WTOP – Mark Lewis
“When it comes to influencing a child’s eating habits, moms typically have a more dominant role in many two-parent households. But you can’t underestimate the contributions of dads. This is especially true since many dads have taken on more of the food shopping and meal preparation functions.”(more)
The 74 Million – Kevin Mahnkin
“Efforts to make school meals more nutritious have yielded noticeably positive results, according to a paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. That progress, however, isn’t measured in lower obesity rates, but in improved academic performance. The study collected data between 2008 and 2013 from roughly 9,700 California public schools, comparing the vast majority that prepare meals in-house to those that contract with outside vendors. Measuring the nutritional quality of the vendors’ meals against the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Healthy Eating Index, the authors found that students who ate healthy meals at school also scored slightly better on California’s STAR tests (then the state’s standardized examinations of annual student progress, which have since been replaced by another system).”(more)
Ekathimerini – Staff Writer
“Children in Greece are showing all the signs of poor food choices and a lack of exercise, with high blood pressure and pre-diabetic symptoms, a study by Harokopio University has shown.”(more)
The London Telegraph – Lucy Waterlow
“According to Sinead Johnson, group family manager at David Lloyd Clubs, the launch is in response to the rising appetite for families to be more active together. ‘We’ve noticed how more parents are encouraging their kids to exercise with them, because they know it leads to healthy habits. It’s probably a backlash to all that screen time,’ she says. ‘The goal with the Prama classes is to transform the fitness experience and inject fun into training sessions with an arcade-style environment.’ Technology is often blamed for creating a sedentary generation, as many youngsters prefer to control a character running in a video game than actually break a sweat themselves. Now an increasing number of parents are finding that if they want to prise their children away from their devices, they have to get them to do as they do, not just as they say.”(more)
The Hindustan Times – Staff Writer
“Children in preschool begin to learn from their environment about self-regulation, both with regards to food choices and how to deal with their emotions. When children don’t learn effective self-regulation skills during those early critical years, studies have shown they may be at a greater risk of becoming obese. One factor that has been linked to childhood obesity is restrictive feeding practices by primary caregivers, the implication being that it may interfere with a child’s ability to learn to self-regulate food intake.”(more)