package Widely Accepted, But Challenges Remain

Loren Bell, Stacy Gleason
Tuesday, March 3, 2012

The Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides federal grants to states for supplemental foods, health care referrals and nutrition education for low-income, pregnant and postpartum women, infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional-risk. Based on recommendations from the Institute of Medicine, the foods available to participants in the WIC program underwent a significant overhaul in 2009 to better align nutrient intake among WIC participants with the latest dietary guidelines.