(From Politico) First lady Michelle Obama and school lunch ladies used to be on the same team, but now they’re locked in a political war against each other. For the first three years of Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign, the School Nutrition Association, a powerful group that represents 55,000 cafeteria professionals, was a close ally in the White House push to get kids to eat healthier. Fast-forward to today: SNA is standing shoulder to shoulder with House Republicans, pushing to grant schools waivers from the requirements if they are losing money and aiming to relax the standards when the law is reauthorized next year. The story behind the school lunch flip-flop is a complicated web of lobbying change-ups, industry influence and partisan posturing inside the Beltway. It also casts a spotlight on how difficult it is to make the economics of school meals work — and just how much resistance there can be to Washington directing nationwide change. Read more

(An item from the ISHN Member information service) An article in the July 2013 Issue pf Preventing Chronic Disease reports on the trends in Health-Related Quality of Life Among Adolescents in the United States, 2001–2010. the authors found that: "Overall, adolescents’ self-rated health was fairly stable from 2001 through 2004 but worsened afterward. The adjusted percentage of adolescents reporting excellent or very good health in 2009–2010 (51.8%) was significantly lower than in 2001–2002 (63.4%) and 2003–2004 (64.0%). The adjusted percentage of adolescents reporting fair or poor health was significantly higher in 2007–2008 (10.0%) than in 2003–2004 (5.7%). This same pattern occurred among adolescents with low family income. The percentage of adolescents from high-income families who reported excellent or very good health also decreased, but the percentage who reported fair or poor health did not increase. The adjusted percentage of adolescents reporting zero, 1 to 13, or 14 or more physically unhealthy days did not change over the study period (Table 1) or by family income level (Table 2). Adolescents’ mental health worsened over time, especially recently. The adjusted percentage reporting zero mentally unhealthy days was fairly stable from 2001 through 2006 but declined significantly from 60.9% in 2005–2006 to 49.4% in 2009–2010 (Table 1). Yet, only in adolescents from low-income families did the percentage of zero mentally unhealthy days significantly decrease (from 63% in 2003–2004 to 46% in 2009–2010). The percentage reporting 14 to 30 mentally unhealthy days increased significantly, almost doubling, from 2001–2004 through 2009–2010. Read more>>