How far schoolkids live from junk food sources tied to obesity

Medical X-Press – Staff Writer

For the more than 1 million children attending New York City public schools, their choice of what to eat depends on which food sources are close to where they live. As measured in city blocks, proximity to fast and convenience food sellers can impact a student’s chances of becoming obese, according to a new study by researchers at NYU School of Medicine.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-10-schoolkids-junk-food-sources-tied.html

Drinking more water improves multitasking ability in children, study finds

Medical X-Press – Liz Ahlberg Touchstone

Drinking water not only keeps children hydrated, but also increases their ability to multitask, suggests a new study by researchers at the University of Illinois and their collaborators. After drinking more water for four days, nine- to 11-year-old children were more hydrated and had faster reaction times on a task-switching test, the researchers reported in The Journal of Nutrition.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-10-multitasking-ability-children.html

10 Easy Dinner Ideas For Kids

Moms – Christine Persaud

Balancing your kids picky eating habits with the time you have available to make dinner can be a chore. It can be especially difficult if you have multiple children who all have their own culinary likes and dislikes. Usually, there are a few dishes that pretty much every child likes: grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, pasta, and pizza are among the list. But you also want to inject some healthy vegetables and protein in there so the kids don’t develop bad eating habits and to get them familiar with new tastes and textures to liven up their taste buds.

https://www.moms.com/easy-dinner-ideas-for-kids/

Create new Halloween rituals with healthy eating and playful living

The Conversation – Kathleen Kevany

Food is used to mark special occasions in culturally distinct and personally valuable ways. People love their food and celebrations, but they don’t love the consequences of lower-quality diets. Halloween can be a time of fun and festivities as well as a frenzy around sweet treats that can be quite unsavoury to parents. A poor-quality diet is characterized by eating foods high in fat, salt or sugar often — foods such as processed meats, chips, white bread and soft drinks. As a result of these diets, obesity among children and youth has nearly tripled in the past 30 years in Canada.

https://theconversation.com/create-new-halloween-rituals-with-healthy-eating-and-playful-living-125898

Are Sugar Substitutes Hiding in Kid-Friendly Foods?

Consumer Reports – Sally Wadyka

If you’re a parent trying to limit sugar and avoid sugar substitutes, such as sucralose, in your children’s diets, making informed choices could be a challenge. Research has shown that—thanks in part to misleading label language—parents aren’t always sure which products contain sugar substitutes and which don’t, and gaps remain in our understanding of how these sweeteners may affect kids. 

https://www.consumerreports.org/sugar-sweeteners/are-sugar-substitutes-hiding-in-kid-friendly-foods/