Canadian preschoolers get nearly half of daily calories from ultra-processed foods: University of Toronto study

University of Toronto

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University of Toronto professor Kozeta Miliku (left) and PhD student Zheng Hao Chen

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Credit: University of Toronto

Researchers at the University of Toronto are sounding the alarm about the high consumption of ultra-processed foods among preschool-aged children in Canada and its association with obesity development.

“We saw that ultra-processed foods contributed to almost half of a child’s total daily energy intake,” says Kozeta Miliku, assistant professor of nutritional sciences at U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

The findings, published today in JAMA Network Open, are the first to describe sex-driven differences in the effects of ultra-processed food on obesity risk among Canadian children, with stronger effects seen in males.  

Ultra-processed foods are those that have been industrially produced and contain ingredients not typically found in a home kitchen, like emulsifiers, preservatives and artificial colours and flavours. The broad category includes items like soda, instant noodles and chips, as well as less obvious foods like flavoured yogurts and commercially prepared whole-grain breads. 

To examine the link between ultra-processed food consumption and obesity development, the researchers used data from over 2,200 kids enrolled in the CHILD Cohort Study, one of the largest prospective pregnancy cohort studies in Canada. The study collects information from families starting in pregnancy and at key developmental stages to track the impact of genetic and environmental factors on children’s long-term health. 

The work was led by Zheng Hao Chen, a PhD student in Miliku’s lab, who notes that Canada is among the top consumers of ultra-processed foods worldwide.

For the study, the researchers looked at data from detailed food frequency questionnaires caregivers completed when the child was three years old and compared it to physical measurements taken of the same child at age five, including their height, weight, waist circumference and skinfold thickness. 

Miliku notes that early childhood is a critical developmental window because food preferences and habits established during this time can carry into adulthood. 

The researchers found a link between increased ultra-processed food consumption at age three and higher body fat measurements — such as BMI, waist-to-height ratio, skinfold thickness — and a greater risk of living with overweight or obesity at age five. Interestingly, these associations were primarily seen in males and remained significant after accounting for other factors like parent education and whether the child was breastfed. 

In ongoing follow-up studies, the researchers are looking at whether replacing some of the ultra-processed foods with minimally processed whole foods can help reduce the negative effects on body composition and obesity risk. They are also trying to understand why males seem to be especially vulnerable to the health harms related to ultra-processed foods and what role the gut microbiome might play in these adverse health outcomes. 

As a mom to a three-year-old who also can’t completely avoid ultra-processed foods, Miliku understands firsthand the challenges parents face in trying to feed their child a well-balanced diet. 

 “Ultra-processed foods are very accessible and a handy solution for busy days. We are all doing our best to make sure our children are fed, but there are opportunities for us to improve their diet.” 

She hopes that the study will spur regulators to adopt public health policies, like front-of-package nutrition labelling, to make it easier for families to choose healthier, less processed options.

“Ultra-processed foods are common in today’s retail market, but they are not all easy to spot,” says Chen.

Miliku and Chen point to the Nutri-Score label used in France — a colour-coded scale ranging from A to E — and food-specific taxes as measures that have worked in other countries to encourage people to eat less ultra-processed foods. Miliku also acknowledges that with an increasing number of Canadian households experiencing food insecurity, broader policy supports are needed to ensure the affordability and accessibility of fresh whole foods.

“Canada is falling behind in this area. With overweight and obesity affecting nearly one in three children in this country, it’s scary that we are not taking more action.” 

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Journal

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.57341 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Ultraprocessed Food Consumption and Obesity Development in Canadian Children

Article Publication Date

31-Jan-2025

Ultraprocessed food consumption and obesity development in Canadian children

JAMA Network

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About The Study: 

High ultraprocessed food consumption during early childhood was associated with obesity development, primarily in males in this cohort study of Canadian children. These findings can inform targeted public health initiatives for early childhood centers and caregiver education programs to reduce ultraprocessed food intake and prevent obesity. 

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Kozeta Miliku, MD, PhD, email kozeta.miliku@utoronto.ca.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.57341)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication. 

 Watch what you eat: NFL game advertisements promote foods high in fat, sodium

Saint Louis University

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ST. LOUIS – Research from Saint Louis University (SLU) and the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine finds that some of the most-watched ads promote the worst food options for adults with chronic health conditions. 

