Eating trans fat weakens memory in younger men, study says

Trans fats, the use of which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration limited last month, are associated with reduced memory function in men 45 and younger, says a University of California San Diego School of Medicine study published in the online journal PLOS ONE.

Researchers asked 1,018 men and women to fill out a dietary survey and take a word-recall memory test. Men 45 and younger remembered an average of 86 words, but for each additional gram of trans fats eaten daily, memory dropped by 0.76 words. Compared to the men who didn't consume trans fats, those in the study who consumed the most recalled 12 fewer words.

"Trans fats were mostly strongly linked to worse memory in men during their high-productivity years," said Beatrice A. Golomb, lead author and professor of medicine at UCSD. "Trans fat consumption has previously shown adverse associations to behavior and mood—other pillars of brain function. However, to our knowledge a relation to memory or cognition had not been shown."

Other research has shown that trans fatty acid consumption is linked to negative effects on lipid profile, metabolic function, insulin resistance, inflammation and cardiac and general health. "As I tell patients: While trans fats increase the shelf life of foods, they reduce the shelf life of people," Golomb said.

Annual health policy forum set Sept. 28 in Bowling Green

This year's annual Howard L. Bost Health Policy Forum "will offer new insights and opportunities from a range of civic sectors for a shared vision, policies, and actions for community health," says its lead sponsor, the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

"Local, regional, and national speakers will share their knowledge and experiences in building healthy communities, with a focus on transportation and housing, education, food systems and policy, and employers and workplaces," the foundation says. "TED style" speakers will make presentations on each of the forum's four focus areas: education, food systems and policy, employer/workplace, and transportation/housing.

The forum will be held at the Sloan Convention Center in Bowling Green on Monday, Sept. 28. For the registration website, click here.

Trimble County parents protest 'humiliating' treatment of students whose school lunchroom accounts are in the red

Parents in Trimble County are demanding that the county schools stop serving cheese sandwiches to students whose lunchroom accounts are in the red, Kayla Vanover of WAVE-TV in Louisville reports.

"Embarrassing, humiliating and 'flat out wrong' is how parents described the school's policy to take a student's lunch right off the lunch table and toss it because the child's parents had not replenished their account to cover the meal," Vanover reports.

On May 20, Lori Ritchie's daughter "sat down to eat, but her hot meal was thrown away and she was given a cheese sandwich with a side," Vanover reports. "Ritchie said she doesn't blame the workers, but she said the policy needed to be changed a long time ago. Wednesday, a special called public meeting with the school board allowed other parents and community members to voice their opinions on the current policy, in hopes an agreement could be made."

Doug Joyce, grandfather of a student, told the board, "It is bullying. We throw kids out of school or reprimand them for bulling, so why should we let grown-ups bully kids like that?" A board member, unidentified in Vanover's story, said "We don't want any child to be embarrassed or receive an alternative meal, so we are really going to beef up the communication."

Advocates of school nutrition standards use high-school chefs' competition to show that food can still taste good

The higher school-food standards required by the Child Nutrition Act expire this year, and Republicans are continuing their efforts to roll back some of them. Democrats and advocates of the standards used a student cooking event on Capitol Hill to generate support for the standards, apparently to counter arguments of some school nutrition directors that some of the healthier options are more difficult to prepare and serve.

In the final competition, the top nine high-school teams served their winning dishes to lawmakers. The dishes had to follow their cafeterias' budgets and the national standards: To win, students had to include products rich in whole grains, low in sodium and a half-cup of fruits and vegetables, Whitney Forman-Cook reports for Agri-Pulse, a Washington newsletter. She doesn't list any of the dishes, but they're listed with the winners on the "Cooking Up Change" website of the Healthy Schools Campaign.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., hosted the event. She said that she and Senate Agriculture Committee Chariman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who has vowed to roll back some of the standards, have been discussing the issue, and she would like to pass a bipartisan bill by Sept. 30, when the current law's authority ends. One standard Stabenow doesn't want to compromise on is the requirement for a half-cup of fruit and vegetables; Michigan is a big fruit and vegetable state.

Stabenow said the Department of Agriculture "is very willing to work with schools where there are issues" in meeting nutrition requirements. (Read more)

Health care professionals strongly endorse new federal dietary guidelines, which say to eat less red and processed meat

A group of 700 physicians and other health care professionals sent a letter of strong endorsement to the secretaries of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services praising the recommended federal dietary guidelines that emphasize eating less red and processed meat, Whitney Forman-Cook reports for Agri-Pulse, a Washington newsletter.

