By Mimi Johnson, NCL Health Policy Associate

President Obama just released his proposed plan for health reform. This proposal follows last Thursday’s bi-partisan summit to explore health reform compromises and solutions.

In agreement with many Americans, the President suggests we have little time to waste in passing this bill and must move quickly. A likely solution for getting the bill to the President’s desk is to use reconciliation, which was also echoed by Senator Harkin. The reconciliation process was designed by Congress to quickly get legislation through Congress and is often used to reduce the federal deficit. It requires only a majority vote in the House and Senate, and debate is limited.

According to Senator Harkin, the House must first pass the health reform bill that was passed by the Senate in December before it can go through the reconciliation process in the Senate. Some on the Hill suggest this can be done before the President leaves for international travel on March 18; others suggest something might reach the President closer to Easter.

As the President’s plan to Congress reminded us, the reforms proposed will provide consumers with greater choice and control over their health care and lower costs (including reduced premiums), and will end discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions.

By Brandi Williams, LifeSmarts Program Assistant

There is nothing better than seeing LifeSmarts in action!

Not long ago, I had the opportunity to travel from the National Consumers League’s office in Washington, DC to attend the Florida state LifeSmarts competition in Tampa. As NCL staff prepares for the National LifeSmarts Championship in April, also to be held in the state of Florida, we are always excited when we have the chance to attend a state LifeSmarts competition and visit with our state partners.

The Florida LifeSmarts program, coordinated by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumers Affairs, hosted its 2010 state competition at the Florida State Fairgrounds on President’s Day, February 15, 2010. On a day where many students were out of school for the 3-day holiday weekend, 13 student teams from all over the large state of Florida were in attendance to compete for the title of LifeSmarts State Champion and to represent Florida at Nationals.

Teams traveled for five to six hours from far-away cities including Jacksonville and Freeport to showcase their dedication—to not just LifeSmarts, but also to consumer literacy—affirming their commitment to learning the necessary skills to be educated, savvy consumers in today’s changing marketplace. The rounds of competition were tough, culminating in a neck-and-neck battle between the reigning state champs, Seminole County 4-H team and Paxon SAS Varsity from the Paxon School for Advance Studies. While the match was close, Seminole 4-H once again took the title will be on their way to Miami in April.

Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumers Affairs Commissioner Charles H. Bronson was there to cheer teams on. He also gave remarks and congratulations to all 13 teams in attendance, and presented the winning team and coaches with a check for $3,300 on behalf of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumers Affairs.

State Coordinator Gwen Worlds recalled how enthusiastic Commissioner Bronson was when he attended the 2008 LifeSmarts National Championship held in Orlando, FL. “He jumped up from his seat and cheered the Florida team on,” Worlds said. “It was encouraging to the Florida team.”

Congratulations to all teams at the Florida LifeSmarts Competition, and the best of luck to Seminole 4-H in Miami Beach in April!

The final post in a four-part series, in which we present the food issues we anticipate will affect American consumers the most in 2010.

By Courtney Brein, Linda Golodner Food Safety and Nutrition Fellow

Over the past several years, health claims on food labels have gained significant traction as an advertising tool, and products bearing such statements now litter the marketplace, boosted by a greater national attention to the obesity epidemic and relative inaction on the Food and Drug Administration’s part in reining in these advertising hooks. In the fall of 2008, the National Consumers League sent a letter to the FDA Commissioner (at the time – he’s since been replaced by Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg) Andrew von Eschenbach, drawing attention to General Mills’ use of drug-like claims about the cholesterol-lowering benefits of consuming Cheerios® – an action which prompted the agency to issue a warning letter to General Mills the following spring. Additionally, to deter the use of exaggerated claims by General Mills – and others – in the future, in September of 2009 NCL sued General Mills for claiming that eating Cheerios® would reduce total and “bad” cholesterol, a suit that currently awaits trial in the District of Columbia’s local court. Consumers should look to see the suit settled, and – ideally – a precedent set, sometime this year.

Later in fall 2009, shortly after NCL filed its lawsuit, the issue of front-of-package labeling gained widespread attention when a number of actors called for an FDA investigation of the “SmartChoices” program, leading the agency to announce its plan to better regulate such claims and the extensive group of participating manufacturers to suspend the program – at least for the time being. In its letter to the food industry, the FDA announced that it will develop a set of science-based standards to guide manufacturers in making front-of-package claims, in addition to determining whether particular labeling claims currently used on packaging are misleading, and the Smart Choices program announced it would voluntarily postpone operations. While the agency will not initially use regulatory tools to mandate new labeling standards, it has not ruled out such measures, should the industry not align its claims with the new guidelines. The FDA has also announced that it will continue to conduct consumer research to inform its work.

