Food for Thought (Feb. 26 – Mar. 3)

Food and Health

A new report from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) shows 16% of total daily caloric intake of children and adolescents coming from added sugar in foods and drinks. The recommended amount is no more than 15%, but includes fat, as well as sugar. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/242328.php

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System survey of adolescents, only 21% of our children eat the recommended 5 or more fruits and vegetables per day. So not very many children are asking their parents to "pass the peas," and parents are resorting to other methods to get their children to eat their vegetables. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120301180910.htm

In recent studies, University of Georgia foods and nutrition researchers uncovered the unequal distribution of food stores in one Southeast community. The first study covered access to stores for people using food stamps, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, while the second study looked at what healthy foods were available at supermarkets, grocery and convenience stores. Both studies found access to healthy food is most problematic in low-income, predominately black neighborhoods. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242149.php

On a warm, sunny Thursday morning in Frankfort, school bus drivers and monitors are chatting in their cafeteria-style lounge when Madonna Mikaitis enters the room to make an announcement. "Who's walking today?" Mikaitis booms. "Let's go!" With that, about 15 employees of American School Bus Co. pile into one of their buses and head to Lincoln Mall in nearby Matteson for the group's morning walk through the shopping center's hallways. En route, the drivers pass around a sign-in sheet with the header "Live Well — Live Long!"
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-x-0229-bus-driver-obesity-20120229,0,706019,full.story

Food Safety

In a move that could help shoppers make more informed choices, the nutrition fact labels seen on most processed foods must now also be on all packages of raw ground beef, turkey and chicken. http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/03/new-labels-required-on-ground-meat-poultry-packages/

Food Safety News pulled the lobbyist reports filed in January 2012 for the fourth quarter of 2011. The top 10 are ranked in descending order based on their reported quarterly spending: Tyson Foods Inc. - $464,837.24; McDonald's Corporation - $430,000; Cargill Inc. - $360,000; Smithfield Foods - $265,000; Hormel Foods Corporation - $123,076; Starbucks - $120,000; The Kroger Co. - $90,000; Wegmans Foods - $90,000; Kraft Foods Global Inc. - $50,000. http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/03/slicing-into-the-food-industrys-40-million-worth-of-lobbying/

Pasou Foods of Syracuse, IN is recalling about 147 pounds of frozen, fully cooked, ready-to-eat pizza sticks because a meat ingredient may have been produced without federal inspection, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced Friday. http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/03/frozen-pizza-sticks-recalled-in-indiana/

Food Assistance

…nearly three-quarters of a century ago almost the only thing you could buy — with or without regulation — was real food. Since then Big Food has moved our diet in the wrong direction, and now we have a surplus of empty calories. The argument for limiting the use of food stamps to actual food is consistent with established policy. They’re already disallowed for tobacco, alcohol,vitamins, pet foods, household supplies and (with some exceptions) food meant to be eaten on premises. Payments have been based on the cost of a “nutritionally adequate diet.” http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/regulating-our-sugar-habit/

Families are feeling the pinch more and more these days, and no where is that more evident than at food banks across the nation. According to a new survey by the food research and action center, 20% of Indiana households needed food assistance at some point last year. http://www.14news.com/story/17068689/food-banks-seeing-increase-in-hungry-families