Food Politics

by Marion Nestle
Apr 20 2023

USDA’s latest charts

Every now and then the USDA puts out a collection of its latest charts.

These provide lots of information at a glance.  Here are three quick examples:

  1.  What’s happened to farms in the US over the past 200 years.  The number of farms has gone way down; the size has gone way up.

2. This one is about sweeteners in the food supply (not amounts actually eaten).The peak year was around 2000. The overall trend tracks with corn sweeteners.

3. More than half of food expenditures are now on food eaten in restaurants or institutions—where meals are higher in calories.

Enjoy!

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Apr 19 2023

The USDA’s proposal for sugary milks in schools—some responses

In February, the USDA proposed rules for sugars in school meals.  These meant:

Flavored milks would be limited to no more than 10 grams of added sugars per 8 fluid ounces for milk served with school lunch or breakfast. For flavored milk sold outside of the meal (as a competitive beverage for middle and high school students), the limit would be 15 grams of added sugars per 12 fluid ounces.

The International Dairy Foods Association says it can and will do this as part of an effort “to preserve flavored milk options as part of the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs. USDA currently has proposed one option to provide only unflavored milk for school-aged children grades K-8.”

Among milk options available in schools, low-fat flavored milk is the most-consumed beverage for students regardless of grade, IDFA says. Flavored milk products such as chocolate milk offered in schools today contain an average of just 8.2 grams of added sugar per serving.

The Sugar Association, no surprise, supports continued use of sugary milk in schools—for its own particular reason.

As the ‘Healthy School Milk Commitment’ moves forward, it is important that alternative sweeteners are not encouraged or deployed as a frontline sugar reduction strategy for flavored milk served in schools.

The use of low- and no- calorie sweeteners in products intended primarily for both children and adults has increased by 300% in recent years, and their presence in food products is easily cloaked from consumers because of FDA’s arcane and outdated food labeling requirements.

As the health effects of sugar substitutes on children are not adequately studied, we should proceed cautiously when it comes to initiatives that incentivize the use of these ingredients.

We support flavored milk products, which provide important nutrients and are always a fan-favorite among school students in our nation’s schools, and caution against the use of sugar substitutes to meet sugar reduction commitments in the milk consumed by our nation’s school children.

That is a new argument (to me, at least).  Here are some old ones (with my comments):

  • Chocolate milk has lots of nutrients (it also has lots of sugar).
  • Kids won’t drink plain milk (they will, actually)
  • Kids won’t get those nutrients if they don’t drink milk (they can get them from other foods).

But New York City has a handout on why plain milk is preferable.  It’s worth a look.

Apr 18 2023

A warning: COVID benefits are ending and their loss will hurt

The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service sent out one of the saddest emailed notices I have ever received, announcing the end of relief measures enacted during the COVID-19 emergency.

The FNS says it is working closely with participants, States, retailers, other federal agencies, and the White House to help with the transition.

This will not be easy.  The COVID-induced increases in benefits did much to reduce family and child poverty as well as food insecurity.

What follows is slightly edited, mainly to reduce repetitive statements.

End of the National COVID-19 Public Health Emergency – Impact on FNS Programs. 

The national public health emergency (PHE) put in place at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to expire on May 11, 2023. The end of the public health emergency…will trigger changes that impact low-income individuals and families.

  • SNAP Emergency Allotments: The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, required that pandemic-related SNAP Emergency Allotments (EA) be terminated after the issuance of February 2023 benefits.  See: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
  • SNAP ABAWD Time Limit: Beginning July 1, 2023, able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) participating in SNAP will once again be required to meet the ABAWD work requirements or could risk losing benefits as soon as October 2023.
  • Temporary Student Exemptions:  Beginning July 1, 2023, the temporary student exemptions – which allowed college students who wouldn’t typically be eligible for SNAP to receive benefits during the public health emergency – will begin to be phased out, impacting students as they are due for recertification.
  • SNAP Administrative Adjustments and Waivers:  FNS is working very closely with States to help them successfully transition back to normal operations, including offering four certification-related waivers specifically designed to support the transition to post-pandemic program operations.
  • Child Nutrition Programs: FNS offered States and child nutrition program operators extensive flexibilities during COVID to ensure they could continue to serve kids the nutrition they needed. Two of the flexibilities currently offered – CACFP benefits for young adults in shelters and offsite monitoring – are tied to the PHE and, therefore, will be coming to an end. See: Child Nutrition Programs
  • Pandemic EBT: Since March 2020, Pandemic EBT, also known as P-EBT, has been helping eligible families cover food costs for kids who typically received free and reduced-priced school meals or were eligible through their child care facilities. These benefits will continue through the end of summer 2023 for school children, but will end when the PHE ends on May 11, 2023, for children in child care. The new nationwide Summer EBT program recently passed into law will be available starting in summer 2024, and will help families in need continue to put food on the table during the summer when children aren’t receiving meals in schools. See: Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT)  
  • WIC: After the end of the public health emergency, most of the flexibilities FNS provided to WIC participants during the pandemic will continue to be available under a separate authority Congress provided FNS in the American Rescue Plan Act. With this authority, WIC state agencies can continue to offer – and build and improve upon – remote services after the PHE ends. Infant formula waivers, which are not tied to the PHE, will be phased out on a different timeline through the end of June 2023.  See:  Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)

Additional information is available on the FNS website, here.