The findings published online on Jan. 30 in JAMA Network analyzed advertisements transmitted during televised NFL games in the U.S. to assess the nutritional content by serving.  

The study found that store-bought foods and quick-service restaurants advertised during NFL games, the most watched sporting events in the U.S., were frequently high in sodium, calories, and fat content.   

The paper, “Salt and Nutritional Content of Foods Advertised During Televised Professional Football Games,” was first authored by Lara Al-Zoubaidi, a third-year nutrition student at SLU’s Doisy College of Health Sciences. Al-Zoubaidi was a part of the research team led by senior author Paul J. Hauptman, M.D., dean of the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine.  

The observational study looked at the impact of advertising and paid sponsorships on consumer behavior and meal option selections on adults with heart failure, coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes and kidney failure.   

“The thing that surprised me most was how normalized these ads and paid promotions were, and there weren't any regulations on how much people could view them,” Al-Zoubaidi said.  

Researchers discovered that excess dietary intake is frequent due to ingesting processed and prepared foods, including those from high-volume restaurants or other food establishments. They also reported that excess fat and caloric intake may influence the natural history of coronary artery disease, diabetes, and other conditions.  

The presentation in each commercial determined individual serving sizes. The nutritional content of each food item was determined from each company’s website.  Researchers said the combination of extended viewing times and poor dietary choices may be maladaptive for both primary and secondary prevention of multiple chronic cardiovascular and other conditions.   

The findings suggest clinicians should counsel individuals with prevalent conditions about limiting dietary sodium intake of most foods advertised during NFL games, which may improve symptoms and quality of life.  

“This study was geared towards physicians to raise awareness around what their patients are consuming and empower them to take control of their health,” Al-Zoubaidi said.  

Other authors include Nadya Vinsdata, University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno, and R. Eric Heidel, Ph.D., Department of Surgery at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine.  

About Saint Louis University 

Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers more than 15,200 students a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person. At the core of the University’s diverse community of scholars is SLU’s service-focused mission, which challenges and prepares students to make the world a better, more just place. 

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Journal

JAMA

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.57307 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Salt and Nutritional Content of Foods Advertised During Televised Professional Football Games

Article Publication Date

30-Jan-2025

 

UTA helps deliver major science library to Ecuador

ARDRC secures funding to send 11,000 natural history books and journals to country’s National Biodiversity Institute, supporting research and education

University of Texas at Arlington

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Dozens of volunteers at UTA packaged and sorted the material over the course of a year before finally shipping it via ocean freight to Ecuador.

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Credit: Photo courtesy UTA

As a result of hard work and collaboration between The University of Texas at Arlington’s Amphibian and Reptile Diversity Research Center (ARDRC) and the Joseph Rex Dinardo Jr. Herpetology and Natural History Science Research Trust in Philadelphia, thousands of literature items have been donated to the National Institute of Biodiversity (INABIO) in Quito, Ecuador, to help it jump start its renovated education and research program for biodiversity.

The Joseph Rex Dinardo Jr. Trust recently donated thousands of rare books and other scientific literature related to amphibians and reptiles to the ARDRC, making it one of the largest herpetology research libraries in the world. Due to its close affiliation to the ARDRC, the Dinardo Jr. Trust requested the help of UTA research scientists to find a home for the remainder of its natural history literature that did not pertain to herpetology.

“We knew this literature could have a big impact on both education and research at the right scientific institution, considering it spanned such a breadth of biodiversity and topics,” said Greg Pandelis, collections manager and biological curator for the ARDRC. “Given our close relationship and past collaboration with INABIO, we proposed the idea that the literature be donated there.”

INABIO is rapidly becoming one of the foremost entities for biodiversity research and education in South America, expanding recently with a new building to house its public exhibits and updated research facilities, including a state-of-the-art genomics lab. INABIO researchers expressed a strong desire to acquire and house a research library as part of that expansion, which would serve both their researchers and the public. However, the logistical hurdle in transporting the literature to such a distant country was not small.

“The ARDRC was able to secure a grant from the U.S. Agency for Internal Development to fully fund the transfer of this donation to INABIO,” Pandelis said. “From there, we employed the help of dozens of volunteers at UTA to package and sort the material over the course of a year before finally shipping it via ocean freight to Ecuador. They have received the materials and are in the process of indexing the massive donation in their new facilities.”

