Promoting Healthy Weights in Children Conference

On June 6th, 2018 Ksenia Kholina, FoodARC’s Summer 2018 dietetic intern, attended Promoting Healthy Weights in Children, childhood obesity-focused conference in Moncton, NB. Ksenia found the approach taken to be all-encompassing and well-rounded, therefore, she wanted to share some of the points relevant to FoodARC’s work.

First of all, Dr. Sara Kirk (Dalhousie University) presented the findings from the Children Lifestyle and School Performance Study (CLASS II). Dr. Kirk used a socio-ecological approach that involved food insecurity as one of the factors that impact health and well-being of school-aged children. Interestingly, it was found that children from food-insecure households had significantly higher BMIs and were more likely to have relationship issues and externalizing problems.

Dr. Patty Williams (Director, FoodARC) was a co-investigator on CLASS II and led the work on food security. You can find more information, as well as relevant publications here.

Secondly, Manuel Arango (Director, Health Policy and Advocacy, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada), shared Heart and Stroke’s 2017 Report on the Health of Canadians that focused on marketing to children. The presentation included the current state of the issue, a variety of interesting facts and stats, as well as the insights from the relevant proposed policies, such as  (An Act to amend the Food and Drug Act – Prohibiting Food and Beverage Marketing Directed at Children) that can be found here. Mr. Arango also spoke to the organization’s perspective on Canada’s Food Policy and the advocacy work that is being done.

FoodARC is involved in research in this area with the support of Department of Health and Wellness of Nova Scotia. FoodARC also acknowledged Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition and endorsed their recommendations.

If you have any further questions, feel free to email Ksenia at ksenia.kholina@msvu.ca

Ksenia Kholina, FoodARC’s dietetic intern

Dietetic interns from Mount Saint Vincent University with Jasmine Bell (Heart&Stroke NB, MSVU graduate)

(l-r Roberta Jackson, Ryan Lane, Jasmine Bell, Paige Dougay, Elizabeth Manderson)