The letter said the “shift toward a more plant-based diet” in the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's recommendations is a potentially “powerful tool for health promotion” that would help reduce healthcare costs, Forman-Cook writes.

“Three of the four leading causes of preventable death, heart disease, cancer, and stroke -- are diet-related,” the letter reads. “Heavy meat consumption, especially red and processed meat, is associated with increased risks of heart disease, diabetes and some cancers, while plant-based diets are associated with decreased risks of all three.”

They also noted that 75 percent of U.S. health-care costs and diminished labor supply and worker productivity is caused by chronic and preventable diseases, costing the country "$1 trillion in lost economic output and billions more in rising healthcare cost," Forman-Cook writes.

For the first time, the guidelines include environmental standards and sustainability language. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack "has not said he is opposed to including sustainability concerns in the final guidelines," Forman-Cook writes. He told her that "he would be personally involved" in writing the new guidelines, keeping them "narrowly focused on nutrition."

U.S. meat producers and many farm organizations have pushed back against the recommendations and the sustainability language.

The health-care professionals also endorsed the DGAC's recommendations on sustainability and calls for the DGAC to "explicitly" list the "common names" of foods in the guidelines and identify appropriate "non-animal protein sources" to help consumers modify their eating habits.

The guidelines, which are revised every five years to reflect advancements in scientific knowledge, are used to guide federal nutrition programs, including school meal standards, and to inform consumers. They are expected to be published later this year.

How do diet and exercise influence risk of diabetes? Diet seems more important

Many people think exercising and eating properly are interchangeable, but a paper by Edwards Weiss, associate professor of nutrition and dietetics at Saint Louis University, asserts that exercising and restricting diet results in specific and cumulative benefits in reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes. According to the 2013 Kentucky Diabetes Report, 6.9 percent of Kentucky adults have diabetes.

Participants in the study were sedentary, overweight middle-aged men and women who reduced their weight 6 to 8 percent through calorie restriction, exercise or both. Researchers measured their insulin sensitivity levels, which determines risk of diabetes. "Your blood sugar may be perfectly normal, but if your insulin sensitivity is low, you are on the way to blood sugar issues and, potentially, Type 2 diabetes," Weiss said.

The researchers measured twice the improvement of insulin sensitivity in the group of participants who both exercised and restricted their diets than in the other two groups. Weiss notes that exercise helps regulate glucose, even if a person isn't losing weight as a result. The researchers also found that exercised-induced weight loss didn't regulate glucoregulation more effectively than calorie restriction. "What we found is that calorie restriction, like exercise, may be providing benefits beyond those associated with weight loss alone," Weiss said.

Weiss said that though it might seem obvious that a combination of diet and exercise would engender the best results, "there are a lot of people who believe that if they maintain a healthy weight, it doesn't matter what they eat. And others have an appropriate food intake but don't exercise."

Event at UK library features discussion of Kentucky food traditions, how they are changing and how to capitalize on them

Story and photo by Melissa Landon
Kentucky Health News

Local food experts gathered at the University of Kentucky April 9 to discuss how Kentucky food tradition is changing and how to develop local food culture through businesses and other means.

"From Plows to Plates: A Journey Through Kentucky Foodways" was an event sponsored by the UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center. It included a panel discussion, book signings by local food authors and food samples. Panelists included anthropology professor John van Willigen, author of Kentucky's Cookbook Heritage: 200 Years of Southern Cuisine and Culture; Ouita Michel of Midway, chef and proprietor of several restaurants; Tiffany Thompson, horticulturist and manager of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment's Community Supported Agriculture program; and Kristy Yowell, marketing manager of the Good Foods Co-Op in Lexington.

"I want to elevate Kentucky food culture way above restaurants," Michel said. "Restaurants are not food culture." She said Kentucky is known for its chain restaurants, such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, but she wants to focus on helping young chefs and small businesses succeed.

Emma Yetter talks about vegetables via community supported agriculture.

Yowell said, "We want to make affordable, healthy food for everyone. That shouldn't be a privilege."

Thompson said Kentucky's history has had a lot to do with tobacco, which is becoming less prominent. He said community supported agriculture, in which local residents agree to buy produce in advance, has much potential. "What can Kentucky agriculture do to positively influence health? Make more vegetables! CSA is growing, and I'm really excited about it."