Pandelis emphasized that facilitating this donation cements UTA’s fruitful and ongoing collaborations with INABIO and the Dinardo Jr. Trust. INABIO has agreed to name both its library and a new species of reptile or amphibian in the future in recognition of Joseph Dinardo Jr. and his lifetime commitment to herpetology.

“For the National Biodiversity Institute of Ecuador, it has been an absolute privilege to have been a beneficiary of the Dinardo Jr. Trust, thanks to the close collaboration of our colleagues at The University of Texas at Arlington,” said Mario H. Yánez-Muñoz, an associate researcher at INABIO. “Thanks to this support, INABIO received an incredible donation of 8,570 books, 2,000 journals and 500 journal articles. This collaboration has allowed us to build an impressive bibliographic collection, with a strong focus on vertebrates. This donation will undoubtedly support the information needs of specialists, students and enthusiasts in the natural sciences throughout South America.”

“Uncle Joe lovingly curated this collection over 50 years, and his dying wish was to share it with those who would most appreciate it, furthering their understanding of herpetology and natural sciences,” Dinardo Jr.’s niece Constantina Lavonne Lambrou-Marino said. “My family and I are deeply grateful to Greg Pandelis, Mario Yánez-Muñoz, and their teams for thoughtfully executing this monumental process. Nicknamed ‘Lizard Man’ in Vietnam, Uncle Joe was especially fond of South America, and we are so pleased that his legacy will live on at INABIO.”

INABIO is rapidly becoming one of the foremost entities for biodiversity research and education in South America, expanding recently with a new building to house its public exhibits and updated research facilities, including a state-of-the-art genomics lab. 

"For the National Biodiversity Institute of Ecuador, it has been an absolute privilege to have been a beneficiary of the Dinardo Jr. Trust, thanks to the close collaboration of our colleagues at The University of Texas at Arlington,” said Mario H. Yánez-Muñoz, an associate researcher at INABIO. “Thanks to this support, INABIO received an incredible donation of 8,570 books, 2,000 journals and 500 journal articles. This collaboration has allowed us to build an impressive bibliographic collection, with a strong focus on vertebrates. This donation will undoubtedly support the information needs of specialists, students and enthusiasts in the natural sciences throughout South America.”

Credit

Photo credit UTA

About The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA)

Located in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, The University of Texas at Arlington is a comprehensive teaching, research, and public service institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through scholarship and creative work. With an enrollment of approximately 41,000 students, UT Arlington is the second-largest institution in the UT System. UTA’s combination of outstanding academics and innovative research contributes to its designation as a Carnegie R-1 “Very High Research Activity” institution, a significant milestone of excellence. The University is designated as a Hispanic Serving-Institution and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education and has earned the Seal of Excelencia for its commitment to accelerating Latino student success. The University ranks in the top five nationally for veterans and their families (Military Times, 2024), is No. 4 in Texas for advancing social mobility (U.S. News & World Report, 2025), and is No. 6 in the United States for its undergraduate ethnic diversity (U.S. News & World Report, 2025). UT Arlington’s approximately 270,000 alumni occupy leadership positions at many of the 21 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in North Texas and contribute to the University’s $28.8 billion annual economic impact on Texas.

 

Researchers link India’s food program to better health and stronger incomes

The health and economic benefits of food transfer programs reach far beyond the caloric content of the subsidized food

University of California - Santa Barbara

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(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Despite humanity’s scientific achievements and globalized economy, malnutrition remains a global issue. The United Nations estimated that 2.33 billion people experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2023.

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara, the Indian Institute of Management and the University of Calgary examined the impacts of the world’s largest food assistance program to understand its effectiveness. Their results, published in the American Economic Journal, reveal health and economic benefits that reach far beyond the caloric content of the subsidized food.

“Malnutrition in India has been this long-standing problem,” said co-author Kathy Baylis, a professor in UCSB’s Geography Department and the Environmental Markets Lab (emLab). “Stunting rates for children in India are the same as they are in some of the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa, even though it is a lot wealthier.” As a result, India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) is the world’s largest food transfer program, and India’s most far-reaching social safety net.

PDS operates in a similar manner to how food stamps worked in the United States in decades past: Eligible families and individuals can purchase bags of rice or wheat at heavily subsidized rates. The PDS serves 800 million people and accounted for 60% of India’s social assistance budget in 2019 through 2020, the paper explains.

