70 ways to "end childhood obesity in a generation" (w/poll)

by: desmoinesdem

Fri May 14, 2010 at 16:23:15 PM PDT

The action plan defines the goal of ending childhood obesity in a generation as returning to a childhood obesity rate of just 5 percent by 2030, which was the rate before childhood obesity first began to rise in the late 1970s. In total, the report presents a series of 70 specific recommendations, many of which can be implemented right away.

Pdf files containing the full report, or individual sections, can be downloaded here. After the jump I highlighted a few proposals that caught my attention in each of the five large sections: Early Childhood, Empowering Parents and Caregivers, Healthy Food in Schools, Access to Healthy, Affordable Food, and Increasing Physical Activity.

Breastfeeding infant labeled obese, denied health insurance

by: desmoinesdem

Sun Oct 11, 2009 at 08:25:55 AM PDT

By the numbers, [four-month-old] Alex [Lange] is in the 99th percentile for height and weight for babies his age. Insurers don't take babies above the 95th percentile, no matter how healthy they are otherwise. [...]

Bernie and Kelli Lange tried to get insurance for their growing family with Rocky Mountain Health Plans when their current insurer raised their rates 40 percent after Alex was born. They filled out the paperwork and awaited approval, figuring their family is young and healthy. But the broker who was helping them find new insurance called Thursday with news that shocked them.

" 'Your baby is too fat,' she told me," Bernie said.

Up until then, the Langes had been happy with Alex's healthy appetite and prodigious weight gain. His pediatrician had never mentioned any weight concerns about the baby they call their "happy little chunky monkey." [...]

"I'm not going to withhold food to get him down below that number of 95," Kelli Lange said. "I'm not going to have him screaming because he's hungry."

Good call, Mrs. Lange. There is "no evidence to support 'dieting' or substituting other foods or liquids for human milk to reduce weight gain." It's outrageous for an insurance company to use Alex's weight at four months of age as an excuse to deny coverage.

New Food-Related Bills in Congress

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 08:31:18 AM PDT

Dairy
H.R. 3674: Milk Import Tariff Equity Act - This is a GREAT bill that would slap a tariff on the Milk Protein Concentrates (MPCs) that come from other countries to undercut American dairy. This was also introduced into the Senate as S. 1542 by Chuck Schumer.

School Lunch
S. 1737 by Sen. Al Franken, to increase the number of children eligible for free school lunch. The companion bill is H.R. 3705 by Keith Ellison of Minneapolis.

S. 1693: The Safe Food for Schools Act by Kirsten Gillibrand. This bill seeks to correct current flaws in the government that have proven troublesome in keeping tainted food out of school lunches.

H.R. 3625: Food Marketing in Schools Assessment Act by Carolyn McCarthy. This bill calls on the Secretary of Education to study and report on the marketing of food and beverages in elementary and secondary schools.

H.R. 3277: Student Breakfast and Education Improvement Act by Gwen Moore of Wisconsin. This bill provide grants to expand the school breakfast program.

Food Safety
S. 1527: Unsafe Meat and Poultry Recall Act introduced by NM Senator Tom Udall. This bill gives the USDA authority to recall tainted meat and poultry.

H.R. 3624: The Poison-Free Poultry Act by Steve Israel. This bill bans the uses of roxarsone (an arsenical) in poultry. Roxarsone has already been banned in Europe for 10 years.

Food Stamps
H.R. 3587: Nutritious Food for Health Families Act by Mark Schauer of Michigan. This bill reduces the interval between issuances of food stamp benefits from a maximum of 40 days to a maximum of 17 days.

Labeling
H.R. 3317: Trans-Fat Truth in Labeling Act by Steve Israel. This bill requires labeling of trans fats even when amounts are under 0.5g. Currently, if a product contains less than 0.5g of trans-fat, it is allowed to claim itself trans-fat free.

Dead Zones
H.R. 3650: Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2009 by Brian Baird of Washington. This bill is to research and reduce the algal blooms that lead to hypoxic conditions and dead zones in our waterways. And to reduce the algal blooms, we must reduce agricultural and municipal run-off.

Biochar
S. 1713: Water Efficiency via Carbon Harvesting and Restoration (WECHAR) Act, introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Breastfeeding
H.R. 3626: The Exemplary Breastfeeding Support Act by Carolyn McCarthy of New York. This bill is to support and promote breastfeeding.

Seeds
H.R. 3299: Seed Availability and Competition Act by Marcy Kaptur. This bill is "To require persons who seek to retain seed harvested from the planting of patented seeds to register with the Secretary of Agriculture and pay fees set by the Secretary for retaining such seed, and for other purposes."