The college's CSA Vegetable Program allows people to sign up to receive weekly seasonal vegetables throughout the spring, summer and fall. It costs $19 per week for the smallest "share" of vegetables, which is enough for a single person or a couple, said Emma Yetter, who works events and does deliveries for the program.

Associate Dean of Libraries Deirdre A. Scaggs, author of The Historic Kentucky Kitchen, said at the event that her inspiration for the book came from working in the Special Collections Research Center. She found old recipes, many of which were hand-written, and decided to try them out. She collected over 100 recipes, tested them and modified some of the instructions so a modern audience could understand them.

Federal dietary guidelines recommend cutting back on red and processed meat, sugar and refined grains

The Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services have released proposed 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The guidelines, released every five years, "provide authoritative advice about consuming fewer calories, making informed food choices, and being physically active to attain and maintain a healthy weight, reduce risk of chronic disease, and promote overall health," says USDA.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the 2015 guidelines recommend eating healthier foods, while cutting back on less healthy alternatives. "The committee basically recommended Americans take up a diet that is higher in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low- or non-fat dairy products, seafood, legumes and nuts," Chris Clayton reports for DTN The Progressive Farmer. "We should cut back on red and processed meats and sugar-sweetened foods, drinks and refined grains. And we should be moderate in our alcohol."

Recommended cutbacks of certain foods have not gone over well with those food producers, who met this week to give feedback on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's recommendations, Clayton writes. The North American Meat Institute argued that "lean meat, poultry, red and processed meats should all be part of a healthy dietary pattern because they are nutrient-dense protein."

Shalene McNeill, a nutritionist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, "told the committee that its recommendation to exclude lean meat ignores decades of nutrition science," Clayton writes. McNeill said Americans should be encouraged to eat more lean meat, along with fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Grain, sugar and milk producers also expressed displeasure with the proposed rules.

Most nutritionists have embraced the proposed rules, but say the key is getting people to adopt them, Andrea McDaniels reports for The Baltimore Sun. Among those rules is limiting sugar intake to 200 or less calories, or 10 percent of total calories, per day. Currently, Americans get about 13 percent of their calories, or 268 calories, from added sugar.

"On the flip side, some foods once shunned are now accepted," McDaniels writes. "Research has found that cholesterol-high foods are no longer believed to contribute to high blood cholesterol, so people can now indulge in shrimp, eggs and other foods that were once off limits, the panel said. Rather than focus on cholesterol, people should curb saturated fat to about 8 percent of the diet."

The panel also said "up to five cups of coffee a day are fine, so long they are not flavored with lots of milk and sugar," McDaniels writes. "The panel also singled out the Mediterranean diet—rich in fish and chicken, fruits and vegetables, nuts, whole grains, olive oil and legumes—for its nutritional value."

At roundtable on food and agriculture, Prince Charles says we need to reconnect with the food system and nature, keep stock

Prince Charles "called for urgent restructuring of local and global economies to save humanity from itself" in a whirlwind visit to Louisville on Friday, James Bruggers reports for The Courier-Journal.

In addition to a speech at the Cathedral of the Assumption, the heir to the British throne briefly participated in a roundtable on health and the environment and a similar gathering about food and agriculture, at which he said people need to become "intimately acquainted again with the food system and nature," as The Courier-Journal put it.

"I am very keen on connecting people to school gardens," he said, "and encouraging them to keep their own chickens and the occasional pig." Here's The C-J's raw video from the roundtable:

Proposed nutritional guidelines add sustainability issues, in spite of Republicans' warnings; eggs get a green light

A new draft of the federal government's healthy eating guidelines recommends for the first time that Americans consider the "health of the planet along with the health of their hearts," Liz Szabo reports for USA Today.

For the first time ever, the report recommends that Americans should eat less meat, especially red and processed meat, not only because it is better for their health, but also because it is better for the environment.

The report says that eating fewer animal products and more plant based foods uses less land resources, like land, water and energy, and produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions, which contributes to climate change, Szabo writes.

"We need to think about a sustainable diet that's supportable and accessible for generations to come," Miriam Nelson, committee member and professor of nutrition at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, told Szabo. "A sustainable diet is also a very healthy diet."

But this additional consideration is getting push back from the meat industry and members of Congress.

The meat industry has questioned why a nutrition panel is addressing sustainability concerns. The industry also disputes that meat production negatively impacts the environment, Roberto A. Ferdman reports for The Washington Post.

