Question 1
The knowledge of specific food/beverage sources contributing to overweight and obesity were said to be valuable for further solutions to making changes for improving energy intake. Do you think foodservice establishments (school, hospital, or restaurant) could utilize the data from this study to improve upon their child and adolescent customers without spending more money than the operation currently expends on food? Please explain.
posted by Amy M @ 5:01 PM
17 comments
17 Comments:
There is always a benefit to reporting or sharing results of a study to consumers. However, I do think that for some individuals, habits are very set in stone and hard to change. I think it would be wonderful if foodservice establishments used the data from this study as well as other studies to educate their customers about food/beverage sources that contribute to overweight and obesity, but there would be some type of cost involved unless they were to quit providing some of the food/beverage items that are contributing to obesity/overweight status and used that money to educate customers by developing visual media, pamphlets, posters, classes, new menus (restaurants) etc. There are ways to promote healthier food options by cutting corners and making consumers more aware of what are some better food and beverage options with little cost involved. I do think that knowledge and behavior change is something that takes time and with small changes in foodservice establishments, I think there could be a positive change/improvement in our children/adolescents choices.
I would certainly hope that the time and effort researchers put in to this study would be taken for practical application. In my opinion the purpose of research is to make improvements and advancements, so ideally that is why researchers conducted this study in the first place (otherwise, what is the point? To have knowledge and not use it?). I would think that food service establishments could take favorite foods of children and adapt the recipes to make healthier options of their favorites. On the other hand, foodservice operations that are driven by the bottom line and lack an ethical conscience could exploit the results of this study to cater these favorite foods to children (much like foods are marketed toward children now).
I think that it is difficult to determine whether or not foodservice establishments could utilize this data to improve their customers and products. I think a lot of times people forget that foodservice operations (especially in school systems) are businesses too. Schools and hospitals rely on the foodservice operations to bring in a profit for their organization. While it would be wonderful if foodservice establishments wouldn’t offer these food sources, they are usually the items that bring in a profit. Educating children, adolescents and parents is essential so that these food choices aren’t purchased regularly.
Sarah, you make a great point. Foodservice operations could alter these favorite food items and adapt them into healthier options. I think a lot of schools are doing this now as they begin to serve only whole grain breads, pastas, etc. I suppose you have to start somewhere and any change in a healthier direction is a good change!
I absolutely think that foodservice establishments can, and should, utilize the data from this study to improve the health of their child and adolescent customers. There are inexpensive ways to make the foods that kids and adolescents love healthier. A little creativity goes a long way when making substitutions and altering recipes. With the right business and nutrition knowledge, I truly believe appropriate changes could be made to ensure customer acceptance, improve health status, while maintaining the same food expenses.
I think knowing the specific foods that contribute most to obese and overweight children is incredibly important. I believe that schools, hospitals, and restaurants could utilize this data and that they should, but I honestly feel that most won’t because of the potential difference in costs and because they may feel the new products won’t go over as well. I personally think there are ways that these organizations could prepare healthier dishes without spending more money, but that takes time and effort on their part to do. I think it depends on each place and how much time, energy, and effort they are willing to expend and how much desire they have to serve healthier dishes for their customers.
I think it would be great if foodservice establishments used the results of this study to help improve children and adolescent’s intake. There are ways to make these favorite foods healthier without increasing food cost, but the establishments would have to invest time and effort to do this. They may not have access to an RD to help implement these changes to healthier menu options or to even provide nutrition information for customers to reference.
Sarah and Liz have good points; foodservice establishments are businesses and may not have an interest in providing healthier options to children and adolescents. It is a possibility that they would use these results in the opposite way as intended and market the popular food choices to this age group. I could see this happening in restaurants more so than hospitals and schools, but all of these foodservice establishments still do need to stay in business.
I definitely feel that food service establishments, especially schools and hospitals should review this data that the study collected. However, I feel that this is information the American people, especially food service establishments are already aware of. Schools and hospitals are already working to try and improve these statistics but the greatest challenge is working with the customer and not the establishment. People need to be taught and put into practice making the right healthful choices because unhealthy food will always be available it's just whether or not they choose to eat it. It's sad to see that these statistics relate to 2 to 18 year olds but this goes to show again that we need to start educating children early about nutrition.
