Dozens of USDA Agricultural
Research Service scientists are presenting at Experimental Biology 2007, held at the
Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., April 28 to May 3.
Experimental Biology 2007 is a
multi-society, interdisciplinary, scientific meeting featuring award lectures,
symposia, oral and poster sessions, exhibits and more.
At the conference on April 29,
five ARS research scientists were honored at the
American Society for Nutrition's Awards
and Tributes Program: From the
Jean
Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University:
- Robert
Russell, M.D., Center Director, named a Fellow of the American Society for
Nutrition.
- Jose
Ordovas, Ph.D., Director, Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory, received the
2007 Centrum Award for Nutrition Science.
- Sarah
Booth, Ph.D., Director, Vitamin K Laboratory, received the 2007 Stokstad
Award.
- Allen
Taylor, Ph.D., Director, Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research,
received the 2007 Osborn and Mendel Award.
From the
USDA-ARS
Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor:
- Dennis
Bier, M.D., Center Director, named a Fellow of the ASN.
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What's in Foods Marketed to Kids? Findings
Presented at EB
By
Rosalie Marion Bliss
April 30, 2007
When buying foods for children, it's reasonable to reach for those
that feature extra nutrition information on the front of the package. Marketing
labels that highlight, for example, "good source of nutrient x, y or z" appear
to offer a nutritional home run.
But Agricultural Research Service (ARS) nutritionist
Sarah
Colby explains that more than half of the kids' foods that feature such
information in the six major grocery stores in her local area were found to
also be high in saturated fat, sodium and/or added sugar.
Colby is with the ARS
Grand
Forks Human Nutrition Research Center in Grand Forks, N.D. She is among ARS
scientists giving more than 100 presentations between April 28 and May 2 at the
annual Experimental Biology (EB) 2007
meeting at the Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency. EB is sponsored by member
societies of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, or
FASEB.
For the study, Colby and colleagues surveyed nearly 57,000 food labels
from the major grocery stores within the Grand Forks metropolitan area. Of
those, 9,105 were perceived to be marketed toward children, based on qualifiers
such as graphics, lettering and promotion designs.
Nearly 80 percent of those foods marketed toward childrenabout
7,284carried some nutrition marketing information on the package. But 60
percent of the kid-oriented foods that were packaged with nutrition
marketingabout 4,370 foodswere also high in saturated fat, sodium
and/or added sugar, when compared to the levels recommended in the
2005 Dietary Guidelines
for Americans.
Other nutrition topics presented by ARS scientists at EB this year
range from detecting health-enhancing bioactive food components to links
between dietary intake and risk of fractures while aging.
More information on ARS presenters, session topics and award honorees
is available upon request.