Foodlines for Professionals

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1 April/June 2013 Inside this issue: Lunches from Home Lacking in Healthy Offerings USDA Study: School Kids Eating More Fruits and Vegetables How Does Mom s Nutrition Affect Her Children s Health? Epigenetics May Provide New Insights Resources Resources for Nutrition Information Credits & Contacts Foodlines for Professionals is a quarterly newsletter that provides professionals with the latest information on nutrition and food. UC Cooperative Extension Placer and Nevada Counties Making a Difference for California PLACER: E Avenue Auburn, CA office fax ceplacer@ucdavis.edu NEVADA: 255 So. Auburn Street Grass Valley, CA office fax cenevada@ucdavis.edu Website: GET THE FACTS ON GOOD NUTRITION LUNCH FROM HOME LACKING IN HEALTHY OFFERINGS T here have been numerous initiatives focused on improving the nutritional quality of school lunch meals, but little attention has been paid to the quality of packed lunches that students bring from home. A recent study led by Dr. Craig Johnston, assistant professor at the USDA/ARS Children s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine, sought to compare the foods in lunches brought from home versus those offered in the school cafeteria. The study was published in a recent issue of Childhood Obesity. What is clear through the study is that the majority of kids with packed lunches are not bringing what we would consider a healthy lunch, Johnston said. Second grade students at a Southeast Texas school district were observed on three separate days. More than 38 percent of lunches were brought from home. Compared to children who selected school lunch meals, children with a lunch from home were significantly less likely to include fruit (75.9 percent of school lunches vs percent of home lunches), vegetables (29.1 percent vs percent) and dairy foods (70 percent vs percent). Lunches brought from home were more likely to contain snacks high in sugar and/or fat (17.5 percent of school lunches vs. 60 percent of home lunches) and non-100 percent fruit juice (less than 1 percent vs percent). The results were somewhat surprising, Johnston said, because in previous studies about the school lunch program, parents whose children did not opt for lunches offered at school indicated it was because their children didn t like the food and because they could provide healthier food from home. Johnston says that many parents want to make sure their children eat something during the school day, so they pack items they know their kids (continued on page 3)

2 Page 2 USDA STUDY: SCHOOL KIDS EATING MORE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES S tudents at elementary schools participating in USDA s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program consumed 15 percent more fruits and vegetables, based on an agriculture department study. The study conducted by USDA s Food and Nutrition Service found that fruit and vegetable consumption increased by a third of a cup among students participating in the program, compared to nonparticipating students. Increased consumption of fruit accounted for most of the change. The increase in fruit and vegetable consumption through the program doesn t appear to substantially increase calories in children s diets. These results are very encouraging, Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon said. The Fresh Fruits and Vegetable Program is clearly an excellent way to introduce students to more fruits and vegetables. Almost all students tried the fruit and vegetable snacks (97% and 84% of students, respectively); and a substantial majority ate most or all of snacks provided (86% and 61%, respectively), he said. The report describes findings from the evaluation conducted during the school year. The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program is popular among schools, students and parents, and effective in increasing children s fruit and vegetable consumption. Begun as a pilot in 2002, the program aims to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among students in the nation s poorest elementary schools by providing free fresh fruits and vegetables to students outside of regular school meals. The pilot was converted into a nationwide program in the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, also known as the Farm Bill. The Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program is part of a package of USDA programs and initiatives designed to combat child hunger and obesity and improve the health and nutrition of the nation's children, a top priority for the Obama Administration. USDA recently announced proposed new standards to ensure that children K-12 have access to healthy food options. The Smart Snacks in School proposed rule, published in the Federal Register on Feb. 8, 2013, is the first step in the process to create national standards mandated by the Healthy, Hunger- Free Kids Act. The new proposed standards draw on recommendations from the Institute of Medicine, existing voluntary standards already implemented by thousands of schools around the country, and healthy food and beverage offerings already available in the marketplace. USDA's Food and Nutrition Service administers America's nutrition assistance programs including the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs, the Summer Food Service Program, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Together these programs make up the federal nutrition safety net. /fns

