Good Food Force Update: Junk food marketing to kids, April Fools' Day ideas & more!
March 27, 2015
Greetings! This week we're talking about junk food marketing to kids, updates to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and fun ways to celebrate April Fools' Day with the family! Please enjoy and share!
1. HOT LINE
Experts agree: protect ALL kids from junk food marketing!
Recent voluntary efforts by food and beverage companies have resulted in the first-ever declines in unhealthy food marketing to children. Still, kids are exposed to too much marketing for unhealthy foods and beverages! Join us in telling the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative to encourage its member companies to adopt new expert recommendations and do more to protect kids from junk food marketing!
Quick links:
- Op-ed: Vilsack, Duncan, Burwell: Keep school lunches healthy. The leaders of the USDA, HHS and Department of Education discuss why we need to look science, not politics, for reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act.
- Op-ed: Who is responsible for kids' health? An Australian mother of three explains how the food environment undermines the healthy decisions she tries to make for her children. The continued targeted marketing of unhealthy products to children leaves parents continually stuck in the bad guy role. Source: BMSG
- Study: Energy drinks and adolescents: what’s the harm? New study from the UConn Rudd Center examins existing research on sales and marketing of energy drinks, their consumption by youth under 18 and growing evidence that they can be harmful and may lead to negative health, social, emotional and behavioral outcomes.
- Navajo Nation to have country's first junk food tax - how will Big Food respond? The new law mandates a 2% tax on unhealthy foods and beverages sold on the reservation. Source: BMSG
2. JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Connect, learn and share this month:
- #FoodFri Tweetchat: Stand UP for Science-Based Dietary Guidelines! Fri 3/27 at 1pm ET. Join @MomsRising, @American_Heart and @CSPI to discuss recommendations for updating the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and what you can do to help ensure that we end up with strong national nutrition advice. More info.
- Google+ Live Event: A Conversation with Tony Geraci aka The Cafeteria Man! Thurs 4/23 at 7:30am ET. Mark your calendars, and more info coming soon!
- On the Good Food Force Facebook Group: discussions on cooking healthier rice, impact of junk food tax in Navajo Nation and more! Join us!
3. YEARBOOK
Meet Isaias: a Fellow with Youth for Healthy Schools!
At the age of eight, I somehow knew that fresh food was better for me; I also knew that my working class, immigrant, and underpaid family couldn’t afford it. The packaged processed food isles at the super stores were cheaper than the produce isle. At the crucial age of 14 I was overweight, with high cholesterol and a family history of deaths by diabetes.
Low income, migrant and LGBTQ communities suffer from a lack of access to health resources, from wraparound health to the lack of access to fresh foods - even fracking wells are going into our communities.
As a Fellow with the Funder’s Collaborative on Youth Organizing and Health Justice youth organizer at Padres & Jóvenes Unidos in Denver, Colorado, I have an opportunity to organize youth to improve school and community health by returning to our roots and decolonizing our diets. I help youth understand collective action and the need to change systems because personal choices alone cannot ensure that communities of color and low-income communities have healthy, affordable food or community spaces for health and wellness. Great job Isaias!
4. RECESS
Be sure to sign up for the Good Food Force to get these updates delivered straight to your inbox!
Good Food Force (GFF) Volunteers are real-life superheroes who take action in their schools and communities, and/or on their blogs and online networks, to get the word out about healthy school foods, junk food marketing to kids, and strategies that are working to reduce childhood obesity. Together with MomsRising.org staff, they help advocate for healthier kids and families. Help spread the word! Contact us: karen@momsrising.org
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