'Happy Meals' bill could improve healthfulness of fast food meals for kids in New York City

Date: August 31, 2015

Source: NYU Langone Medical Center

Summary:

A bill to improve the nutritional value of fast food restaurant meals marketed to children could have a wide enough impact to reduce calories, fat, and sodium, according to a new study.

A bill to improve the nutritional value of fast food restaurant meals marketed to children -- like McDonald's Happy Meals -- could have a wide enough impact to reduce calories, fat, and sodium, according to a new study led by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center.

The study, which will publish in the American Journal of Preventive Medicineonline on August 31, includes collaboration from NYU College of Global Public Health, NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

The "Healthy Happy Meals" Bill, proposed by New York City Council member Benjamin J. Kallos, who represents the Upper East Side of Manhattan and Roosevelt Island, would require that fast food meals marketed to kids using toys or other promotional items include a serving of fruit, vegetables or whole grain. They must also be limited to 500 calories or less, with fewer than 35 percent of calories coming from fat, fewer than 10 percent coming from saturated fat, fewer than 10 percent from added sugars, and fewer than 600 milligrams of sodium. The bill is currently being considered by the City Council, and is similar to legislation recently enacted in California.

To identify whether the bill might make a public health impact on nutrition improvement and number of children reached, the researchers analyzed receipts collected in 2013 and 2014 from 358 adults, which included purchases for 422 children at multiple New York City and New Jersey locations of Burger King, McDonald's, and Wendy's, three fast food chains that market kids' meals.

Adults purchased on average 600 calories for each child, with 36 percent of those calories coming from fat, according to the findings. Over one-third of children ordered kids' meals, and 98 percent of kids' meals did not meet the nutritional criteria outlined in the proposed legislation.

If kids' meals meet the bill's criteria and children's orders do not shift, there would be a 9 percent drop in calories -- representing 54 fewer calories -- a 10 percent drop in sodium, and a 10 percent drop in percentage of calories from fat.

"While 54 calories at a given meal is a small reduction, small changes that affect a wide number of people can make a large impact," said Brian Elbel, PhD, lead author and associate professor in the Departments of Population Health at NYU Langone and at NYU Wagner. "Passing the bill could be a step in the right direction, though no single policy can singlehandedly eliminate childhood obesity."

"The policy's effectiveness will depend on whether the food industry attempts to neutralize it through marketing or other strategies," said Marie Bragg, PhD, co-author and assistant professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone and at the NYU College of Global Public Health. "For example, the industry could remove children's meals altogether, forcing children to order the larger portions from the adult menu."

Dr. Bragg offered another approach: "Policymakers could consider broader restrictions on marketing, similar to legislation in Chile that banned any use of toy premiums in children's meals in 2012," she said.

Story Source:

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by NYU Langone Medical Center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:

Brian Elbel, Tod Mijanovich, Jonathan Cantor, Marie A. Bragg. New York City “Healthy Happy Meals” Bill. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2015; DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2015.05.030

Cite This Page:

NYU Langone Medical Center. "'Happy Meals' bill could improve healthfulness of fast food meals for kids in New York City." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 31 August 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150831112615.htm>.

Vitamin D may play key role in preventing macular degeneration

Date: August 31, 2015

Source: University at Buffalo

Summary:

Women who are deficient in vitamin D and have a specific high-risk genotype are 6.7 times more likely to develop AMD than women with sufficient vitamin D status and no high risk genotype, scientists report.

Vitamin D has been studied extensively in relation to bone health as well as cancer. Now, a team led by a researcher at the University at Buffalo has discovered that vitamin D may play a significant role in eye health, specifically in the possible prevention of age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, among women who are more genetically prone to developing the sight-damaging disease.

In a paper published in JAMA Ophthalmology online, Amy Millen, associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health in UB's School of Public Health and Health Professions, and her team found that women who are deficient in vitamin D and have a specific high-risk genotype are 6.7 times more likely to develop AMD than women with sufficient vitamin D status and no high risk genotype.

"Most people have heard that you should eat carrots to help your vision. However, there appear to be many other ways that adequate nutrition can support eye health. Having adequate vitamin D status may be one of them," says Millen, PhD, the study's lead author. "This is not a study that can, alone, prove a causal association, but it does suggest that if you're at high genetic risk for AMD, having a sufficient vitamin D status might help reduce your risk."

"To our knowledge, this is the first study that's looked at the interaction between genetic risk and vitamin D status in the context of age-related eye disease," adds Millen.