The FDA has not made its timeline for this work public; however, the Web site for First Lady Michelle Obama’s new “Let’s Move” initiative announced that the agency will complete guidance by the end of this year. Consumers should expect – and push for – industry action to follow. It is time to stem the tide of weak health claims that currently overwhelm consumers and detract from the usefulness of legitimate claims on truly nutritious products. Furthermore, the front of the package is not the only location where nutrition-related claims and statements can mislead consumers; while the nutrition facts panel provides critical information, it is not as user-friendly as it might be, and the current format enables food manufacturers to disguise some less appealing elements of products, such as moving added sugars down the list of ingredients by weight by listing various kinds of sweeteners separately, and claiming multiple servings for items conducive to single-serving consumption, such as 16 and 20 ounce beverages.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest recently published a suggested nutrition facts label makeover, which would rectify problems such as these and make the panel more useful to – and accurate for – consumers. An updated nutrition facts panel is long overdue, and deserving of the FDA’s attention in 2010. Regardless of whether the agency acts in the coming year, consumers should anticipate the issue garnering attention on the national stage, particularly with the publication of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

It should come as no surprise: food in the Washington, DC public school cafeterias is lousy and that kids dump the veggies into the trash – that is the latest dispatch from The Slow Cook himself Ed Bruske, a former Washington Post reporter who spent a week at his daughter’s DC elementary school cafeteria watching what got served up to the kiddies.

Bruske, who can usually be found in the pages of the Washington Post entertainingly describing attempts to make the perfect pot roast or risotto, got an eyeful at the school cafeteria. He details what goes into the meals we serve our kids and the ingredients sound both unappetizing and unhealthy: grey beef crumbles, pale-looking spaghetti sauce containing dextrose/and or high-fructose corn syrup, cheddar cheese that looks more like cottage cheese, scrambled eggs from a factory in Minnesota and shipped frozen to DC with an ingredient list that includes modified cornstarch, xanthan gum, liquid pepper extract, citric acid, lipolyzed butter (I have no idea what that is but it doesn’t sound good!), and medium chain triglycerides.

Bruske found that most meals were made from processed foods that had been precooked and frozen, all in an effort to keep the menus within the tight budgets allocated for school lunches. Meals are designed to require minimal time and skill, with freshness and flavor being the first to go. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee actually brought in a new food service, which was supposed to stress “fresh cooked” foods. Apparently that’s not working out as planned. Bruske also observed kids eating a breakfast of frosted cookies with soaring sugar content and chocolate and strawberry milk options that contain almost as much sugar per serving as a Coca-Cola. That’s a shame, because the children of Washington DC have one of the highest obesity rates in the country. DC might consider approaches other school systems have taken to get kids to eat healthier:

In a Lynnfield, MA, elementary school, officials have begun offering kids incentives—in the form of points that can be redeemed for things kids want including t-shirts, backpacks, skateboards, etc—when they choose healthier options. They offer an “imove menu” that includes chicken Caesar salad wraps, stir fry, pasta and broccoli salad, fresh fruit, carrot sticks, and yogurt. It also includes such kid favorites as chicken nuggets (albeit a low-fat, low-sodium version), lasagna, and pizza. The big difference is that pizza is never offered with a side of French fries; instead, its high-fat content is moderated with sides of green beans and yogurt. And the program’s been a success.

The Pine-Richland School District outside of Pittsburgh has switched to whole-grain rolls and pizza crusts and eliminated traditional French fries (today’s version is oven-baked, and even those aren’t allowed every day). The district offers a wide variety of seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables, including raw vegetables served as side dishes, and the high school occasionally serves brown rice instead of white. All lunch meats are turkey.

This list of innovative approaches to getting good healthy food into school cafeterias is too long for me to list. Another very good resource is “TwoAngryMoms.org” a group formed by parents unhappy about unhealthy offerings in school cafeterias. They have a terrific toolkit for changing how your child’s school approaches the meals served in their cafeterias and lots of good resources on *their Web site. Another insightful read is a blog, Fed up with School Lunch, following the experiences of an Illinois school teacher who has vowed to eat what the cafeteria is serving every day in 2010.

Discovering at a young age what it means to eat fresh, healthy, and delicious food is a gift that all children deserve. We are indebted to Bruske for telling us—in graphic detail—how much better we can and should be doing for the children of Washington, DC. Michelle Rhee, you have your work cut out for you!

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings.

By Mimi Johnson, NCL Health Policy Associate

This February, we celebrate National Children’s Dental Health Month. Each year, the American Dental Association spends February educating the public about the importance of good oral health and developing good habits early in life. You can help to spread the word by sending an “*Oral Health for Kids” e-Card.

According to the *Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tooth decay affects children in the United States more than any other chronic infectious disease. More than half of all children have had some tooth decay, which when left untreated can cause pain so severe it hampers eating, speaking, playing, and learning. In fact, more than 51 million school hours are lost annually because of dental-related problems.

Tooth decay is largely *preventable, making it all the more important that children have access to proper dental care and the resources to develop healthy dental habits. But for every child without medical insurance in the United States, there are 2.6 who lack dental insurance. Many are working to improve access to pediatric dental care, whether through legislation or on-the-ground donation of time and resources. NCL issued a letter last summer with several other organizations urging Congress to cover oral health within the large health reform bill.

You can get involved by putting your dental care skills to the *test. *Click here for more facts about children’s oral health. And visit this site if you need help finding a dentist.

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings