New Study: WIC Food Improves Preschool Children s Diet Quality

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One in five American children entering elementary school is overweight, highlighting the critical need to improve the diets of younger children. And that makes the findings of a new research study even more compelling. A University of California study published in the journal Pediatrics today shows that food provided by the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) improves the diet quality of preschool children.

The study's authors are June Tester, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland; Cindy Leung, UC San Francisco School of Medicine, Center for Health and Community; and Patricia Crawford, Nutrition Policy Institute, which operates under UC's division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. (Read a Q&A with study co-author Pat Crawford here)

Background:

WIC is a national program administered by the USDA s Food and Nutrition Services agency (FNS). WIC delivers grants to states to provide a range of services to improve the health and nutrition of pregnant women, infants and children up to the age of 5 years. These services include supplemental food voucher packages and nutrition education. More than 4 million American children are currently served by the WIC program.

WIC was created as a two-year pilot program in 1972, via an amendment to the Child Nutrition Act of 1966. The amendment was introduced by Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. Within a short time, the program was operating in forty-five states. In 1975, WIC was established as a permanent USDA program.

In 2007, based on research provided by the Institute of Medicine (IOM - now the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences), changes were recommended to revise the WIC food package to align more closely with the IOM's dietary recommendations. The changes took effect in 2009. Among the changes? Adding more fruits, vegetables and whole grains to the food voucher package. The changes also included lower-fat milk and a 50% decrease in the juice allotment (healthier portions of whole fruit were added). For information about the kinds of foods WIC packages contain, click here.

Maximum monthly allowances of WIC supplemental foods in the new WIC food packages. Foods for Children and Women. Source: http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/final-rule-revisions-wic-food-packages

Why the Study Matters:

This UC study is the first to use a nationally representative sample to report on what are viewed as significant improvements in the diet quality in young children associated with the WIC package change.

The researchers analyzed the diets of 1,197 children, ages 2 to 4 years, from low-income households before and after the 2009 change in the food package.

Study co-author and pediatrician June Tester said, The change in the WIC food package is an important policy change in the effort to improve the quality of diets of young children

The study is also the first to use the updated Healthy Eating Index (HEI-2010), the tool that enables us to assess how America's dietary patterns match up with the nation's Dietary Guidelines. Learn more about the Healthy Eating Index in the following interview with the USDA's Angela Tagtow where she discusses the 2015 Dietary Guidelines. The following are excerpts from long here interview: part 1 and part 2.

DISCLOSURE: UC Food Observer editor Rose Hayden-Smith agreed to submit questions for review to the USDA in advance of her Q&A with Angela Tagtow. The final transcript was also reviewed by the USDA prior to publication. Hayden-Smith and Tagtow have known each other for eight years, since participating together in the W.K. Kellogg Foundation-funded Food and Society Policy fellows program in 2008-2009. This is the first of a two-part series. The second part of the series discusses the process for adopting the 2015 Dietary Guidelines, the shift to more holistic eating patterns and the backlash against suggestions to include environmental sustainability.

Making sure that kids are healthy and ensuring that kids have access to healthful food is a priority of the administration, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and throughout USDA. There is a dedication to this; vision by leadership is truly in alignment. From the agency level, to the Agriculture Secretary, to the President and the First Lady the alignment is probably historical. And the engagement by the public on these issues is unprecedented. Again we recognize that this is an historic time. - Angela Tagtow

Q: What is concerning you about America's health?

Ms. Tagtow: As a public health dietitian, my entire career has been about promoting healthy eating and physical activity. It's always been the focus of my efforts. Coming to the USDA has provided an opportunity to truly be at the forefront of efforts to drive change to improve the health of this country. The one thing that is so concerning is that nutrition remains one of the most powerful tools at our disposal to make an immediate and direct impact on diet-related chronic disease - and subsequent health care costs - in this country, yet we struggle to do so. That is my biggest concern.

Over the last thirty years, diet-related chronic diseases have continued to rise. We know that diet is a direct cause of these diseases - Americans are not eating according to the Dietary Guidelines, yet we can't seem to find that tipping point. There are many influences on the food system that are preventing us from achieving that tipping point. Now, I do have hope and have seen changes with our approaches in addressing overweight and obesity, and other diet-related chronic diseases. These approaches expand beyond direct interventio

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