An Obama-era change to school lunches could be linked to a drop in childhood obesity rates, a new study suggests.
The American Journal of Diseases of Children suggested that a modification of public school lunches that boosted the amount of fruits, vegetables and whole grains students consumed could have lowered the body mass index of a swath of youth.
Dr. Aruna Chandran, social epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and lead researcher on this study, told the Associated Press that making early dietary changes can have lasting effects on children.
"You have the potential to really impact their excess weight gain over the course of their entire childhood," she said.
Over 14,000 students ages 5 to 18 were tracked from January 2005 through March 2020 but there was a significant drop in overall BMI around the time the Hunger Free Kids Act was passed.
In 2010, a study by the American Heart Journal suggested that poor nutritional school lunches were, at least in part, linked to childhood obesity. It noted other factors like decreased physical activity and excessive recreational screen time as contributors to childhood weight gain.
Former first lady Michelle Obama spearheaded the call to make school lunches healthier during the same year.
"The Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act does still have impact in adolescents when they have such differences in dietary preferences, and the ability to purchase their own foods compared to younger children," Dr. Lauren Au, assistant professor at the University of California, Davis, told CNN.
After learning that the suspect in the Uvalde school shooting posted about his intentions on Facebook, activists are urging social networks to make changes. Lena Derhally, a licensed psychotherapist and author of "The Facebook Narcissist," joined Cheddar News to discuss the role social media plays in school shootings. "They're not really invested in taking down hateful content," she said about social platforms."In regards to the shooting, it was 15 minutes before that actual threat. It would be pretty hard for a social media company to trace that threat that quickly. But what they can do better is take down threats and hateful content much faster and more than they're doing now."
Esper Bionics CEO Dima Gazda breaks down how they're creating a mind-controlled bionic hand that guest smarter the more you use it, and what this innovation means for the future of the prosthetics industry.
Brightseed Co-Founder Sofia Elizondo breaks down what plant bioactives are, and how they're using the latest technology to study human's biological connections with plants.
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: Brightseed Co-Founder breaks down what plant bioactives are, and how they're using the latest technology to study human's biological connections with plants; Esper Bionics CEO breaks down how they re creating a mind-controlled bionic hand that guest smarter the more you use it; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Capturing A Black Hole In Our Milky Way.'
Hilary Kearney, Founder of Girl Next Door Honey, joined Closing Bell to discuss her partnership with Comvita to save the important pollinators, as bee colonies are on the decline across the United States.
Hurricane climatologist Jill Trepanier joined Cheddar News to discuss NOAA's announced prediction for an above-normal hurricane season and what it might mean for people in the United States. "I think it's important that people who maybe haven't been used to having extreme weather events related to say tropical cycles and tropical systems, like thinking New Jersey, Northeastern seaboard, that area may get more action than they're used to in the past," she said.
Dr. Jarrad Aguirre, Co-Founder and CEO of Miga Health, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says his company is looking to establish the future of heart health and points to how 80% of premature heart attacks and strokes are preventable.
On this episode of Cheddar Reveals, David Keith, Professor of Applied Physics at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and founder of Carbon Engineering outlines the viability of solar geoengineering as a solution to help reverse the effects of global warming; Lena Geraghty, Sustainability & Urban Innovation Director at National League of Cities, discusses which U.S. cities are safest from global warming and how the real estate market will be impacted from the effects of climate change; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Changing Ocean Asia.'
David Keith, Professor of Applied Physics at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and founder of Carbon Engineering joins Cheddar Reveals to outline the viability of solar geoengineering as a solution to help reverse the effects of global warming.
Lena Geraghty, Sustainability & Urban Innovation Director at National League of Cities, joins Cheddar News to discuss which U.S. cities are safest from global warming and how the real estate market will be impacted from the effects of climate change.
