June 12, 2013 ? District policies and state laws help reduce the availability of sugar- and fat-laden foods and beverages in elementary schools, according to a study published online in JAMA Pediatrics.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago looked at the association between established policies and laws and the availability of candy, baked goods, ice cream, chips, sugar-sweetened beverages, and soda sold outside the school meal program. More than 1,800 elementary schools in 45 states responded to surveys during the 2008-2009 and 2010-2011 school years.
The researchers found that in schools without district or state guidelines limiting sugar content in foods, 43.5 percent sold sweets. When both district and state guidelines restricted the sale of sweets, only 32.3 percent of schools -- nearly a quarter fewer -- sold these foods.
The study shows that "policies can improve the elementary school food and beverage environment, and state and district policies are often reinforcing one another," says Jamie Chriqui, lead author of the study and senior research scientist at UIC's Institute for Health Research and Policy.
Sugar-sweetened beverages were available in only one-fourth as many schools that had a district-wide ban as in those that had no policy (3.6 percent and 13.1 percent of schools, respectively). But the availability of sugar-sweetened beverages was not influenced by state policies.
Public elementary schools are required, through an unfunded federal mandate, to have a wellness policy with nutritional guidelines for "competitive" foods and beverages -- those that vie with items in the school meal program.
"Given the problems we have with overconsumption of sugar-sweetened beverages by children and youth, the fact that unfunded district policies are actually helping to change the availability of sugar sweetened beverages in elementary schools is a really positive sign," said Chriqui.
However, the study also revealed that the policies are not being fully implemented. For example, the researchers found that of the 121 surveyed schools that were in states with laws prohibiting sale of sugar-sweetened beverages in elementary schools, 22 schools -- all in southern states -- still sold sugar-sweetened beverages despite state-wide bans.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is working to implement nationwide standards governing competitive foods and beverages in schools as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.
"There is a lot of room for continued progress," said Chriqui, who noted that the study provides promising data to guide the USDA's efforts to impose new federal standards for competitive foods and beverages.
Co-authors include Lindsey Turner, Daniel Taber and Frank Chaloupka, all of UIC.
The study was supported in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the Bridging the Gap Program at UIC.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/V1sY1KM_0-I/130612162302.htm
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Public release date: 12-Jun-2013
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It’s time for Apple to treat us like adults. The company revolutionized the smartphone with iOS, no doubt. But as iOS gets older, its users are, too, and fewer and fewer of them are first-time smartphone owners. It made sense to hold everybody’s hands when this whole idea of a computer in your pocket was new. But just as Apple will probably move from skeuomorphic design to a more abstract flat design in iOS 7, it should also trust its users a bit more and give them more control over how they want to use the operating system. Sure, Apple will never allow something like Facebook Home on its phones (that’s an abomination anyway), but isn’t it time for Apple to allow users to switch at least some defaults away from Apple’s own apps and to allow third-party services to come in and take over? The prime example here is obviously Safari. Google’s Chrome, Opera and others make pretty competitive mobile browsers now and many of them are superior to Safari in a number of ways. With its proxy services, for example, both Google and Opera can save users bandwidth costs (in Chrome, that’s just available in the Android beta, right now). I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple soon also offered this feature, but why not let the user choose a default browser. Google already redirects iOS users to Chrome from its own apps like Gmail for iOS when possible, but most apps don’t do this, so there is really no point in switching browsers. The same thing goes for Apple Maps, too. It’s the prime example of a default iOS app that’s inferior to its competitors, but it’s still the app that Yelp and every other popular app will always open. It’s a bit easier to switch to long-term, because you’ll probably want to use it as a standalone app, too, but it’s still an unnecessary hassle. Outside of apps, it would also be nice if Apple finally allowed third-party keyboards. Let’s face it – the standard iOS keyboard is getting a bit old. Sure, sooner or later, Apple will likely copy Swype (just like Google did) and offer a swipe-driven keyboard, too, but there is something to be said for choice. I can hear the murmuring: Why don’t you just switch to Android? The truth is, I probably will. For a long time, the trade-off was great user
