The Burness Effect Blog

Early Declines in Childhood Obesity Rates May Propel the National Movement

For thirty years, childhood obesity rates have been on the rise. Nearly one in three young people in the U.S. is overweight or obese. But The New York Times reported some encouraging news: childhood obesity rates are dropping in some cities and states.

Junk Food Is Widely Available in U.S. Schools—but New Standards Are Coming Soon

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced healthier new standards for school meals. Soon, students will find more fruits, vegetables and whole grains on their cafeteria trays, and these meals will be subject to stricter limits on calories and salt.

Sugary Drinks’ Not-So-Sweet Effect on Kids & Teens

The Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity's Sugary Drink FACTS report recommends that beverage companies develop and market child-friendly products with less added sugar; make ingredient information more easily accessible; stop targeting teens with marketing for sugary drinks or caffeinated products; and remove nutrition-related claims from high-sugar products.

The Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity released the most comprehensive study ever conducted on fast-food nutrition and marketing to children. The findings? Fast-food companies provide largely unhealthy side dishes and drinks as the default options with kids’ meals, and advertise to children as young as 2 across a variety of media.

Our nation is burdening Americans needlessly with disease— Americans who could be healthy if we tackled the factors that cause obesity: neighborhoods without spaces for physical activity, deficient access to healthy foods, high-calorie school lunches. It’s for this reason that the 42nd President called childhood obesity the “number one public health problem in the country”.

Today, there is broad agreement: childhood obesity is a public health epidemic. One in three American children is now overweight or obese.