Here are some of the best food stories we came across this week:
- It’s Official: NYC Health Panel Bans Big Sodas – The New York City Board of Health approved a ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, street carts and movie theaters on Thursday – the first restriction of its kind in the country – in an effort to reduce skyrocketing obesity rates. Convenience stores, vending machines and some newsstands would be exempt.
- Greater Variety Increases Vegetable Intake – A study performed at Penn State and published in the August issue of Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that when participants were served three different vegetables that filled up half their plate, both men and women ate over one half-serving more than when served only one veggie — even when it was their favorite.
- McDonald’s to Begin Posting Calorie Counts on Menus – Consumers will soon have something else to ponder as they gaze at over 14,000 of McDonald’s in-store and drive-though menus: the calorie count. In compliance with coming regulations from President Obama’s healthcare reform bill, the chain would be required to perform menu labeling anyway, but is the first to comply ahead of schedule.
- Overweight Teens Consume Fewer Calories than Slimmer Peers – The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), with results published in Pediatrics, found that overweight teens consumed on average 110 fewer calories per day than their healthy-weight peers. Since overweight people tend to be more sedentary, it’s possible the heavy teens require fewer calories to maintain their current weight.
- Study Finds Price and Health Determine Grocery Purchases – A Nielsen study found that in the U.S. and most of the globe, the number one determining factor in consumer grocery purchases was price, but in second place came the health impact of the goods chosen. Transportation costs came in third, making the plight of food deserts more salient; fourth place saw package labeling, and in the U.S. rewards programs were number five.
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments below, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for links like these all week long.
Image courtesy of semarr.