Changes to India’s food assistance program

For many years PDS had been administered at a state level. But in 2013, India’s federal government established minimum standards for the program. Many states had to increase their assistance as a result, providing either larger grain portions or lower prices.

The researchers compared the effects between states already meeting the federal standards and those that had to change. They used data from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, which, with support from the Gates Foundation, implemented a five-year survey of families in the program covering 30 villages across eight states.

The authors tracked children’s height for age as an indicator of malnutrition. This measurement captures longer-term trends than a simple body mass index, Baylis explained. “The reason we care about stunting, this height for age, is that it’s associated with all sorts of bad long-run outcomes, including worse health outcomes and cognitive challenges, which affect education and income,” she said. It’s also a metric tracked around the globe.

A balanced diet

The researchers found that the average PDS expansion slashed stunting prevalence from 36% to 28.8%. “Frankly, we were surprised by the magnitude,” Baylis said. These effects were most pronounced in children aged zero to two years, a critical window during which a child’s development is highly sensitive to nutritional intake.

The benefits of PDS were particularly pronounced during periods of poor rainfall. These results suggest that a nutrition-sensitive safety-net like PDS supports food security, making childhood nutrition less sensitive to local climate shocks. It’s an aspect of the program they plan to investigate further in the future.

Still, the subsidized grains may supplant more nutritious foods with empty calories, critics have levied against PDS. But the survey responses revealed that those on the program actually had more diversified diets. It seemed that, rather than crowding out other foods, subsidizing dietary staples freed up money toward more nutritious foods, particularly animal proteins like meat and dairy. This alone was large enough to account for the increase in children’s heights.

Far-reaching benefits

The authors also observed a larger effect on household expenditure than could be explained by cost savings alone. They suspect that well-fed individuals could work more hours, boosting their wages. The additional security may also have enabled people to be more selective about which jobs they took. Notably, the team only saw this trend in people who were paid hourly, rather than salary. “The secondary effect on income meant that this program was more meaningful than just the value of the food itself,” Baylis said.

This study shows that food transfers seem to provide many benefits, an important insight as economists and policymakers discuss different strategies, such as direct cash transfers. “Other papers have found that if you give people cash the prices of food go up in those areas,” Baylis explained, “particularly the prices of more nutrient-dense foods, because there’s more demand.” But providing subsidized food can actually drive down food prices.

And a food program seems to keep participants focused on food. “People are keeping those savings within the food category in their budget,” she said.

To the authors, it’s now clear that the benefits of PDS extend well beyond just calories. “Social safety nets can have these big knock-on effects in terms of things like income, health and human capital,” Baylis said. “Even if the safety net itself isn’t huge, they can be really beneficial more broadly than we might have expected.”

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Journal

American Economic Journal Applied Economics

Article Title

American Economic Journal

CAPITALI$M IS CRIMINAL

Powerful legal and financial services enable kleptocracy, research shows

University of Exeter

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Powerful legal and financial service industries are enabling kleptocracy and corrupt elites to operate with relative impunity, a new study shows.

The research details how “enablers” from these industries exploit deregulation and the under-enforcement of the law to game the system. They can offshore their clients' wealth, and enhance their reputations and influence via philanthropy, political donations, and the use of the UK's punitive libel regime.

Most of this “enabling” is likely to be non-criminal, given the very few convictions despite the widely acknowledged extent of kleptocracy. These services —or professional indulgences— also include the explaining of kleptocratic sources of wealth and concealing of ownership.

Indulging kleptocracy: British Service Providers, Postcommunist Elites, and the Enabling of Corruption, by John Heathershaw, Tena Prelec, and Tom Mayne, outlines how kleptocracy is creating moral and economic problems. It impoverishes the global south and undermines institutions in the global north, eroding faith in democracy by empowering corrupt elite business-political networks in global politics.

Professor Heathershaw said: “Kleptocracy requires help – enabling - from legal and financial professionals. This can be licit and illicit, willingly complicit, negligence or deliberate corruption. It is important to shed light on dangerous patterns of corruption, break the system of indulgences and stymie the globalization of kleptocracy.”

The book outlines the important relationship between illicit (all that which is criminal, unethical, and noncompliant) and the licit (all that which is lawful, ethical, and compliant according to professional standards) because those in services “cross the frontier” at the wishes of their clients. It is at this boundary of il/ licit that the bulk of work is done. The book explains the impact of the emergence of these blurred boundaries and network ties.

