ASU Food Policy and Environment Research Group
A collection of scholarly work created by the ASU Food Policy and Environment Research Group under the leadership of Professor Punam Ohri-Vachaspati. The group examines policies, programs, and environments that influence food consumption and physical activity behaviors and health outcomes in disadvantaged populations. We aim to improve the health of children and families through comprehensive policy and environmental approaches.
Filtering by
- Creators: Echeverría, Sandra E
- Creators: Kahle, Lisa L
Objective: To evaluate five popular fast-food chains' menus in relation to dietary guidance.
Design: Menus posted on chains' websites were coded using the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies and MyPyramid Equivalents Database to enable Healthy Eating Index-2005 (HEI-2005) scores to be assigned. Dollar or value and kids' menus and sets of items promoted as healthy or nutritious were also assessed.
Setting: Five popular fast-food chains in the USA.
Subjects: Not applicable.
Results: Full menus scored lower than 50 out of 100 possible points on the HEI-2005. Scores for Total Fruit, Whole Grains and Sodium were particularly dismal. Compared with full menus, scores on dollar or value menus were 3 points higher on average, whereas kids' menus scored 10 points higher on average. Three chains marketed subsets of items as healthy or nutritious; these scored 17 points higher on average compared with the full menus. No menu or subset of menu items received a score higher than 72 out of 100 points.
Conclusions: The poor quality of fast-food menus is a concern in light of increasing away-from-home eating, aggressive marketing to children and minorities, and the tendency for fast-food restaurants to be located in low-income and minority areas. The addition of fruits, vegetables and legumes; replacement of refined with whole grains; and reformulation of offerings high in sodium, solid fats and added sugars are potential strategies to improve fast-food offerings. The HEI may be a useful metric for ongoing monitoring of fast-food menus.
Little evidence exists examining if parental nativity, neighborhood disadvantage and built environment features are associated with physical activity behaviors in Latino youth. We used a representative sample of Latino youth (n = 616) living in New Jersey to examine parental nativity associations with active transport to school, active use of sidewalks, use of local neighborhood parks, and use of neighborhood physical activity facilities. We estimated prevalence ratios (PR) that accounted for the complex survey design. Latino youth with foreign-born parents were generally more active than their US-born peers, and those with parents in the US 10 years or less were more likely to engage in active transport to school (PR = 1.51, 95 % CI 1.04–2.21), after adjusting for census-based neighborhood disadvantage, self-reported neighborhood measures, and geocoded distance to school. Parental nativity status should be considered in policies or interventions designed to increase physical activity among Latino youth.