Title: Food and Nutrition Section News
Author:
Section/SPIG: Food and Nutrition
Issue Date:
AWARDS
Although the deadline has recently passed for this year’s award nominations, in the future, please consider your colleagues who are members of the Food and Nutrition Section for one of the following awards presented at the APHA annual meeting.
Catherine Cowell Award
Sponsored by the Food & Nutrition Section; award plaque. The Catherine Cowell award recognizes excellence and achievement in administration, planning, mentoring, and team building in public health nutrition.
Mary C. Egan Award
Sponsored by the Food & Nutrition Section; award plaque. The Mary C. Egan award recognizes the professional contributions and outstanding services of public health nutritionists, including development of new approaches to public health nutrition, nutrition education, or groups with special nutrition needs.
Excellence in Dietary Guidance Award
Sponsored by the Produce For Better Health Foundation and the Food & Nutrition Section; award plaque and monetary award. The Excellence in Dietary Guidance award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions in the area of dietary guidance formulation, research, education, implementation or policy change.
Congratulations to the Award Recipients for 2003
Catherine Cowell Award - Annie B. Carr
Mary C. Egan Award - Ellen Harris
Excellence in Dietary Guidance Award - Katrina Holt
Agnes Higgins Award - Lois Jovanovic
Student Abstract Award - Tracy Hilliard
More information on the Food and Nutrition Section Awards can be viewed at <http://www.aphafoodandnutrition.org/awards.htm>.
NUTRITION POLICY STATEMENTS & RESOLUTIONS
In February 2004, the proposed policy statement shown below was submitted to APHA by the Food and Nutrition Section. (Note: This proposed policy statement has not been voted on by the Governing Council and should be for APHA members' eyes only). A special "thank you" to Geraldine Perry for suggesting that we submit a policy statement on this subject, and to Margo Wootan for leading the effort in drafting the following:
PROPOSED POLICY STATEMENT SPONSORED BY:
Food and Nutrition Section, APHA
Support for Nutrition Labeling in Fast-Food and Other Chain Restaurants
The American Public Health Association is concerned and working to address the rising obesity rates in adults and children. Poor eating habits contribute not only to obesity, but also to heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and other serious and costly diseases.
There are a number of factors that contribute to obesity and poor diets. One is the increase in the frequency of eating out. Nationally representative studies have shown that Americans are eating out twice as much as in 1970. In 1970, Americans spent just 26 percent of their food dollars on restaurant meals and other meals prepared outside their homes.(1) Today, we spend almost half (46 percent) our food dollars at restaurants. Adults and children are eating about a third of their calories from away-from-home foods.(2)
Increases in Americans’ caloric intake over the past two decades may be due in part to increases in eating out.(2,3) Children eat almost twice as many calories when they eat a meal at a restaurant (770 calories) compared to a meal at home (420 calories).(4) Women who eat out more often (more than 5 times a week) consume an average of 290 more calories each day than women who eat out less often.(5) Several (though not all) studies have found a positive association between eating out and body weight or body fatness.(7,8,9,10,11)
Foods that people eat from fast-food and other food-service establishments are generally higher in nutrients for which over-consumption is a problem (like fat and saturated fat) and lower in nutrients that people need to eat more of (like calcium and fiber) as compared to home-prepared foods.(2,5,8,9,11) The foods that children eat from fast-food and other restaurants also are higher in fat and saturated fat and lower in fiber, iron, calcium, and cholesterol than foods from home.(4,12)
Portion sizes in America have increased since the 1970s, paralleling the increase in energy intake.(13,14) Calorie counts of restaurant foods can be high. A white chocolate mocha and a cinnamon scone at a coffeehouse can have about a half-a-day’s calories (1,030 calories). A large fast-food chocolate shake has over a thousand calories.
While the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) requires nutrition information on nearly all packaged foods, fast-food and other restaurants are exempt. Yet, the nutritional content of restaurant foods is often hard to estimate. A tuna salad sandwich has 50 percent more calories than the roast beef with mustard at a typical deli. A porterhouse steak has twice the calories of the sirloin.
The current system of voluntary labeling at restaurants is inadequate given the growing and significant role of restaurant foods in Americans’ diets. Two-thirds of the largest chain restaurants do not provide any nutrition information to their customers.(15) The third that do have nutrition information provide it on Web sites, which have to be accessed before leaving home, or on brochures or posters that can be hard to find and difficult to read.
Three-quarters of adults report using food labels on packaged foods,(16)and using food labels is associated with eating more-healthful diets.(17,18,19) Two-thirds of Americans support requiring restaurants to provide nutrition information, including calories, on menus.(20,21)
A number of policies and approaches should be undertaken to reduce obesity and help support Americans’ efforts to eat better. Nutrition labeling at fast-food and other chain restaurants is an important one given the large percentage of our calories eaten from away-from-home foods, the large portion sizes and high calorie contents often served, and the lack of nutrition information available at restaurants. It also is a practical, low-cost solution in these times of tight government budgets.
APHA supports:
1. Federal, state or local policies to require fast-food and other chain restaurants (smaller, neighborhood restaurants could be exempt) to provide consumers with nutrition information. That information might include calorie, carbohydrate (important to people with diabetes), saturated plus trans fat, and sodium labeling on printed menus and calories on menu boards (where space is limited). The food environment should be changed to provide people with nutrition information at the full range of places where decisions about food purchases and consumption are made.
