Public Health Scene

Many middle-aged and older Americans are not getting adequate nutrition -- even those taking dietary supplements.

That’s according to a study involving 6,200 people, ages 45 to 84. The study included African Americans, Chinese, Hispanics, and whites.

Pam Schreiner, a University of Minnesota epidemiologist, led the study.

Schreiner says she believes that more education and more prevention are needed.

Listen to Schreiner on our Public Health Moment podcast

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Posted by Mark Engebretson at 12:10 PM
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The benefits of family meals was in the news again this week. According to research conducted at the University of Minnesota, teens who participated in regular family meals — five or more together each week &mdash reported more healthful diets and meal patterns compared with peers who ate few family meals.

Researchers surveyed 677 boys and girls, aged 12 and 13, about their diet and did so again five years later. Kids who reported eating as a family on a regular basis were more likely to eat breakfast and had a higher intake of vegetables, fibre, calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron at age 17 and 18.

Children who eat home-cooked meals tend to eat more fruits and vegetables and fewer unhealthy foods.

But the study indicates that there's more benefits than just a healthier diet. For example, studies also show that the more families eat together, the less likely kids are to smoke, drink, take drugs and develop eating disorders. Also, these kids are more likely to excel academically.

More from The Globe and Mail

Also in the news this week:

University of Minnesota health policy professor Susan Foote discussed President Obama's health summit on Minnesota Public Radio.
More from Minnesota Public Radio

R.K. Anderson, School of Public Health, and Margaret Duxbury, College of Veterinary Medicine, discussed the benefits of human-animal relationships in an interview with WCCO-TV.
More from WCCO

Posted by School of Public Health Podcasts at 10:46 AM
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Last year Minnesota's food-borne illness group, dubbed "Team D" discovered that hot peppers — not tomatoes — were the cause of the largest salmonella outbreak in a decade.

This year, the Minnesota team was the first to identify King Nut peanut butter as the culprit, and Peanut Corp. of America as the producer. It was the first big break in a case that has sickened more than 677 nationwide.

“People die who don't need to die. It happens all the time in food-borne illness outbreaks,” Michael Osterholm (pictured), director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy at the University of Minnesota, told USA Today. “If each state was as effective as Minnesota, more of these could be detected.”

When it comes to food-borne illness investigation, "Minnesota is leap years ahead of … most of the rest of the nation," says James Phillips, head of infectious diseases for the Arkansas Department of Health.

More from USA Today

Posted by Mark Engebretson at 4:28 PM
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The more TV that teenagers watch, the worse that they eat. That’s according to a University of Minnesota study led by Daheia Barr-Anderson.

She says that kids who watched more than five hours of TV per day ate fewer fruits, vegetables and whole grains and more snack foods, fried foods and trans fats years later.

She recommends that parents limit TV time for their children to less than two hours a day and promote healthier foods.

• Listen to Barr-Anderson on our Public Health Moment podcast

Posted by Mark Engebretson at 1:10 PM
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