"If our government believes Americans should factor sustainability into their choices, guidance should come from a panel of sustainability experts that understands the complexity of the issue," Barry Carpenter, the chief executive of the North American Meat Institute, said in a statement.

In December, members of Congress discouraged the committee from addressing sustainability, approving language that expressed "concern" that it was "considering issues outside of the nutritional focus of the panel," and instructing them to "only include nutrition and dietary information" in the report, Roberto A. Ferdman and Peter Whoriskey reported in a separate article in the Post.

The committee has since been reprimanded and received a warning from Rep. Robert B. Aderholdt, R-Ala., chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the budget for the Agriculture Department, Ferdman and Whoriskey report.

“Chairman Aderholt is skeptical of the panel’s departure from utilizing sound science as the criteria for the guidelines,” according to Brian Rell, a spokesman, reports The Washington Post. “Politically motivated issues such as taxes on certain foods and environmental sustainability are outside their purview.”

Ferdman and Whoriskey note that numerous studies document the environmental impact of meat and refer to another article in the Post about a study published last year in the journal Climatic Change that says the average meat-eater in the U.S. is responsible for almost twice as much global warning as the average vegetarian, and close to three times that of the average vegan.

The report says that other countries, such as Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Brazil, have factored the environment into their dietary recommendations for many years.

The report is updated every five years and is used to set nutritional standards for state and federal programs such as school lunches, food stamps and programs benefiting children and pregnant women. The final report is scheduled to be released by the end of the year.

Another first in the report is the recommendation that "added sugars," or those not naturally found in foods, be included on food labels. The report recommends healthy Americans get less than 10 percent, or roughly 12 teaspoons, of their daily calories from added sugars, but most people, depending on their BMI, should only have between 4.5 to 9.4 teaspoons a day.

In big news for egg lovers, the report has changed its recommendations on foods high in cholesterol, saying that there is no longer a need to avoid them because dietary sources of cholesterol have not been found to affect the amount of cholesterol in the blood.

Szabo notes these nutrition guidelines in the report:

• Saturated fats: This guideline continues to suggest that only 10 percent (or 22 grams) of daily calories come from saturated fat. This can be achieved by choosing low-fat or skim milk; using vegetable oils instead of animal fats such as butter; and eating more plant based proteins, rather than meat.
• Coffee: Healthy adults can drink up to three to five cups of coffee a day without any health risk, saying it may even reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and possibly Parkinson's disease.
• Aspartame: This artificial sweetener, sold as NutraSweet and Equal, is safe at the levels normally consumed, but there is "some uncertainty" about an increased risk of blood cancers in men.
• Sodium: The recommended daily consumption of sodium is less than 2,300 milligrams, which can be largely achieved by eating less processed foods and eating home-cooked foods.

Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Dr. Steven Nissen told Melissa Healy of the Los Angeles Times that the guidelines on cholesterol did not go far enough and that the panel should have reversed the guidelines on saturated fats. He cited a 2013 report from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology that said "limits on dietary cholesterol were unnecessary" and also said that "there was no reason to curtail consumption of saturated fat." He was also concerned about the severe restrictions of sodium, especially for heart patients, and said that the sodium restrictions should also "come under review."

The report also says most Americans eat too few whole grains, too much saturated fat, sodium and refined sugars, and many fall short of particular nutrients, such as vitamin D, fiber, potassium and calcium.

The entire report can be found by clicking here. The public comment period runs through April 8.

Students in poor Louisville neighborhoods learn healthful behaviors in Farm to Family Initiative

A program to fight childhood obesity and foster healthy habits in Louisville’s under-served youth has seen positive results since its launch in October 2013, says KentuckyOne Health. Results include:

• 41 percent of students now eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, up from 23 percent.
• 91 percent of students engage in at least 60 minutes of daily physical activity, up from 63 percent.
• 90 percent of students have eaten a vegetable they harvested or picked themselves, up from 59 percent.
• 93 percent of students know how to prepare a healthy recipe, up from 63 percent.

The Farm to Family Initiative is a collaboration between the Food Literacy Project and Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital, part of KentuckyOne. It aims to influence long-term health and food literacy for students at Hazelwood and Wellington elementary schools, where more than 90 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

The project is funded by a $200,000 grant from the Johnson & Johnson Community Health Care Program Award for the Prevention of Childhood Obesity.

Prince Charles to keynote Louisville health and food symposium

Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles

Prince Charles of the United Kingdom will keynote a health symposium in Louisville March 20.