Professor Heathershaw said: “The UK has become an entrepôt for the corrupt and a market for short-term capital.”

The book contains nine case studies of corruption and kleptocracy, and each of these contains a variety of professional service providers. It outlines the historical and contemporary political context of the UK’s kleptocracy problem in which demand for its enabling services has emerged.

The researchers have previously published a database which contains 99 cases of property purchases worth more than £2 billion and made over the period from 1998 to 2020 on behalf of the elites of Russian and Eurasian states. All have completed residential real estate transactions in the UK, many using complex offshore structures to conceal either uncertain beneficial ownership or dubious sources of wealth.

The book shows there are three mechanisms of transnational kleptocracy—incumbency, alliance, and
enabling. While incumbency and alliance both matter for certain indulgences such as explaining away suspicious wealth and avoiding the threat of individual sanctions, these are less powerful than the enabler effect.

 

Carbon capture from constructed wetlands declines as they age

Study shows climate benefits, especially in early years

29 years of carbon sequestration in two constructed riverine wetlands

Ohio State University

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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Constructed wetlands do a good job in their early years of capturing carbon in the environment that contributes to climate change – but that ability does diminish with time as the wetlands mature, a new study suggests.

Researchers examined soil core samples taken from two constructed freshwater wetlands and compared them to data from previous studies of the same wetlands over 29 years to determine how well human-made wetlands sequester — or capture and store — carbon as they age. 

Findings showed both wetlands captured similar amounts of carbon over the decades, but neither has shown a net gain or loss since year 15.

But their value in sequestering carbon is remarkable, the researchers said.

“Wetlands are generally thought of as the kidneys of our world because they can clean water naturally and sequester carbon well,” said Jay Martin, a distinguished professor in food, agricultural and biological engineering at The Ohio State University and a co-author of the study. “As we try to combat climate change, they also provide habitat for many species that are important to us.”

The researchers analyzed data from the Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park (ORWRP), a site ideal for long-term study due to the overwhelming amount of environmental data it generated over the past three decades.

Previous studies of the park revealed that its soil has shown an increase in carbon levels. But by using detailed measurements taken in the wetland’s 29th year post-construction, Martin’s team found that wetlands’ ability to sequester carbon diminishes as they mature. 

The study was recently published in the journal Ecological Engineering. 

Under current conditions, the wetlands have become a stable ecological force, and this equilibrium isn’t expected to change anytime soon. 

“When you first construct a wetland, the initial plant growth is often what causes carbon to be sequestered so quickly,” said Daniel Ruane, a former master’s student in ecological engineering and the lead author of the study. “But it just isn’t possible to have infinite growth.” 

Although there are limits to how much atmospheric carbon artificial wetlands can effectively store, since their carbon sequestration and storage rates are still far greater than other ecosystems, they still represent a potential solution to counter climate change, said Ruane. 

As a result, future research into the health of the ORWRP is likely to analyze the various plant communities that grow within the area as well as investigate methane emission levels to determine how long the land can function as a carbon sink. 

“The benefits that wetlands provide are increasingly positive,” said Martin. “Our findings emphasize that these ecosystems should be looked at in a better light now than ever before.”

Due to an increase in urban and agricultural land use, more than 50% of Earth’s natural wetlands have disappeared over the last few centuries. This decline has impacted ecosystem services all around the U.S., but most notably in the Midwest, said Martin. 

In Ohio, for example, projected wetland loss is closer to 90%, jeopardizing many essential processes that humans rely on, like water quality improvement and flood mitigation. 

This provides even more reason why policymakers should be trying to build and maintain wetland ecosystems, Ruane said. 

“If we started to create and restore more wetlands now, that could solve a lot of our problems down the road,” he said. 

Co-authors of the study include Michael Brooker and William Mitsch of Ohio State, Blanca Bernal of Greencollar US Inc., Chris Anderson of Auburn University, and Robert Nairn of the University of Oklahoma.

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Contact: Jay Martin, Martin.1130@osu.edu

Written by: Tatyana Woodall, Woodall.52@osu.edu

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Journal

Ecological Engineering

DOI

10.1016/j.ecoleng.2024.107435 

Article Title

29 years of carbon sequestration in two constructed riverine wetlands