Macular degeneration is characterized by the deterioration of the macula, a small part of the central retina where the eye's photoreceptors (rods and cones) are most highly concentrated. The leading cause of legal blindness, macular degeneration affects more than 10 million Americans -- more than cataracts and glaucoma combined -- according to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation. The disease affects a person's central vision, which is needed for common tasks such as reading and driving. The effect is similar to that of a rain drop on the center of a camera lens.

Researchers analyzed data compiled on 1,230 women ages 54 to 74 who participated in the Carotenoids in Age-related Eye Disease Study (CAREDS), which is an ancillary study of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study (OS). The WHI OS is a major National Institutes of Health-funded research program aimed at addressing the most common causes of death, disability and poor quality of life in postmenopausal women. UB is one of 40 WHI centers nationally. CAREDS was conducted among participants at three of the centers: University of Wisconsin (Madison), the University of Iowa (Iowa City) and the Kaiser Center for Health Research (Portland, Oregon).

Researchers were able to determine participants' vitamin D status by analyzing serum samples for a vitamin D biomarker, 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], which provided a glimpse into vitamin D intake through all sources: diet, supplements and sunlight.

Human skin can synthesize vitamin D when exposed to ultraviolet light, Millen explains. However, for many people, 15 to 30 minutes a day with 10 percent of their skin exposed might be sufficient. In winter months, when there is a lower solar angle, sun exposure may not be not sufficient to maintain blood level for people who live north of a line from about Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles. At these times and locations, dietary intake may be needed. Dietary sources of vitamin D include fortified foods such as milk and foods that naturally contain vitamin D such as fatty fish like salmon and mackerel.

"Macular degeneration has been found to be strongly associated with genetic risk," Millen says. Among many genes linked to AMD, one of the strongest is a specific genetic variant (Y402H) in the complement factor H gene, called CFH for short. This gene codes for the CFH protein that is involved in the body's immune response to destroy bacteria and viruses.

Inflammation is believed to be involved in the development of macular degeneration.

"People who have early stage AMD develop drusen, lipid and protein deposits that build up in the eye. Your body sees this drusen as a foreign substance and attacks it, in part via the complement cascade response," explains Millen. "CFH is one of the proteins involved in this response. We see more AMD in people who have certain variants in the gene which encodes a form of this CFH protein that is associated with a more aggressive immune response."

Vitamin D shows promise for protecting against macular degeneration because of its anti-inflammatory and antiangiogenic properties; antiangiogenic refers to slowing the growth of new blood vessels, often seen in late stages of AMD.

"Our thinking was, if a person's vitamin D status is better, would it reduce the immune response to drusen? We wanted to understand if the association between vitamin D and AMD differed depending on a person's genetic risk for AMD," says Millen. "Our study suggests that being deficient for vitamin D may increase one's risk for AMD, and that this increased risk may be most profound in those with the highest genetic risk for this specific variant in the CFH protein."

The study results, however, shouldn't prompt people to run to the nearest grocery store to purchase vitamin D supplements.

"Our message is not that achieving really high levels of vitamin D are good for the eye, but that having deficient vitamin D levels may be unhealthy for your eyes," Millen says.

Although the odds of having AMD was higher in women who were deficient for vitamin D, with 25(OH)D levels below 12 ng/mL (30 nmol/L), increasing vitamin D levels beyond 12 ng/mL did not further lower the odds of AMD to any meaningful extent, she explains.

"This study supports a role for vitamin D in eye health. That's significant because when the Institute of Medicine's report on the dietary reference intakes for vitamin D and calcium were released in 2011, the committee could only make conclusions about D related to bone health," says Millen. "There wasn't enough evidence at that time to make any recommendation based on D status and other outcomes beyond bone health."

Story Source:

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University at Buffalo. The original item was written by David J. Hill. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:

Amy E. Millen, Kristin J. Meyers, Zhe Liu, Corinne D. Engelman, Robert B. Wallace, Erin S. LeBlanc, Lesley F. Tinker, Sudha K. Iyengar, Jennifer G. Robinson, Gloria E. Sarto, Julie A. Mares. Association Between Vitamin D Status and Age-Related Macular Degeneration by Genetic Risk. JAMA Ophthalmology, 2015; DOI:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2015.2715

Cite This Page:

University at Buffalo. "Vitamin D may play key role in preventing macular degeneration." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 31 August 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150831112621.htm>.