Racism and Discrimination
H.R. 3623 by Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama. This bill provides compensation for claimants in the infamous Pigford case, a case in which the USDA discriminated against black farmers. Some farmers have been compensated already, but far too few received compensation, and the issue is still outstanding.

Ron Paul Crazy Stuff
H.R. 3395: Health Freedom Act. This bill would basically remove any limitations on what supplement manufacturers could claim on their labels. Wanna say vitamin C cures AIDS? Go for it. Under this bill, someone would have to take you to court and prove that you were wrong in order to make you take that off your label.

Formula Companies To Vietnamese Mothers: All Your Baby Are Belong To Us

by: JayinPortland

Tue Sep 22, 2009 at 10:18:58 AM PDT

International guidelines and Vietnamese law recognize breast milk as superior to formula for an infant's health. Yet dozens of interviews with mothers, doctors, health officials and shopkeepers suggest that formula companies pay doctors to peddle their products, promote it for infants under age one and approach mothers and health care workers at health facilities - all of which are against the law.

desmoinesdem and others here certainly know more on this topic than I do, but it's well accepted by everybody that breastfeeding is nutritionally superior to manufactured formula.  While the Vietnamese government struggles to promote breastfeeding with a tiny budget and a staff of just two people (the current goal is to reach a 50% exclusive breastfeeding rate by 2015), these companies are targeting everything that moves with millions and millions of dollars in advertising (formula manufacturers are amongst Vietnam's Top Five advertisers) and powerful teams of high priced lawyers who love nothing more than to sue those who'd dare put people over corporate profits.  Formula manufacturers sued the Philippines two years ago for attempting to toughen advertising laws.

The article goes on to mention that workers at a women's health clinic claim a Dutch formula company provided them a small commission for every can of formula sold.  Several other companies also apparently tried to land deals with that clinic.  Formula sales inside hospitals are illegal, so to get around that the alleyways surrounding Hanoi's maternity hospital are packed with shops selling formula.  Company representatives have been accused of attempting to steal patient information from hospitals, of plastering nursery schools with advertisements and corporate logos on playground equipment, and of hosting regular and extremely misleading "child nutrition seminars" in fancy hotels.

This is the kind of stuff they're selling -

But Nguyen Thi Minh, 29, a Hanoi paralegal, said she was approached by a Mead Johnson salesman at a Hanoi maternity clinic shortly before giving birth.

"I chose Mead Johnson's EnfaGrow because the advertisements said it boosts your child's IQ and makes them taller," Minh said.

Carolyn Maloney to reintroduce Breastfeeding Promotion Act

by: desmoinesdem

Fri May 15, 2009 at 08:55:54 AM PDT

  * Add breastfeeding mothers in the workplace as a protected class under the Civil Rights Act of 1964
  * Provide incentives for employers to have private lactation areas for workers
  * Create a performance standard for breastpump equipment
  * Create tax deductions for pumping equipment

Here is some information about the economic benefits (for employers as well as employees) of helping working mothers to breastfeed.

Here's how you can help Representative Maloney:

1. Ask your Congress-critter to co-sponsor the bill.

2. If you live close to Washington, D.C., please plan to attend a press conference about the bill on June 3rd at 11:30 am on the Cannon Terrace at the Cannon Office Building, Independence Avenue and 1st Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003. Please RSVP to wchappel@myexcel.com with the number of adults/babies/children attending.

3. After the press conference, visit your representative's office to ask them to support the bill.

4. E-mail wchappel@myexcel.com immediately "if you have a workplace lactation discrimination story you would like to share at the press conference."

On a related note, I just learned last week that many health insurance plans cover the purchase of a breast pump. Pregnant women with insurance should look into this, because a quality breast pump can easily cost $300.

My case against Hanna Rosin's case against breastfeeding

by: desmoinesdem

Tue Mar 24, 2009 at 13:10:23 PM PDT

Hanna Rosin makes "The Case Against Breastfeeding" in the April issue of the Atlantic Monthly. The provocative title is misleading, because as Rosin explained in an interview on NBC's Today show on March 16, she isn't against breastfeeding. In fact, she kind of likes breastfeeding. Her problem is with the people who promote breastfeeding. Here's the lead-in to her piece:

In certain overachieving circles, breast-feeding is no longer a choice-it's a no-exceptions requirement, the ultimate badge of responsible parenting. Yet the actual health benefits of breast-feeding are surprisingly thin, far thinner than most popular literature indicates. Is breast-feeding right for every family? Or is it this generation's vacuum cleaner-an instrument of misery that mostly just keeps women down?