3 Page 3 (Continued from page 1) like. Parents are concerned that if they provide a fruit and vegetable, their kids won t eat it. But they might be surprised, because their kids are probably hungry and are likely to eat what s there, he said. Johnston emphasized that a healthy lunch packed from home should include: A vegetable such as cut-up carrots or celery A fruit, either fresh or packed in juice or water Dairy, such as milk, yogurt or cheese If offered, juice drinks should be 100 percent juice This study demonstrated that the national school lunch program provides nutritionally balanced food, Johnston said. Really what this study does is provide some evidence that the national school lunch program is providing healthy food choices for students. The kids who choose the school lunch had healthier foods on their trays compared to the foods that either the students or their parents packed in their home lunches, he said. Johnston emphasized that the study only observed what foods children selected at school or brought from home, not whether they actually ate those items HOW DOES MOM S NUTRITION AFFECT HER CHILDREN S HEALTH? EPIGENETICS MAY PROVIDE NEW INSIGHTS I n some rural villages of the tiny West African nation of The Gambia, food is generally less available during August and September the peak of the rainy season than during a typically dry March through May. Now, a study led by molecular geneticist Robert A. Waterland of the USDA-ARS Children s Nutrition Research Center in Houston, Texas, has shown that functioning of certain genes in kids conceived during the rainy season differs from that in children conceived during the dry season. The difference may be explained by a relatively new science referred to as epigenetics. The variation appears to be permanent, and in the case of two of the five genes in which it was detected, the variation may affect the kids risk of certain diseases. Waterland and co-investigators have attributed the epigenetic variation to the dramatic seasonal differences in the kinds and amounts of foods available to soonto-be moms in the days and weeks around the time of conception, or what s referred to as their periconceptional nutrition. The results of the study are of interest to healthcare professionals involved in improving the prenatal nutrition of these Gambian women, many of whom are, along with other family members, subsistence farmers living at or below the poverty level. But Waterland s study is also of worldwide interest to geneticists, because it presents new, unique evidence of nutritional influences on the development of epigenetic mechanisms in humans. What Is Epigenetics? Epigenetics means on or above genetics. Explains Waterland, Epigenetic mechanisms don t change the DNA sequence of genes, but they do cause stable changes in the way genes function. At one time highly controversial, epigenetics is now accepted as likely having a role in human disease, including cardiovascular disorders, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and certain kinds of cancer. Waterland s research focused on DNA methylation, an epigenetic mechanism that plays a key role in the development of different cell types in the body. Earlier work with laboratory animals has already shown that establishment of DNA methylation can be influenced by mom s nutrition before and during pregnancy. Mice born to mothers (dams) fed a diet designed to increase DNA methylation did in fact have higher DNA methylation levels at certain genes, Waterland says. Now, his Gambia investigation is the first to show that this influence can occur in humans, too. DNA in Blood Samples Analyzed For the Gambia study, small samples of blood from 50 healthy local kids were analyzed to detect (Continued on page 4)

4 Page 4 (Continued from page 3) differences in the level of DNA methylation at specific regions of certain genes. Levels of DNA methylation can range from 0 to 100 percent, Waterland notes. Using a screening procedure that Waterland developed earlier and improved for this study, the research team showed that levels of DNA methylation of five specific genes were higher in kids who were conceived in the peak rainy season than the levels in the other children. DNA regions that show this kind of random, individual-toindividual variation in levels of DNA methylation that can be influenced by mom s nutrition are called metastable epialleles, says Waterland. In our previous research, with mice, the effect of maternal nutrition on DNA methylation levels was permanent. Because we are seeing this effect in kids whom we tested when they were about 9 years old, we think that the epigenetic effect, established early in their development, will likewise be permanent. Of the five genes at which the elevated levels of DNA methylation were observed, two in particular warrant further study because they are associated with risk of disease, Waterland says. Specifically, the SLITRK1 gene is associated with Tourette s syndrome, and the PAX8 gene is linked to hypothyroidism. Farming in a Tropical Savannah The three villages Keneba, Kantung Kunda, and Maduar that were the focus of the periconceptional nutrition research are situated in a tropical savannah ecosystem. Farmers in these villages have no irrigation, so they must rely on the rains, says Waterland. Staple crops like corn, rice, and millet are planted only at the beginning of the rainy season and harvested at the end. Understandably, they may be in very short supply, if not entirely gone, before the next harvest. What s more, the hard labor involved in planting, tending, and harvesting the staple crops burns a lot of calories, meaning that many villagers are expending more calories than they are taking in, he says. We thought that peak rainy season hunger would lower levels of DNA methylation in children conceived at that time, but we found exactly the opposite. We don t yet know why that happens, but we have more detailed studies under way that may give us the answer. These new studies may also indicate precisely which foods and nutrients in those foods resulted in higher levels of DNA methylation in the rainy-season children. The best candidates include folate, vitamin B12, betaine, and choline, which were shown to affect DNA methylation in the earlier mouse studies, says Waterland. Epigenetics research may help us determine more about the roles that these nutrients and others play in the health of not just these West African kids, but of children everywhere. Waterland collaborated in the study with Richard Kellermayer, Eleonora Laritsky, Mark J. Manary, Lanlan Shen, Maria S. Torskaya, and Wenjuan Zhang all with the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where Waterland is an associate professor of pediatrics and of molecular and human genetics; and R. Alan Harris of the college s department of molecular and human genetics. Also collaborating were Pura Rayco-Solon and Andrew M. Prentice of the MRC International Nutrition Group, London (United Kingdom) School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Michael Travisano of the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota-St. Paul; and Jiexin Zhang of the Department of Biostatistics and Applied Biomathematics at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas-Houston. The team s findings appear in a 2010 peer-reviewed article in PLoS Genetics. r13/nutrition0313.htm