The prince of Wales and his wife Camilla Parker-Bowles, duchess of Cornwall, "will highlight the work being done by members of the local community and charitable organizations to protect, preserve and promote the health and well-being of the people of Louisville through community cohesion, clean air and food literacy initiatives," says a release on his site.

The release says the prince will speak "to an audience of health practitioners, business, faith and community leaders about links between health and the natural environment. Highlighting the same theme, the duchess will visit a food literacy project for young people at a local farm. The project also offers young people an opportunity to experience life on a farm in order to help increase their knowledge of the connection between food and farming."

The speech could include some of the same points that Charles made in a speech at the Future for Food Conference at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 2011, where he said, "We will have to develop much more sustainable, or durable forms of food production,  because the way we have done things up to now are no longer as viable as they once appeared to be."

Kirby Adams of The Courier-Journal reports that the symposium will be held by the Institute for Healthy Air, Water and Soil, chaired by Christina Lee "Christy" Brown of Louisville, who is one of four board members of the England-based Sustainable Food Trust. Her son, Owsley Brown III, is one of three board members of the Sustainable Food Alliance, the trust's U.S. partner.

Nico Hines of The Daily Beast reports that the Kentucky visit is being organized with the help of Gov. Steve Beshear, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer (who has been active in food issues) and the Owsley Brown Charitable Foundation, named for Christy Brown's late husband, the former chairman of distiller Brown-Forman Corp. Her son-in-law, Matthew Barzun, "is the U.S. ambassador in London," Hines notes.

Hines's story is largely unfavorable. It begins, "Prince Charles is taking his unusual views on health, previously described as 'witchcraft' and 'quackery,' to the United States." Those descriptions came from a professor at the University of Exeter and the British Medical Association, which said in 2010, "Homeopathy is witchcraft."

When the prince became BMA president in 1982, Hines reports, "He advocated a radical overhaul of the medical system in favor of alternative therapies which he said had been successfully practiced for centuries by faith healers using the patient’s 'physical and social environment, as well as his relation to the cosmos.' Rather than laugh off the private views of their new figurehead, the doctors ordered a full inquiry into the efficacy of alternative medicine. After three years and 600 submissions, it concluded any support for the use of these therapies was purely 'unscientific'. . . . Prince Charles has remained resolute in his controversial beliefs." Some commenters on the story defend him.

The future king's Louisville stop will come on the fourth and last day of an American tour that will include "stops at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, site of the Lincoln Cottage, where it is believed Abraham Lincoln wrote the last draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. The royals will also visit Mount Vernon, home of George Washington, and the National Archives to mark the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta," The Courier-Journal reports.

Researchers blame Walmart, other bulk suppliers for part of obesity epidemic

Part of the rise of obesity in America can be linked to the availability of cheap food sold in bulk from warehouse stores like Walmart, says a study released this week by researchers from Georgia State University, the University of Iowa, the University of Virginia and the University of Louisville, . Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer in the U.S. and a staple of many rural areas.

"We live in an environment with increasingly cheap and readily available junk food. We buy in bulk. We tend to have more food around. It takes more and more discipline and self-control to not let that influence your weight," Charles Courtemanche, assistant professor of economics at Georgia State, told Danielle Paquette of The Washington Post.

Obesity in America has surged from 1960, when 13 percent of adults were obese, to 2012, when 35 percent of adults were, Paquette writes. The first Walmart store opened in 1962, the first Sam's Club in 1983 and the first Walmart supercenter in 1988. In addition to Walmart, numerous other warehouse-style stores, like Target and Costco, have followed Walmart's lead by selling in bulk.

The study found that opening an additional Walmart store "per 100,000 residents increased an area’s average body mass index by 0.24 units, or 10.8 percent of the sample obesity rate," Paquette writes. Researchers wrote, “These estimates imply that the proliferation of Walmart supercenters explains 10.5 percent of the rise in obesity since the late 1980s.” (Read more) (Growth of Wal-Mart since 1962)(Growth of Walmart since 1962)

Scheduling lunch after recess, very unusual in elementaries, may lead to less food waste and better nutrition, study says

Scheduling school lunch later in the day could help children to eat more nutritious foods and reduce food waste, according to a study at seven schools in Utah. Researchers found that children threw away more food when they ate lunch before recess instead of afterward, and much of the food they threw away was fruits and vegetables, Roberto A. Ferdman writes for The Washington Post.

