#children's nutrition

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“ILLNESS - the risk your child runs,” Kingston Whig-Standard. November 2, 1932. Page 12. ---- Give your child Virol every day VIROL The Vitamin Food used in 3,000 hospitals, etc.

[chuthulhu-reads]

[ID: Two panels from Dungeon Meshi. The first scows Senshi clutching his face as tears start to spill out of his eyes, saying, "I've always... always wanted to have this soup one more time." He's not wearing his helmet in this panel, so his face is unusually visible, detailed and vulnerable. The second panel shows himself as a youngster, surrounded by his old mining team, all smiling at each other, one of them rubbing Senshi's head. Modern-day Senshi continues, "Thank you. All of you. Thank you." End ID.]

Holy shit. I anticipated some tragic backstory from the "I must feed the young ones" panels, but what I'd guessed was that Senshi might have become so devoted to cooking and eating literally whatever because he'd previously survived a famine and had seen children starve to death. I did not expect him to have been the child who was the sole survivor of a doomed travel party, one of whom was determined to feed Senshi first because he was the youngest, and that Senshi has lived with the fear of having inadvertently committed cannibalism by eating stew that he'd never quite known the contents of. I'm happy for him that Laios deduced and confirmed for him that it was griffin meat, that he was able to taste the meal that saved his life once more and remember the friends he lost. Seriously, I'm crying, and also earnestly relieved that while his backstory is pretty dark, it's not the type of fucked up I'd been preparing myself mentally for.

[rhymeswithfart]

Bruce hanging on to Kal's back as he flies, + assorted doodles

Since you're here, read below:

This fundraiser has been shared by 90ghost here. (You can also read more of this family's story in the link) Low on funds, $1,235 / 20k ≈ 6%

They have a sick two month old baby. Please share and help.

From the fundraiser:

"Please donate even just a dollar. Thousands of people see these campaigns and pass them around. If every one of those people donated even a single dollar, they would be funded in no time. There is a persistent idea that a lone person must shoulder the burden of funding a campaign and offer hundreds of dollars at once, but that is not true. While a single wealthy individual could indeed fund these, individuals working together can achieve even more."

[cerealkiller740]

1953 Betty Crocker ad

[liesmyth]

👀?

YES THIS IS TRUE. And that's why you don't fuck around and find out on race day.

Some background for people who aren't into endurance activities: running burns a fuck of a lot of calories, primarily carbs. There's only a certain amount of carbs your body can store and efficiently use as an energy source; failing that, your body will start burning fats. Unlike what #fitspo influencers want you to think, "running to burn fats" is neither recommended nor pleasant — a common slang for it is "hitting the wall" because that's very true to how it feels. It's not efficient, and some people purposefully train on a completely empty stomach to be able to handle it better. There are many schools of thought, studies etc., and I'm simplying a lot here, but the point is:

If you're going to run for longer than 90 minutes, you WILL have a MUCH easier time if you consume carbs at some point mid-workout. There's also the fact that many people aren't comfortable running on a full stomach, or don't want to chew mid-run, and for all these reasons energy gels are veeeery popular among runners. They're calorie-dense and made to consume on the go, and contain a combination of simple and complex carbs designed to be absorbed as quickly as possible, might also have electrolytes. and have different flavour profiles... and some give you the shits. Or stomach cramps. Or nausea. Alas. Such is life.

Some people are more unlucky than others and there's like only one or two brands of gels they can stomach, some people are god's favourite children and they can eat everything, but just to be safe! If you have a big intense workout or a race coming up, always go with a tried and true nutrition for every run that you know for sure works for you.

(Fun fact! Last time I checked, we don't actually know WHY there's so much ???? weird overlap between running and bowels / stomach issues. It's just... very normalised in the running community that sometimes running makes you need to poop and that's just how it is. We all know it, we just never talk about it. Bodies are weird. So... combine that with an energy gel that you're sensitive to? It's hell.)

Anyway. Never fuck around and find out on the day of a race.