5 Page 5 Resources for Nutrition Information University of California Cooperative Extension E Avenue Auburn, CA Phone: Fax: ceplacer@ucdavis.edu American Dietetics Association 120 South Riverside Plaza, Suite 2000 Chicago, Il Phone: American Heart Association National Center 7272 Greenville Avenue Dallas, TX Phone: American Medical Association 515 N. State Street Chicago, Il Phone: Center for Weight and Health College of Natural Resources, University of California 3 Giannini Hall Berkeley, CA Phone: Food and Nutrition Information Center Agricultural Research Service USDA National Agricultural Library Baltimore Avenue, Room 105 Beltsville, MD Phone: USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion 301 Park Center Dr., 10th Floor Alexandria, VA Phone: T he University of California Cooperative Extension s is a quarterly newsletter. The newsletter continues to contain reliable information and current research as it relates to nutrition, food and related topics. We encourage new and current subscribers to enroll in a free digital subscription to. A link can be found at: We hope you will continue to enjoy the newsletter and that you find it useful for yourself and those you serve. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know at Roger Ingram, County Director (Placer & Nevada Counties) Michele Fisch, Program Representative, Nutrition BEST (Placer County) Rosemary Carter, Program Representative, UC CalFresh (Placer & Nevada Counties) Molly Klumb, Program Representative, UC CalFresh (Placer & Nevada Counties) Mychel Teater, Program Representative, UC CalFresh (Placer & Nevada Counties) The University of California ) Division of Agriculture & Natural Resources (ANR) prohibits discrimination against or harassment of any person in any of its programs or activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, pregnancy (which includes pregnancy, childbirth, and medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), physical or mental disability, medical condition (cancer-related or genetic characteristics), genetic information (including family medical history), ancestry, marital status, age, sexual orientation, citizenship, or service in the uniformed services (as defined by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994: service in the uniformed services includes membership, application for membership, performance of service, application for service, or obligation for service in the uniformed services). University policy also prohibits retaliation against any employee or person in any of its programs or activities for bringing a complaint of discrimination or harassment pursuant to this policy. This policy also prohibits retaliation against a person who assists someone with a complaint of discrimination or harassment, or participates in any manner in an investigation or resolution of a complaint of discrimination or harassment. Retaliation includes threats, intimidation, reprisals, and/or adverse actions related to employment or to any of its programs or activities. The University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. The University undertakes affirmative action to assure equal employment opportunity for minorities and women, for persons with disabilities, and for covered veterans (including veterans with disabilities, recently separated veterans, Vietnam era veterans, veterans who served on active duty in the U.S. Military, Ground, Naval or Air Service during a war or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized, or Armed Forces service medal veterans). University policy is intended to be consistent with the provisions of applicable State and Federal laws. Inquiries regarding the University s equal employment opportunity policies may be directed to Linda Marie Manton, Affirmative Action Contact, University of California, Davis, Agriculture and Natural Resources, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, (530)