Cornell University and Brigham Young University researchers spent 14 days studying the behavior of children during lunch. Three schools served lunch after recess, and the other four before recess. The researchers kept track of how many fruits and vegetables children discarded and how many they ate.

"Students who ate lunch after recess ate 54 percent more fruits and vegetables than those who ate it before," Ferdman reports. The number of students who ate at least one serving of fruit and vegetables was 45 percent greater at the schools that served lunch after recess than the schools who served it beforehand. This is because students are hungrier for lunch after playing, and if they have already had recess, they will not rush eating their lunch so they can go play.

"If recess is held before lunch, students come to lunch with healthy appetites and less urgency and are more likely to eat their fruits and vegetables," David Just, one of the study's authors, told Ferdman.

A 2014 study also concluded, for about the same reasons, that providing lunch before recess leads to more food waste. It is unknown how many schools currently serve lunch before recess, but in 2011, only 4.6 percent of elementary schools reported serving lunch after recess. (Read more)

Research suggests eating only during a nine- to 12-hour time period can help maintain healthy weight

For a long time, scientists supposed that eating after midnight was unhealthy, but now a study has provided support for the notion. When scientists prevented mice from eating whenever they wanted, the animals avoided obesity and metabolic issues—even when the diet was unhealthy, Ben Wiseman reports for The New York Times.

In a previous study, researchers at Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego began studying mice eating patterns. The mice in the study that were permitted to eat whenever they wished gained weight and became unwell, while the mice who were only permitted to eat during an eight-hour window didn't gain much weight or develop metabolic problems.

The new study, which was published in the journal Cell Metabolism in December, Salk scientists provided groups of mice with one of four diets: high-fat, high-fructose, high-fat and high-sucrose and regular mouse food. "Some of the mice in each dietary group were allowed eat whenever they wanted throughout their waking hours; others were restricted to feeding periods of nine, 12 or 15 hours," Wiseman writes. The caloric intake for all the mice was the same.

Some of the mice in the time-restricted groups were allowed to eat whenever they wanted on weekends, and some of the eat-anytime mice were moved to the restricted groups halfway through the study. At the end of the study, the mice that ate whenever they pleased became obese and metabolically ill, but the time-restricted mice stayed healthy. The mice switched from the former group to the latter lost some of the weight they'd gained, Wiseman writes.

Though scientists don't know exactly why eating during a designated timeframe helps prevent weight gain, Dr. Satchidananda Panda, who oversaw the studies, and his colleagues think it has to do with the body's internal clock. "Meal times have more effect on circadian rhythm than dark and light cycles," Panda said. Circadian rhythm influences the function of many genes in the body that have to do with metabolism.

These studies have only been performed using mice, but Panda believes the results could apply to humans. He suggests that people only eat within a 12 hour—or shorter—window each day. The clock begins with the first thing a person eats in the morning. (Read more)

Spending bill allows schools that show 'hardship' to vary from requirement to serve 100 percent whole grains

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

The massive 2015 spending bill signed by President Obama Dec. 16 includes a provision to help schools struggling with the whole-grain and sodium requirements that are part of the Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act. It did not allow, as House Republicans had hoped, schools to opt out of the healthier school meal standards if they lost money on meal programs over a six-month period.

Beginning with the 2014 school year, schools had to serve 100 percent whole grains in their meals and snacks, and also follow the first restrictions on sodium, or salt. The sodium restrictions were scheduled to get progressively stricter over the years, with the next move set for 2017.

The law allows schools that demonstrate the rule is a "hardship" to continue serving 50 percent whole grains. It also says sodium standards cannot be tightened until the "latest scientific research establishes the reduction is beneficial for children," Mary Clare Jalonick reports for The Associated Press.

Some schools say they have had trouble complying with these requirements because many of the affordable whole grain pastas have proven difficult to cook en masse and the whole-grain versions of many foods, like biscuits and tortillas, simply don't taste the same.

On salt, schools say budgeting the allowed amounts among meals, snacks and a la carte items is often a challenge. The issue hit Anderson County schools earlier this year when they couldn't find a low-sodium ketchup; their solution was to not offer ketchup. Parent and student complaints prompted a reversal of that move, but to do that, sodium had to be removed elsewhere in the menu.

The new law won't have much effect on Fayette County Schools, Director of School Nutrition Michelle Coker said in a telephone interview. "Basically, we use 100 percent whole grains in everything," she said. "But there are products, like tortilla shells, that aren't as flavorful and this gives us some flexibility."