Anyway #2: that long introduction above is also why it's important to refuel if you're going to do cardio for extended periods! Like, if you're taking a 2-hour dance class, you might want to snack on dried fruit and you'll feel more energetic by the end of it. Or why football players eat energy bars at halftime, or why it's a good thing to take food along on a hike. Even if you perform better on a mostly empty stomach (I do!) some light nutrition will make you 1) accomplish more and 2) FEEL BETTER.

SORRY I TOOK THIS FUNNY POST AND INFODUMPED I just think sports science is soooo fascinating

[pushing500]

Time to go do more of the quests for relic info! We left Blackdragon and Socks (the other two competent fighters besides Vasso and Laursen) at home to guard the base.

Vasso definitely could have done this one alone, though. It was ridiculously easy.

Garfo: A tragedy in three parts

And lastly, everything turned red for a bit. It was very cool! I confess I haven't played with sanguophages yet. Perhaps that's something to look into after my mechanitor run.

Bonus shot of Parish-by-the-Expanse under the Blood Moon because I thought it looked pretty.

First | Next | Previous

[intothestacks]

Ah, yes, those two totally connected professions... librarian and nutrition coordinator.

I was looking up alternate names for "librarian" to make a post about different names for the profession and...

[tomboyfriends]

anyone else not believe in a "normal childhood". like so many people's experiences are so far from a "normal childhood" that i think normal childhoods are more myth than reality. and even when they do exist, children still are treated more like chattel than actual people. by this point, i think the concept of a "normal childhood" is a kind of propaganda pushed in movies and other media to obfuscate how pervasive childhood abuse and neglect is all over the world, ESPECIALLY of young girls.

[xtruss]

Credit: Dana Smith

Understanding The Sudden Rise of Type 2 Diabetes In Children

The Metabolic Disorder Was Long Known as a Disease of Adulthood. Now, It’s Spiking in Kids and Teens, With Worrisome Consequences.

— By Charlotte Huff | July 31, 2024

The appearance of type 2 diabetes in children and teens puzzled physicians from the start. Fida Bacha recalls working as a pediatric endocrinology fellow in Pittsburgh shortly after 2000 when young, overweight and obese patients began to arrive at the clinic, some describing increased thirst, more frequent trips to the bathroom and other symptoms of what was then called adult-onset diabetes.

“It was a new realization that we are dealing with a disease that used to be only an adult disease that is now becoming a disease of childhood,” says Bacha, who practices at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.

More than two decades later, physicians and researchers are still trying to unravel what’s driving the emergence and proliferation of youth-onset disease, particularly among marginalized communities including Hispanics/Latinos. The increasing prevalence of obesity among young people is clearly one contributor, but researchers are also scrutinizing the potential influence of other lifestyle and environmental factors — everything from exposure to chronic stress and air pollution to sugar-rich diets. Along with physiological factors, such as where they carry excess fat, youths from lower socioeconomic levels may be vulnerable due to aspects of daily life beyond their control, such as more limited access to healthy food and opportunities to safely exercise in less-polluted neighborhoods.

As researchers try to sort out the interplay among genetics, metabolic factors and environmental influences in Hispanic and other populations, their goal is to answer this key question: Why do some seemingly at-risk adolescents progress to diabetes while others do not?

Long-term, the challenges and health stakes are significant. When type 2 diabetes first emerged in youths, clinicians initially thought its progression would mirror that in adults and thus could be treated accordingly. That hasn’t panned out, says Barbara Linder, a pediatric endocrinologist and senior advisor for childhood diabetes research at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). For instance, researchers have determined that metformin, a commonly prescribed oral antidiabetic medication in adults, doesn’t work as well in young people.

“We know that the disease is very aggressive in youth and very difficult to treat,” Linder says. “So it’s really imperative that we develop effective approaches to prevention. And to do this we obviously need to be able to effectively identify which youth are at the highest risk.”

Even with treatment, young people develop other medical problems related to diabetes faster than adults, according to a study that followed 500 youths, more than one-third of them Hispanic. Sixty percent developed at least one complication within about 15 years after diagnosis, when just in their 20s.

“It’s really alarming,” says Luisa Rodriguez, a pediatric endocrinologist who studies type 2 diabetes and obesity in children at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. For every 10 adolescents with youth-onset diabetes, she points out, “six of them, within a decade span, are going to develop a significant comorbidity that will highly impact their lifespan and quality of life.”