2. Efforts to teach people how to use the new nutrition information provided in restaurants to make healthier food choices for themselves and their families. Nutrition information at restaurants will create new opportunities for the public health community to address energy balance.
3. Urging restaurants to improve the nutritional quality of their menu offerings such as reducing caloric content, offering smaller portions, offering more fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and using healthier cooking fats (lower in saturated and trans fat).
SUBMITTED BY:
The Food and Nutrition Section, APHA
Margo G. Wootan, DSc
Chair, Legislation & Public Policy, Food and Nutrition Section
1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 777-8352 (phone)
1. National Restaurant Association (NRA). “Industry at a Glance.” Accessed at <http://www.restaurant.org/research/ind_glance.cfm> on April 12, 2002.
2. Lin B, Guthrie J, Frazao E. Away-From-Home Foods Increasingly Important to Quality of American Diet. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, 1999. Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 749.
3. Nielsen SJ, Siega-Riz AM, Popkin BM. “Trends in Food Locations and Sources among Adolescents and Young Adults.” Preventive Medicine 2002, vol. 35, pp. 107-113.
4. Zoumas-Morse C, Rock CL, Sobo EJ, Neuhouser ML. “Children’s Patterns of Macronutrient Intake and Associations with Restaurant and Home Eating.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 2001, vol. 101, pp. 923-925.
5. Clemens LHE, Slawson DL, Klesges RC. “The Effect of Eating Out on Quality of Diet in Premenopausal Women.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 1999, vol. 99, pp. 442-444.
6. French SA, Story M, Neumark-Sztainer D, Fulkerson JA, Hannan P. “Fast Food Restaurant Use among Adolescents: Associations with Nutrient Intake, Food Choices and Behavioral and Psychosocial Variables.” International Journal of Obesity 2001, vol. 25, pp. 1823-1833.
7. Binkley JK, Eales J, Jekanowski M. “The Relation Between Dietary Change and Rising US Obesity.” International Journal of Obesity 2000, vol. 24, pp. 1032-1039.
8. Jeffery RW, French SA. “Epidemic Obesity in the United States: Are Fast Food and Television Viewing Contributing?” American Journal of Public Health 1998, vol. 88, pp. 277-280.
9. Ma Y, Bertone ER, Stanek III EJ, Reed GW, Hebert JR, Cohen NL, Merriam PA, Ockene IS. “Association between Eating Patterns and Obesity in a Free-living US Adult Population.” American Journal of Epidemiology 2003, vol. 158, pp. 85-92.
10. McCrory MA, Fuss PJ, Saltzman E, Roberts SB. “Dietary Determinants of Energy Intake and Weight Regulation in Healthy Adults.” Journal of Nutrition 2000, vol. 130 (Supplement), pp. 276S-279S.
11. McCrory MA, Fuss PJ, Hays NP, Vinken AG, Greenberg AS, Roberts SB. “Overeating in America: Associations between Restaurant Food Consumption and Body Fatness in Healthy Adult Men and Women Ages 19 to 80.” Obesity Research 1999, vol. 7, pp. 564-571.
12. Lin BH, Guthrie J, Blaylock JR. The Diets of America’s Children: Influence of Dining Out, Household Characteristics, and Nutrition Knowledge. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, 1996. Agricultural Economic Report No. 746.
13. Jacobson MF, Hurley JG. Restaurant Confidential. New York, NY: Workman Publishing, 2002.
14. Nielsen SJ, Popkin BM. “Patterns and Trends in Food Portion Sizes, 1977-1998.” Journal of the American Medical Association 2003, vol. 289, pp. 450-453.
15. Almanza BA, Nelson D, Chai S. “Obstacles to Nutrition Labeling in Restaurants.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 1997, vol. 97, pp. 157-161.
16. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (US DHHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Healthy People 2000 Final Review. Hyattsville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, 2001. DHHS Publication No. 01-0256.
17. Kim SY, Nayga RM, Capps O. “The Effect of Food Label Use on Nutrient Intakes: An Endogenous Switching Regression Analysis.” Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 2000, vol. 25, pp. 215-231.
18. Kreuter MW, Brennan LK, Scharff DP, Lukwago SN. “Do Nutrition Label Readers Eat Healthier Diets? Behavioral Correlates of Adults’ Use of Food Labels.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 1997, vol. 13, pp. 277-283.
19. Neuhouser ML, Kristal AR, Patterson RE. “Use of Food Nutrition Labels Is Associated with Lower Fat Intake.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 1999, vol. 99, pp. 45-50, 53.
20. Global Strategy Group. Nationally representative poll commissioned by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Washington, D.C.; September 4-8, 2003.
21. Harvard Forums on Health. “Obesity as a Public Health Issue: A Look at Solutions.” National poll by Lake Snell Perry & Associates, June 2003.
NOTE: The above proposed policy statement should be considered "DRAFT" and should not be taken as official APHA policy unless and until formally adopted by the organization.
APHA SECTION ELECTIONS
The American Public Health Association's 2004 Section elections will begin May 14, 2004, and will end on June 15, 2004.
On May 14 you should have received an e-mail notification from "Election Services Corporation," letting you know that your Section's election is open. Please do not delete this e-mail.
Your e-mail notification will include:
* Your online election validation number
* Your APHA membership ID number
* Voting instructions
* A direct link to your Section's voting Web site
All you have to do is click on the direct link and VOTE!
If you choose to vote online, please be assured that the site will be secure and you will have the same level of privacy and anonymity as if voting by mail. The system will prevent anyone from voting more than once.