Fayette County has transitioned slowly to whole grains over the last five to six years to help students adjust to them, Coker said, and as whole-grain products have become "tastier" the transition has not been an issue.

"Whole grain pasta products have come a long way," Coker said. "Three to four years ago they were dark, but now it is difficult to tell the difference. Kentucky has really good vendors."

Coker, a registered dietitian, welcomed the possible delay in lower salt limits, saying most students are active and involved in sports and shouldn't need such low sodium restrictions. "These kids are growing and need electrolytes," she said.

The School Nutrition Association, a group that represents both school nutrition directors and the food companies that produce foods for schools, wanted even deeper rollbacks than the spending bill included, but said it "strongly supports" the budget-bill language.

Alabama Rep. Robert Aderholt, chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees nutrition issues, said the whole-grains waiver is "the best bill that we are going to get" as long as Democrats are in control the Senate, Jalonick reports.

Republicans will control both houses of Congress next year, so the battle is far from over, and the overall law governing child nutrition policy, including school lunches, expires next year and will require legislation to be renewed, Jalonick notes.

First Lady Michelle Obama, champion for improving school's nutrition and decreasing child obesity, said this summer that she would fight "to the bitter end" to make sure kids have good nutrition in schools.

USDA makes grants to expand Farm to School in Ky.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is sending nearly $313,000 to Kentucky in grants under the Farm to School program, which encourages the use of fresh, local food in schools.

Two grants for a total of $87,957 went to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, which manages the program in Kentucky and will use most of the money to expand it. “This will help our children grow up to be healthy and strong,” Agriculture Commissioner James Comer said. “This also will help Kentucky farmers have the certainty of a market for their products.”

Other Farm to School grants awarded to Kentucky were: $100,000 to the Food Literacy Project at Oxmoor Farm Inc., to create a working vegetable farm that will give students hands-on gardening experience and provide vegetables for students in the Jefferson County Public Schools; $79,750 to the Owsley County School District for equipment needed to expand and diversify crops the locally produced foods served in the schools’ cafeterias; and $45,000 to the Taylor County School District for a school garden where students will grow produce that will be sold to the school food-service office. The district also will develop an assessment for its farm-to-school program.

Chain restaurants, theaters, amusement parks and grocery delis must post calorie counts in a year, to fight obesity

McDonald's already posts calorie content on its menus

In an effort to combat the country's obesity epidemic, the Food and Drug Administration issued final regulations Tuesday that will require chains with 20 or more restaurants, movie theaters and pizza parlors to post calorie counts on menus.

"The rules will have broad implications for public health," Sabrina Tavernise and Stephanie Strom report for The New York Times. "As much as a third of the calories that Americans consume come from outside the home, and many health experts believe that increasingly large portion sizes and unhealthy ingredients have been significant contributors to obesity in the United States."

“This is one of the most important public health nutrition policies ever to be passed nationally,” Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, told the authors. “Right now, you are totally guessing at what you are getting. This rule will change that.”

The numbers "could be a pretty big wake-up call," writes Jason Millman of The Washington Post. "The FDA rules are more comprehensive than expected, given the strong industry pushback since the menu labeling provision was included in the 2010 health-care law." The FDA proposed a rule in 2011, but heavy lobbying has delayed its finalization.

"Do people eat healthier when they can see calorie counts?" Milliman asks. "The evidence so far seems mixed. The impact seems to be greater when the calorie count is much higher than what consumers expect. What does seem clear from past studies is that people really are terrible judges of how many calories they consume when they dine out [and] are especially bad judges of the calorie content of the least healthy foods commonly found of restaurant menus."

The rules also cover food in vending machines, amusement parks, alcohol if it is on the menu or a menu board, and some prepared foods in supermarkets. Chain restaurants are defined as food establishments with 20 or more outlets.

The policy will take effect a year from now, "and seems likely to face legal and political challenges from some parts of the food industry, including grocery and convenience stores that sell prepared foods for takeout," the Times reports.

The National Grocers Association told the paper, “Grocery stores are not chain restaurants, which is why Congress did not initially include them in the law. We are disappointed that the FDA's final rules will capture grocery stores, and impose such a large and costly regulatory burden on our members.”