Complications of diabetes appear more quickly in young people than in older adults. Researchers studied 500 overweight adolescents, aged 10 to 17, who had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Within 15 years of their diagnosis, 60 percent of the participants had developed at least one medical complication of diabetes, and 28 percent had developed two or more.

Insulin Resistance

In type 2 diabetes, the body struggles to use insulin effectively. This vital hormone, made by beta cells in the pancreas, helps glucose in the bloodstream enter cells in muscle, fat and the liver, where it’s used for energy. But sometimes those cells gradually lose their ability to respond to insulin, forcing the beta cells to pump out more and more of it. If the beta cells can’t keep up, blood glucose levels will begin to rise, leading to a diagnosis of prediabetes and, eventually, diabetes.

In the past, type 2 diabetes typically didn’t arise until well into adulthood. But now, cases in US youths ages 10 to 19 are rising fast. Since 2002-2003, overall diagnoses have doubled from 9 per 100,000 youths to 17.9 per 100,000 in 2017-2018, particularly among Asians, Pacific Islanders, Blacks and Hispanics. If those rising rates persist, the number of type 2 diabetes cases in young people is projected to skyrocket from 28,000 in 2017 to 220,000 by 2060.

Various factors have been linked to insulin resistance in childhood or adolescence, including obesity, inactivity and genetics, according to a review of the causes of type 2 diabetes in youths published in the 2022 Annual Review of Medicine. The disease tends to run in families regardless of race or ethnicity, which suggests that genes matter. Among US Hispanics, adults of Mexican or Puerto Rican heritage are most likely to be diagnosed, followed by Central and South Americans and Cubans.

Obesity is also a contributing factor: Slightly more than one-fourth of Hispanic youths are obese, a higher percentage than for any other major racial or ethnic group. Children also are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes if their mother has the disease or developed gestational diabetes during pregnancy. One theory is that fetal exposure to maternal diabetes while in the womb can spur metabolic changes following birth.

Puberty is also highly influential — most cases are diagnosed after its onset. During puberty, youths temporarily experience insulin resistance, due in large part to an increase in hormones, Linder says. Most youths offset that transient resistance by secreting more insulin, she says. But for reasons that are still unclear, a subpopulation of adolescents does not. “When they’re faced with this stress test of puberty, they can’t increase their insulin secretion enough to compensate,” Linder says. “And that’s probably why they develop type 2 diabetes.”

One analysis, which looked at type 2 diabetes trends from 2002 to 2018, identified the peak age for diagnosis as 16 years in boys and girls. The sole exception involved Black youths, in whom diagnoses peaked at 13 years, and possibly earlier among Black girls, which may be linked to an earlier start of menstruation.

American Diabetes Association guidelines recommend that clinicians screen overweight or obese youths for the disease starting at age 10 or once puberty starts, whichever is earlier, if they have one or more risk factors. These include a family history of the disease, signs of insulin resistance or affiliation with certain racial/ethnic groups, including Hispanic/Latino.

During checkups, clinicians can look for a visible sign of insulin resistance, an associated skin condition called acanthosis nigricans, says Paulina Cruz Bravo, a physician and diabetes researcher at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The skin changes tend to appear in the neck area or along folds in the skin, including in the armpits and on the elbows and knees, she says. “The top layer of the skin gets thickened. It’s described as a velvety appearance of the skin — it’s darker compared to the skin in other places.”

The thickened, darker, velvety skin shown here, known as acanthosis nigricans, is a potential warning sign of developing type 2 diabetes. The condition is likely to appear on the neck, elbows, knees and other areas where the skin folds. People who notice acanthosis nigricans on themselves or their children should bring it to a doctor’s attention. Credit: S. Dulebohn/Statpearls 2024

Where an adolescent carries any excess pounds also matters, as insulin resistance has been associated with a type of fat called visceral fat, says Alaina Vidmar, a pediatric endocrinologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Unlike the more common type of fat, called subcutaneous and felt by pinching around the waistline, visceral fat surrounds the liver and other vital organs, increasing the risk for type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and other conditions.