Rosin packs a lot into the article, but I would summarize her main points as:

1. American women face intense social pressure to breastfeed exclusively.

2. Advocates exaggerate the benefits of breastfeeding, which the scientific research does not support.

3. Advocates downplay the negatives about breastfeeding and fail to acknowledge that formula-feeding can be the right choice for some mothers. On a related note, Rosin depicts breastfeeding as extremely inconvenient for mothers who work outside the home.

4. Advocates have medicalized the conversation about breastfeeding, and American women are wrongly led to believe they are harming their babies if they give formula instead.

I address those points and more after the jump. Rosin's conflicted feelings about breastfeeding are valid, but unfortunately, she draws too many broad conclusions based on her personal experiences.

For those who don't care to read the rest of this post, be assured that as a feminist and pro-choice woman, I respect the right of women to decide what and how to feed their own babies. I am also aware that some women are unable to breastfeed for physical or medical reasons, and many more women are unable to breastfeed because they lacked the information and support they needed in the critical early weeks.

My intention is not to judge any mother for her choices or add to the pain of any mother who did not have the breastfeeding experience she sought.

How Hospitals Contribute to Lower Breastfeeding Rates

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Mar 24, 2009 at 10:00:00 AM PDT

It should be common knowledge that a mother's breasts produce colostrum for the first few days before her milk comes in. Milk "coming in" is when the yellow drips of liquid coming out of your breasts upon your child's birth, turns into a flood of creamy white milk.

In other words, as the article I linked to puts it "the first few days shouldn't count" when judging if a mom is one of the 5% who can't produce enough milk for her baby.

The study findings are alarming:

Among the first-time mothers, 70 percent said they wanted to breast feed exclusively. But by the time their babies were a week old, only half the women were actually doing that.

They add that giving a baby formula may present a roadblock to breastfeeding because the two methods of feeding require the baby to learn different tongue motions and swallowing skills.  

The Case AGAINST Breastfeeding?

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Mar 17, 2009 at 16:00:00 PM PDT

Sugary Organic Infant Formula

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Aug 10, 2008 at 21:48:27 PM PDT

Clearly, finding a safe infant formula is a daunting task. According to The Breastfeeding Task Force of Greater Los Angeles, there are many risks associated with using infant formula instead of breast milk. For example, formula feeding is responsible for up to 26% of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus in children. Middle-ear infections are three to four times more common in children who are fed infant formula, and children who are fed infant formula are also much more likely to be hospitalized due to bacterial infections. In addition to the health risks, some studies have shown that formula-fed babies don't do as well on intelligence tests as breast-fed babies.

Infant formula companies have been known for predatory tendencies - which is particularly offensive and immoral in developing nations where mothers may not have access to safe drinking water to use for heating the formula. Here's just one more disgusting example of an infant formula company doing something nasty:

For example, a recent article in The New York Times revealed that the organic version of Similac infant formula is sweetened with cane sugar (sucrose) and is much sweeter than other infant formulas. While all infant formulas have some added sugars to aid in the digestion of proteins, other organic products use sugars like organic lactose, which is presumably a better match for what's found in breast milk and doesn't have the sweetness of sucrose. Most health-conscious readers are probably shaking their heads and thinking that it is nothing short of insanity to be adding sugar to baby formula when the U.S. is in the middle of an obesity epidemic. Were pediatricians actually consulted about what was put into this formula? Or was the product designed primarily by food chemists like the ones that create fast food strawberry milkshakes?

The article goes on to say that any food Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) is fair game to put in infant formula, according to U.S. law. Europe's ahead of us, of course - they've banned sugar in infant formula as of 2009.

Path To Obesity Can Begin in Infancy?

by: OrangeClouds115

Wed Jul 09, 2008 at 10:00:00 AM PDT

Infants cared for by caregivers other than their parents tend to gain more weight than children cared for by their parents, a new study says.

And children receiving regular care from people other than their parents are also less likely to be breast-fed and more likely to be introduced to solid foods early, the researchers found.

"The current study suggests this risk is greater among children sent to child care early than among children kept under parental supervision," said Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University School of Medicine's Prevention Research Center, who was not involved in the study.

Other studies have suggested that breast-feeding for up to the first 12 months of life may confer protection against obesity, so that may be one of the factors at work here, Katz said, referring to the study. "Feeding practices that take place in child-care settings may also be part of the formula," he said.

I constantly hear about obesity in very young children from my mom, who teaches preschool. It's typically the kids from lower income families - 3 year olds, very often, who are as heavy as 70 lbs. If you're 70 lbs by age 3, the weight gain started very, very early in your life.