Liz, I agree with your points as well. It is a little discouraging that as a group we all acknowledge and accept that foodservice establishments are a business driven by profit. Especially in a hospital (which I have observed first hand), it is so frustrating to have everything I teach patients in educations to be contradicted by 75% of the choices offered.
I think that this information would be helpful to foodservice establishments that want to offer healthy choices but I do believe further research needs to be done in order to get to the root of the problem. So we know now that children are choosing empty calories more often but the question is why? Is it because they are comforting foods, are they more convenient, is it purely taste, etc? Sure we can replace these foods with healthier ones but that doesn't mean the customers will buy them. We need to find out why they are buying what they are and see if we can provide a more nutritious option that still satisfies that need.
Liz, I completely agree that we cannot forget that foodservice establishments (especially in hospitals and schools) bring in a significant amount of revenue and if changing the menu means that they will sell less items, then that may not be a good business decision. There is a real opportunity to educate the customers on the healthier options offered but we cannot force people to buy the healthier items if they do not want to.
Hospital food service definitely needs a lot of work especially with the menus in the cafeteria. I know this is getting off the topic of kids but it just doesn't make sense to me that the items sold in hospital cafeterias do not meet the same standards that the roomservice menu items do. Working in a clinical setting we should be promoting health not only for the patients but also for the staff. It is very possible that a staff member can turn into a patient. Same goes for kids' menus in food service establishments. They mainly consist of mac and cheese, grilled cheese, pasta, burgers and fries. Shouldn't there be nutritional guidelines that these menus have to meet since they are directed at kids?
Probably not. However, when you take into consideration the economic ramifications of obesity (health care costs and lost productivity, for example), spending more money in school systems to help kids stay at a healthy weight throughout their adolescence and develop healthy relationships with food as well as healthy eating habits is well worth it in the end, even if speaking strictly from an economic perspective. However, America has to work as a team in this way, and recognize that the costs of obesity are far-reaching, and that healthy may indeed cost more (I remember Connie from District 87 telling me that whole grains cost an average of 25% more than refined grain products, for example.) Even if we set aside the financial benefits of healthy eating for children, let's consider for a moment the amount of money the U.S. spends on military efforts, to "keep Americans safe." Obesity is not safe - it is the 2nd leading cause of death in the U.S. Maybe we should be spending more money protecting Americans from, well, ourselves. The nutrition/physical education costs and food costs would be well worth the investment.
Bethany, I agree completely with you. Schools and hospitals are not making a good example for families and businesses like restaurants. The foods we serve our children and employees is disheartening to say the least. We think so much about profit and staying out of the red that we fail to see the bigger picture. We spend so much time trying to defend the choices we do have - "Yes, but this meal has proper portion sizes and meets government standards for school lunches" - that we don't stand up for what's right.
Bethany,
You make a good point about hospital foodservice. It is kind of a contradiction that we are giving people educations about healthy eating in the same establishment that provides a multitude of unhealthy options. You mentioned patients and staff needing healthy options, but family and visitors need those options as well. Hospital foodservice needs to make a profit by providing product that people want to eat, but at what cost? There needs to be more of a happy medium.
Sarah G--you make a good point about using research for practical purposes and application. That is exactly what 'evidenced base' is all about. If restaurants, hospitals, schools turn to the literature when they are making changes, they will find studies like these to guide the decisions they make.....and often, this is exactly what they do.
Liz and Sarah U--both of you have some great points about the 'bottom line' of foodservice. I think (ok, really I 'hope') in the future, that restaurants and hospitals will change their menus to increase the healthy options--and even not offer the higher calorie/fat items to meet the demands and pressures of so many groups and programs vying for reducing obesity. I think the National School Lunch program has already taken action on this, but remember, not all schools participate in this program. So it is up to us-the dietitians of the community-to step in and educate restaurant owners, foodservice managers about food options and nutritional information.
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