If you browse a supermarket aisle in Chile, you’ll notice something different about the candy bars, sodas, and potato chips – these and other unhealthy foods are likely to display one or more stop sign logos on their packaging, warning you about high levels of sugar, salt, fat, or calories. Since 2016, Chile has required these warning labels on the front of any product with higher-than-recommended levels of these nutrients. The country required these warnings as part of a suite of policies meant to curb obesity and other diseases linked to poor diet. Following Chile’s lead, five other countries have passed food and beverage warning policies. In the U.S., lawmakers in five states have also proposed warning labels that would apply specifically to soda and other sugary drinks. 
0 Comments
“How do you know that spring is coming? Magazines start calling to ask if grilled meat causes cancer.” That was the “joke” we told each other in the National Cancer Institute’s press office – as predictable as the seasons themselves, we’d start getting calls in late winter from writers who wanted to know about the dangers of the backyard barbeque. Their questions were always similar -- do grilled meats cause cancer? How? Was meat healthier if it was cooked a different way? Did the type of meat matter? How much meat is “safe” to eat?
When I was in elementary school, the quintessential school-bought lunch contained a generic deli meat sandwich slathered with mayo, a carton of milk, and a bag of overly salted potato chips. Delicious and loved by nearly every student, the food being served was far from nutritious. The standards for school lunches have drastically changed after the implementation of federal policies, particularly the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010. This bill provided funding for school meals and child nutrition, promoted overall student wellness, and, perhaps most notably, set very clear standards for making school meals healthier by including key reforms to school meals such as increasing fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
Fetal growth, typically measured as birth weight-for-gestational-age, predicts morbidity, survival, and long-term health outcomes in children and their mothers. Physicians typically use percentile thresholds (for example, the 10th or 90th percentile) from population-based reference charts to identify at-risk infants who may have had restricted or excessive fetal growth. Children identified as being small or large for their gestational age often need more care and careful monitoring during early life.  Previous birth weight charts however, suffer for two reasons. First, they may not reflect the current socio-demographic composition of the United States. And, second, they rely on very uncertain estimates of gestational age, from maternal reports of their last menstrual period. This subjective dating method is often less accurate than obstetric estimates based on ultrasound measurements, menstrual history and laboratory values. Given these concerns, we need a new and improved obstetric-estimate-based reference birth weight-at-gestational age.
In our latest study, we have created an updated birth weight reference for both clinicians and researchers using the most recent and nationally representative data on birth weight and obstetric estimates of gestational age. We used publicly available birth certificate data on over 3 million live births from 2017 to develop reference percentile curves and gestational age-specific cutpoints for male and female infants as well as for first-, second- and third-or-more-born infants. This data had the more precise obstetric measures and was more representative of the entire US population. We also created a simple and easy to use online tool for both clinicians and researchers to quickly calculate measures of birth size, tailored to their specific needs. To give an example, a female infant born at 3000 grams (~6 pounds, 9 ounces) at 38 weeks’ gestation would be in the 35th percentile using our updated reference. The same infant, however, would be classified in the 29th percentile using an older reference that was based on live births in 1999‒2000. How should these results be used? We expect clinicians to be able to use the percentile thresholds from the updated reference to identify at-risk infants in need of additional monitoring or care. Researchers may also use the reference to derive continuous measures of birth size for studies examining predictors of fetal growth or relationships of fetal growth with later health outcomes. Previously published birth weight references, such as those by Oken et al, have been readily adopted in clinical settings. For example, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston currently uses the “Oken reference” as a growth standard for all fetal ultrasounds. We hope that this updated reference will have a similar uptake.
Have you ever wondered what you can do to reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease? A healthy diet may be one important way in which you can lower your risk.
|
RSS Feed
©2017 WeighingInBlog. All rights reserved. 401 Park Drive, Boston, MA