Sep 17, 2014
CPC Fellows Barry M. Popkin and Shu Wen Ng have published two articles in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine about their analysis of data related to the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation. The research project Evaluating U.S. children’s food purchases and caloric intake to gauge the food industry’s impact on prevention of childhood obesity is administered by the Carolina Population Center.
Food industry leaders find ways to help solve nation�s obesity epidemic (UNC-Chapel Hill news release)
Excerpt: Sixteen major food and beverage companies collectively sold 6.4 trillion fewer calories in the United States in 2012 than they did in 2007, according to a study published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The companies collectively pledged to remove 1 trillion calories from the marketplace by 2012, and 1.5 trillion by 2015. An independent evaluation led by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) found that, thus far, the companies have exceeded their 2015 pledge by more than 400 percent.
Food companies’ U.S. calorie-cutting pledge could stall – researchers (Reuters story)
Excerpt: A campaign by 16 of the world’s largest food and beverage companies to dramatically cut the number of calories sold in the United States may have stalled after initial success, researchers reported on Wednesday…That “suggests that companies made easier changes first and that reductions might be more difficult in the future,” said Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolina, who led the analysis, which was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
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The research article citation information is:
Ng, Shu Wen, Meghan M. Slining, and Barry M. Popkin. 2014. The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation Pledge: Calories Sold from U.S. Consumer Packaged Goods, 2007-2012. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 47 (4):508-19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2014.05.029.
A related article published in the same issue is:
Ng, Shu Wen, and Barry M. Popkin. 2014. The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation Pledge: Calories Purchased by U.S. Households with Children, 2000–2012. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 47 (4):520-30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2014.05.030.