Marketing of unhealthy foods to children on digital media significantly impacts their dietary preferences and contributes to diet-related noncommunicable diseases. Canadian children spend a significant amount of time on digital devices and are frequently exposed to unhealthy food marketing on social media, including by influencers with celebrity status who endorse products. This study aimed to examine the frequency, healthfulness, and power of unhealthy food marketing in posts by influencers popular with Canadian children on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Read more

The post #junkfluenced: the marketing of unhealthy food and beverages by social media influencers popular with Canadian children on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok appeared first on Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition.

The study examined the association between the usual percentage of calories (%kcal) from ultra-processed foods and the American Heart Association’s seven cardiovascular health (CVH) metrics among U.S. adolescents aged 12–19 years. The study found that U.S. adolescents consume about two-thirds of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods and that there was a graded inverse association between %kcal from UPF and CVH scores. Read more

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The province of Alberta has been given a failing grade on its nutrition report card on food environments for children and youth. Kim Raine, a distinguished professor in the University of Alberta’s School of Public Health explained to CTV News the general trend of nutrition-focused public health policies are worsening rather than improving and a D is the lowest grade recorded in the last seven years. “Diet is only the second to tobacco for the number one premature cause of death in Canada,” she said. “Without using some of those strategies that we used in tobacco control… some of those strategies used in COVID-19, then we’re not taking nutrition seriously and it’s time for us to wake up to the fact that we have an invisible pandemic of diet-related chronic diseases.” Read more

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A healthy diet was linked to better mental health and wellbeing, highlighting the need for more strategies to warn families off junk food, according to a new study. The research, led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and published in the British Journal of Nutrition, found that diets high in inflammatory foods were associated with poorer mental wellbeing in children aged 11 to 12 years. Highly processed foods, including those high in sugar or salt, are known to cause inflammation and negatively affect physical health. Read more

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Two new, large studies from England and Mexico provide new details on obesity as a risk factor for poor COVID-19–related outcomes, including death. The study out of England published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, examined data for nearly 7 million English patients 20 years and older with available body mass index (BMI) values registered at an eligible general practice from Jan 24 to Apr 30, 2020. The second study out of Mexico was published in Epidemiology & Infection and analyzed data from 15,529 COVID-19 inpatients and outpatients in Mexico’s 32 states from the National COVID-19 Epidemiological Surveillance Study between Feb 24 and Apr 26, 2020. Read more on the studies

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Doug Roth, CEO of Heart & Stroke, writes that the government cannot simply forget its pre-pandemic health commitments, it has an obligation to address pharmacare, charities, food and vaping regulations.  Read the article here

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A new study shows that building critical media skills as a family can have a positive impact on kids’ nutrition without restricting their access to TV and computers. The study, published in the journal Childhood Obesity, found that an education program that had parents and kids learn media literacy skills together not only helped children eat more fruits and vegetables but also improved communication between parents and their kids. Read more here

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Postdoctoral fellow Fei Men and Prof. Valerie Tarasuk at the University of Toronto’s Department of Nutritional Sciences and colleagues used data from the Canadian Community Health Survey to compare longevity in people with food security to those who are marginally, moderately or severely food insecure. The focus of the study is food insecurity but at root, it’s about the health problems and mortality associated with poor nutrition.  Read the article here

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An exploration of the enormous economic costs of obesity and some steps that can be taken to ensure health systems do not collapse under the burden of rising obesity-related cancer, diabetes and heart diseases.  Read the article here

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In Canada obesity-related health care costs are as high as $7 billion and are projected to increase to nearly $9 billion by 2021. But experts say many of these costs are a result of the health care system’s failure to properly treat obesity. Rather than taking a proactive approach, the system is instead set up to treat conditions that develop as a result of the disease which results in more money being spent in the long-run. Read the article here

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