Eating at School: How the National School Lunch Program Affects Children's Diets

This article examines the impact of participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) on children's dietary intake at lunchtime and over 24 hours. Using a fixed effects model to control for selection bias, we find that NSLP participation leads to increased 24-hour intake of six vitamins and minerals—calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, vitamin B12, and riboflavin—as well as dietary fiber. Participation also leads to a trade-off between children's intake of dietary fat and added sugars whereby participants have higher intakes of dietary fat than nonparticipants but lower intakes of added sugars.     

Apparent consumption of caloric sweeteners increased after the implementation of NAFTA in Mexico

The consumption of sugar and sweeteners have been associated with obesity and diabetes, which are public health problems in Mexico. Since 1994, imports of sweeteners for the elaboration of ultra-processed food and beverages increased in the country. This increase in imports may have increased the apparent consumption of sweeteners which could be associated with the implementation of the NAFTA that gradually eliminated tariffs on sugars. However, no study has estimated trends in apparent consumption by type of sugar, and its association with NAFTA in Mexico. Therefore, we analyzed trends in apparent consumption of sugar and sweeteners, and its contribution to energy from 1961 to 2013. We assessed if the gradual implementation of NAFTA in 1994, 1998, 2003 and 2008 was associated with changes in the consumption of sugar and sweeteners in Mexico using the Food Balance Sheet data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. We estimated an interrupted time series analysis with synthetic controls using OECD countries, to assess the association between NAFTA and changes in the type of sugar consumed. We found that between 1961 and 2013, the contribution of sugars to daily energy increased from 243 to 456 (243 to 456 kcal/capita/day). Until 1993, the consumption of sweeteners was 0.20 kg/capita/year and in 2013 reached 12.9 kg/capita/year, representing 20% of total sugar consumption. The consumption of sweeteners increased 2.93 kcal/capita/day after the NAFTA was implemented in 1994. However, there was a reduction in apparent consumption of −2.95 kcal/capita/day between 1998 and 2002, concurrent with the implementation of a 12.5% ad valorem compensatory duty to high fructose corn syrup imports from the US. Consumption increased again 7.7 kcal/capita/day between 2003 and 2007 and up to 10.4 kcal/capita/day after 2008 when the NAFTA was fully implemented. We found a significant increase in the apparent consumption of sweeteners associated with NAFTA but we did not find a conclusive evidence when we estimates total sugars and sweeteners together because we lacked an adequate control group. Sweeteners are mainly used for producing beverages and processed food, so its consumption should be discouraged by improving the existing package of interventions in Mexico, including a 20–30% increase to current taxes that have proven to be effective to reduce sugar sweetened beverages and nonessential energy dense food but whose existing rates are relatively small; improving front of package labelling, monitoring compliance in school regulations for food and beverages sold and improving marketing regulations directed to children.     

Adherence to WHO’s nutrition recommendations in the UK: Dietary patterns and policy implications from a national survey

Analysis of dietary patterns has largely focused on their association with diseases or risk factors, but limited research has been conducted on the heterogeneity of population dietary patterns and their adherence to international or national nutritional guidelines. As a result, the aim of this study is to identify latent dietary patterns of UK residents and to assess how well different segments comply with WHO dietary norms.To achieve this objective, the UK’s National Diet and Nutrition Surveys for 2011–12 dataset was analysed performing a latent class analysis on energy (kcals) derived from selected food groups. To assess adherence to different dietary patterns of the British population to nutritional guidelines, a traffic light system and a composite conformity index were developed to establish how well the identified segments comply with current dietary WHO norms regarding salt, free sugars, total fat, saturated fat, fruit and vegetables and dietary fibre.Results show four different segments which on the basis of heterogeneity of dietary patterns were named ‘high sugar/high fat consumers’, ‘prudent eaters’, ‘high fat consumers’ and ‘junk food eaters’. These segments show significant differences within and between groups in terms of dietary calories intakes and their adherence to WHO norms. Although ‘prudent eaters’ are closer to WHO dietary guidelines than other segments, none of the identified segments fully comply with dietary WHO norms. Policy implications of these findings are fully discussed in the conclusions arguing how current, future and potential dietary demand and supply measures affect consumers’ compliance with WHO norms.