Comparing Current Practice to Recommendations for the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

Background: The federal Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) assists child care centers serving low-income preschoolers and regulates the quality and quantity of food served. The aim of this study was to assess the nutritional quality of lunches served at 38 child care centers and examine how current practices compare to proposed meal pattern recommendations.

Methods: Preschool-aged children (n = 204) were observed eating lunch in 38 CACFP-participating preschools.

Testing Variations on Family-Style Feeding To Increase Whole Fruit and Vegetable Consumption among Preschoolers in Child Care.

Background: Preschoolers do not consume whole fruit and vegetables (FVs) in recommended quantities. Two strategies to increase FV intake were tested.

Methods: One Head Start preschool participated.

Prevalence of partially hydrogenated oils in US packaged foods, 2012.

Although there is evidence that consumption of trans fat has declined in the United States, limited documentation exists on current levels of industrial trans fat in foods. We estimated the prevalence of partially hydrogenated oils in 4,340 top-selling US packaged foods. Nine percent of products in the sample contained partially hydrogenated oils; 84% of these products listed "0 grams" of trans fat per serving, potentially leading consumers to underestimate their trans fat consumption.

From policy to practice: implementation of water policies in child care centers in Connecticut.

Objective: Child care policies may contribute to healthy beverage consumption patterns. This study documented availability and accessibility of water and correspondence with state and federal policy and accreditation standards in child care centers.

Design: One-day observations were conducted in a random sample of 40 Child and Adult Care Food Program-participating preschool classrooms in Connecticut.

Positive influence of the revised Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children food packages on access to healthy foods.

Background: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) has important potential for preventing diet-related disease in low-income children. WIC food packages were recently revised to offer foods that better reflect dietary recommendations for Americans.

Objective: This article reports on how implementation of the new healthier WIC food packages affected access of low-income populations to healthy foods (eg, whole grains, fruit and vegetables, and lower-fat milk).

Validity of a measure to assess the child-care nutrition and physical activity environment.

Background: Licensed child-care centers represent an opportunity to positively influence children's health behaviors. Valid and easy-to-use measures of the child-care environment are needed to assess the influence of environmental change on health.

Objective: To develop and validate a self-administered survey to assess the nutrition and physical activity environment of child-care centers, and to identify domains that may be evaluated adequately through self-report.

Food retailer practices, attitudes and beliefs about the supply of healthy foods.

Objective: Non-supermarket food retailers can be a promising channel for increasing the availability of healthy foods in underserved communities. The present paper reports on retailer practices, attitudes and beliefs about the supply of healthy foods before and after the introduction of new subsidies for healthy foods by the US Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in October 2009.

Design: We designed and conducted in-person standardized interviews with store owners and managers to assess perceptions of demand and profits for different foods, supply networks, barriers to stocking healthy foods and their changes following implementation of the new WIC packages.