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Healthy diet could save $50 billion in health care costs

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Science Daily

A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in collaboration with investigators at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, analyzed the impact of 10 dietary factors and estimated the annual cardiometabolic disease costs of suboptimal diet habits. The team concludes that suboptimal diet costs approximately $300 per person, or $50 billion nationally, accounting for 18 percent of all heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes costs in the US.

You can read the study here

Double burden of obesity, undernourishment stalks world: report

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CTV News

Low- and middle-income countries risk seeing their development progress slashed by the double-edged sword of obesity and undernutrition, both caused by a lack of access to affordable healthy food, a report in The Lancet warned. This “double burden of malnutrition”, affects more than a third of some 130 countries classed as low-and middle-income, and it is increasingly seen in the same household — most commonly an overweight mother and a child stunted by undernutrition living under the same roof.

You can read the report here

Advocates want federal government to adopt national school food program

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CBC News

With Parliament set to open Dec. 5, a group of advocates is hoping the federal government will support a national school food program based on the new Canada Food Guide. Canada is the only G7 nation without such a program.There was some political interest from federal parties throughout the last election, the Liberals had a national food program in their spring budget before the election, and the Green and New Democratic parties also had it in their platforms.  Read the article here.

What’s so bad about processed foods? Scientists offer clues

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CTV News
Three recent studies offer more clues on how our increasingly industrialized food supply may be affecting our health, they also underscore how difficult nutrition science and advice can be. Distinguishing which processed foods might be better or worse is increasingly difficult as companies continually re-engineer products to make them seem more wholesome. Read full article here.

The Ads That Kids Shouldn’t See

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The University of Toronto Magazine

Professor Mary L’Abbé, who conducts research into the nutritional quality of packaged and restaurant food, talks to deputy editor Stacey Gibson about the disturbing consequences of marketing unhealthy fare to kids.
Excerpt: “We want more of the onus to be put on the system rather than the individual to find the healthiest food. A parent goes into a grocery store with two children in tow and, with limited time, tries to pick out the healthiest foods while being bombarded by advertisements. It’s a hard job, and we want to help minimize the struggle”.