Nudging is increasingly used in public health interventions in Western societies to produced health-promoting behavior changes; however, there is lack of clarity as to what constitutes a nudge, scant knowledge of the effectiveness of nudging techniques in public health lifestyle interventions and a number of ethical and value-based concerns. The…

The interdisciplinary "Foodways and Futures" project (2013-2016) is based on a pilot study which found no improvement in the nutritional state of formerly homeless young people (16-25), now in supported accommodation at a charitable youth organization. Because a healthy food intake during adolescence is important, and because young…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report the outcome of an education and public health collaboration investigating the impact of adapted training to enhance teachers' potential role to promote child health and wellbeing. Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted in three phases: a survey of the health education content in…

In this article, the author reports on a project which is teaching young parents, most of them from disadvantaged backgrounds, the skills they need to shop and cook healthily on a tight budget. In 2006, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) commissioned the National Federation of Women's Institutes (NFWI) to run "Let's Cook!", a three-year…

Breastfeeding is known to confer benefits, both in the short term and long term, to the child and also to the mother. Various health-promotion initiatives have aimed to increase breastfeeding rates and duration in the United Kingdom over the past decade. In order to assist in these endeavours, it is essential to understand the reasons why women…

Objective: To test the feasibility and effectiveness of dietary change interventions in UK school-based settings. This overview draws out the main lessons that were learnt from these studies, for both practitioners and researchers. Design: A review and analysis of the final reports from five studies commissioned by the Food Standards Agency.…

This collection of essays was assembled to provide coverage of the subject of community nutrition--the whole of nutritional sciences applied to consumers as groups or individuals. The two main concerns are the food itself and the consumer (his physical, mental, and social well-being). It is pointed out that biochemists have analyzed food and…

The author documents pervasive racial disparities in the health of American children and analyzes how and how much those disparities contribute to racial gaps in school readiness. She explores a broad sample of health problems common to U.S. children, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, asthma, and lead poisoning, as well as maternal…