Comment: I consider this a national tragedy, and a huge mistake.  If COVID-19 proved anything, it was that these measures were highly effective in reducing child poverty in the United States.  Now what.  We go back to higher levels?  As I said, a national tragedy.

Congress will have much to answer for when the results of this shameful decision become to be apparent.

Apr 17 2023

Industry-funded study of the week: whey and muscle strength

I give high praise to NutraIngredients.com for doing full disclosure in the title of an article: “Industry study concludes whey promotes muscular strength and endurance, independent of diet.”

Whey protein supplementation promotes muscle mass increase and selective increases in muscular strength and endurance from resistance exercise, independent of dietary influence, according to a new industry-funded study.

I looked up the study.

The Study: Effects of Whey Protein Supplement on 4-Week Resistance Exercise-Induced Improvements in Muscle Mass and Isokinetic Muscular Function under Dietary ControlChae-Been Kim Jong-Hoon Park Hyoung-Su Park 2Hye-Jin Kim 2Jung-Jun Park   Nutrients.  2023 Feb 16;15(4):1003.   doi: 10.3390/nu15041003.
Purpose: to investigate the effect of whey protein supplementation under dietary control on improvements in muscle mass and function following resistance exercise training.
Method: Thirty-two men were randomly assigned to a whey protein supplementation group taking whey protein isolate (PSG, n = 17) and a placebo group (CON, n = 15). Participants were provided with three meals per day corresponding to the estimated individual daily energy intake. The supervised resistance exercise program was conducted 60 min per day, six days per week, for four weeks.
Conclusion: whey protein supplementation enhances resistance exercise-induced increase in muscle mass and overall muscular strength and endurance, independent of dietary influence.
Funding: This research was funded by Maeil Health Nutrition Co., Ltd.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Comment:  Maeil Health Nutrition is a Korean company which makes and sells dairy-based sports supplements like the one used in this study.  Two of the authors (the ones with 2 ) work for this company.  They have obvious conflicts of interest.  
I won’t bother to dissect the details of the study except to note that the placebo group was taking a supplement with 20 fewer grams of protein per day.
Apr 15 2023

The Edinburgh Medal: A Few Photos

Edinburgh City Chambers set up for the event.  The Edinburgh Medal is presented as part of the Edinburgh Science Festival.  Mine was sponsored by the City Council, Science Festival, and U.S. Embassy.  Thanks to all.

 

Giving the Medal address.

 

Tim Lang gave the Oration and Annie Anderson gave the  Vote of Thanks.

 

Edinburgh Lord Provost Robert Aldridge presented the Medal and Certificate.  His gold chain weighs 7 pounds and the medallion is set with 140 diamonds.

 

The names of previous Medal recipients are on a Chamber wall.

 

Mine appears in this lower section.  They tell me it will be corrected to read Professor Marion Nestle.  But I’m still overwhelmed.

 

The Edinburgh Medal is awarded for work in science and humanity—science in the public interest (my name is on the reverse side). I am honored to receive it, to say the least.

Apr 13 2023

The Edinburgh Medal, Continued

Here’s what I’m doing today during my week in Scotland to receive the 2023 Edinburgh Medal.

Food Politics is on vacation this week.  We will be back next Monday, April 17.  Enjoy the week!

Apr 10 2023

The Edinburgh Medal

I am taking the week off and giving FoodPolitics a vacation while I am i

n Scotland to receive the 2023 Edinburgh Medal.

This is given during the Edinburgh Science Festival.   A Tweet announcing my award is here.  Information about the Medal Award ceremonly is here.  Registration and more information are here.

Food Politics will be back next Monday, April 17.  Enjoy the week!  (Somehow, I think I’m going to!)

Apr 7 2023

Weekend reading: The FDA on food label dietary guidance statements

Press release: FDA Works to Further Improve Nutrition, Reduce Diet-Related Chronic Disease with Dietary Guidance Statements on Food Labels

The draft guidance provides the agency’s thinking about the use of such statements, including recommendations that products contain a meaningful amount of the food, or category of foods, that is the subject of the statement, and that they also not exceed certain amounts of saturated fat, sodium and added sugars.

Translation: The idea here is to make sure that packages making health claims can back them up, or disclose relevant information.  This will automatically eliminate health claims from lots of products (see post on “healthy”).

The FDA is proposing something like this.

 

Here are the relevant documents:

This is all open for public comment now.  Here’s where to submit comments.

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