Daren Bakst, a research fellow in agricultural policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told the authors that the FDA interpreted the law too broadly. “If Congress wanted to cover any establishment that sells prepared foods, they would have said that,” he said. “No reasonable person is about to confuse a grocery store, convenience store or movie theater with a restaurant.” But retiring Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, who helped create the labeling requirement, said the rule “closely mirrors congressional intent.”

The FDA offered some concessions to grocers, convenience stores, pizza chains and vending-machine owners. For example, pizzerias can define their serving sizes and list calories by the slice, and vending machine owners have been given an extra year to comply.

As school-lunch debate puts attention on rejected meals, we might consider a bigger problem: food wasted at home

The new nutrition rules for school meals have led some students to throw away food they're served. Schools across the country are estimated to waste $1.2 billion worth of food every year, based on extrapolations from a study the National Institutes of Health conducted in Boston schools. That's a lot of wasted food and money, but students and their families waste even more food at home, George Jones writes for WFIE-TV in Evansville.

According to the U.S. Department of Education approximately 49.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade students will attend public schools this year. Each student is estimated to waste about $33 worth of federally funded lunches per year. "The average person in the general population wastes almost that much in total meals during one month," Jones reports.

Americans threw away $161 billion worth of food in 2010—nearly one-third of the available food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That means the average person discards $372 worth of food each year, or four times as much as students.

"Sometimes people say it's the family and parents making choices, but it's the larger system we're in that making this problem," aid Pamela Koch, director of the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education and Policy at Columbia University. "They're working so many hours they think they don't have time to shop and cook healthy. And the most inexpensive foods are the ones that are not the most healthy for them."

Rising obesity rates and fast food consumption show that adults aren't eating well-balanced meals, much less school-aged individuals. The School Nutrition Association supports the rules requiring reduced-fat and fat-free milk and more fruits and vegetables, but "feels serving only whole grain breads and requiring children to take food they don't otherwise each is burdensome for schools," Jones reports.

"You're never going to be able to promote healthy diets for kids if they don't get healthy options across the board," SNA spokeswoman Diane Pratt-Heavner said. "It's the students who are unfamiliar with those healthier choices who are not responding well."

Students part of the Montgomery, Ala., group called E.A.T. (Education, Act Transform) were much more receptive to trying new foods—such as radishes—when they went through the process of planting and harvesting them. "They come here, and now they have an understanding," E.A.T. South Executive Director Denise Blake Green said. "They've seen the cycle—planting, harvesting, cooking, composting. When they leave here, food looks different to them." (Read more)

As part of UK campus food deal, Aramark puts up $5 million for Food Connection, vows to purchase Kentucky products

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

The University of Kentucky has entered a $5 million public-private partnership designed to promote the study and research of food at UK and to promote local food in the state.

L-R: Aramark President and CEO Eric Foss, UK President Eli
Capilouto. Agriculture Commissioner James Comer; College of
Agriculture, Food & Environment Dean Nancy Cox (UK photo)

UK President Eli Capilouto called the Food Connection an "unprecedented public-private partnership" between the university and food-service giant Aramark, which is putting up the money and getting the campus food contract. It will be housed in UK's College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.

Capilouto said the partnership is in various stages of development, including improving facilities, adding high-quality, healthy food options, and providing a greater commitment to Kentucky farmers.

"This partnership is more than just brick and mortar, it's more than simply menus and venues. It's about people," Capilouto said, including learning and research for students.

The Food Connection will partner with the state Department of Agriculture, farmers, community partners, and consumers to enhance the production, distribution, and consumption of local products and those with the Kentucky Proud label.

Aramark's $5 million includes $1 million to endow undergraduate and graduate internships and fellowships, $250,000 in one-time start-up costs for equipment and programmatic needs, and $250,000 a year for 15 years for staff, programming, research grants, and other initiatives.

"Our goal is to make sure that we create a sustainable, healthy and a successful food economy here in Kentucky for generations to come," Aramark CEO Eric Foss said.

State Agriculture Commissioner James Comer said, "This project today is going to have a significant impact on the agriculture economy in Kentucky."

UK will break ground next week on the space designated for the Food Connection facility, near the library where some old fraternity houses have been demolished.

Scott Smith, former dean of the College of Agriculture, will be the interim faculty director of the Food Connection. Dean Nancy Cox said that while the "vision and framework is in place" for the Food Connection related to research opportunities, "This new chapter is yet to be written on exactly what we do at the Connection."

A UK press release said the Food Connection will have programming, such as an annual Kentucky food summit and programs for youth.