A new study among U.K. mothers of children ages 3 through 6 shows that parents who pressure their kids to eat vegetables are more likely to produce picky eaters.  The study also found that food avoidance was more common in children of emotional temperaments, as well as those of parents who use food to shape behavior and don’t encourage a balanced [...]

Better4You brand marketers can learn something about what to call overweight children from a new survey by Yale University. The survey finds that parents prefer that doctors avoid the terms “fat” and “obese” and prefer the term “unhealthy weight,” when referring to their children.  More than 60 per cent of the 445 parents surveyed said referring to [...]

With childhood obesity a growing concern, Miami-Dade preschools and schools are making it easier this year for students to get a fresh, healthy meal at breakfast, lunch and snack time, too.  An estimated 17 percent of American kids ages 2 to 19 are obese, and the Miami-Dade County Health Department received almost $15 million in [...]

Although most kids don’t really write the family food shopping list, a research team from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that children do use manipulative nagging to get mom to buy specific items which may not be too healthy.  The researchers found that kids’ tendency to nag about particular products is the [...]

A new study verifies what moms and mom authors have been saying for some time: sneaking vegetables into kids’ foods increases their veggie intake and reduces their consumption of calories.  In a new article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers at Penn State’s Nutritional Sciences report they added pureed vegetables to foods given [...]

Babies born to women who took DHA (omega-3 fatty acids) during their pregnancy got fewer colds and shorter illnesses at one, three and six months of age, so say researchers at Emory University in Atlanta. The study published online on August 1 in Pediatrics followed 1,100 pregnant women and 900 babies in Mexico. [...]

With national childhood obesity rates continuing as a major issue, a new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the August 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association have found that kids are eating more fast food at home and eating more store-prepared food away from [...]

Food and nutrition marketers should take a close look at the momentum of the local food movement.  Ellen Kanner, who writes the syndicated column “The Edgy Veggie,” makes some good points in her Huffington Post blog: 1)  buy local to support your community, 2) most local markets boast luscious summer produce like organic (not GMO) corn and 3) we need [...]

Move over blueberries and red wine– there’s a new celebrity flavenoid!  This time it’s an ingredient in strawberries and other fruits that lessens the complications of diabetes type 1 and may help improve some neurological disorders.  Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered that fisetin, a naturally-occurring flavonoid that’s abundant in strawberries, may help manage [...]

Better for you marketers interested in tackling obesity and promoting fresh produce may want to consider partnering with CanDo (Coalition for Activity and Nutrition to Defeat Obesity), a community wide coalition of more than 200 community partners. CanDo coordinates obesity prevention efforts to help residents eat healthy food and engage in physical activities in the places where they [...]