“You really need the liver to process glucose to be able to utilize your insulin well,” Vidmar says. “And if it is full of fat, you are unable to do that.” Fatty liver disease, which has been associated both with obesity and type 2 diabetes, is most common in Hispanic adults, followed by white adults and Black adults, according to a meta-analysis looking at 34 studies.

Imaging scans would be the ideal way to identify the extent and location of visceral fat in adolescents, Vidmar says. But given that routine scanning would be costly, clinicians can instead measure an adolescent’s waist circumference, “a great surrogate marker,” she says.

Diabetes risk depends not just on how much fat you carry, but where you carry it. People with an “apple” body shape, with much of their fat in the abdomen, are at higher risk of diabetes than those with a “pear” body shape, who carry their fat under the skin, especially on the hips.

Still, obesity accounts for only a portion of the type 2 risk profile, reflecting the complexities involved in understanding the pathophysiology of youth-onset disease. Roughly one-fourth of youths with type 2 diabetes are not obese, according to a meta-analysis published in 2022 in JAMA Network Open. Asian youths are least likely to be obese; roughly one-third don’t meet the criteria for obesity.

Moreover, while obesity and insulin resistance boost the risk of developing diabetes, those factors alone don’t predict whether an adolescent is eventually diagnosed with the disease, according to the authors of the Annual Review of Medicine overview. Instead, they point to the role of impaired beta cell function.

In one study involving 699 youths with type 2 diabetes, the standard antidiabetic drug metformin controlled blood glucose levels in only about half the participants. (The medication was least effective among Black youths, for reasons that are unclear, according to the researchers.) Another analysis of the same study population identified a 20 percent to 35 percent decline in beta function each year in diabetic youths, compared with prior studies showing about a 7 percent to 11 percent annual decline in diabetic adults.

“What we see in the youth is that beta cell function fails very rapidly,” Linder says, adding that the beta cell decline tends to correlate with the lack of response to metformin.

It’s unknown whether specific racial or ethnic groups are more vulnerable to loss of beta cell function, says Linder, who hopes that a new large-scale NIDDK study launching this summer will identify any such physiological and other differences among populations. The study, called Discovery of Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes in Youth Consortium, aims to enroll 3,600 overweight or obese adolescent boys and girls, 36 percent of them Hispanic. Bacha and other investigators on the project plan to follow the youths through puberty, looking at genetic and physiological markers such as insulin resistance and beta cell function. Their goal is to track who develops type 2 diabetes and what factors precipitate the disease.

In addition, researchers will learn about the participants’ mental health, lifestyles and social determinants of health, Linder says. To that end, families will be asked to share details about nutrition, physical activity and sleep, as well as food insecurity, exposure to racism and other stressors.

“Stress induces certain hormones that antagonize insulin, so they create more insulin resistance,” Linder says. “Stress also is associated with chronic inflammation in the body, which affects the ability of the body to respond normally.”

Young people experience many of the risk factors that predispose people to type 2 diabetes, such as prenatal exposures, junk food, sedentary lifestyles and high levels of stress.

Zooming in on Risk Factors in Hispanic Kids

Already, researchers who have studied at-risk Hispanic youths and their families have begun to flesh out environmental and other influences rooted in daily life that can boost the likelihood of obesity or diabetes. Michael Goran, a child obesity researcher at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, has led a research project called the Study of Latino Adolescents at Risk (SOLAR), which tracked 328 Hispanic/Latino youths considered at highest risk of youth-onset diabetes based on their body mass index and family history of the disease. The participants, recruited in two waves between 2000 and 2015, completed health questionnaires and underwent annual exams, including imaging scans and other measurements.

One analysis found that Hispanic youths who lived in neighborhoods with higher levels of air pollution were more likely to experience a breakdown in beta cell function. “Which we weren’t necessarily expecting — we don’t know the mechanism of that,” says Goran, who coauthored a close look at pediatric insulin resistance in the 2005 Annual Review of Nutrition.

In more recent years, he’s turned his attention to studying nutrition shortly after birth, with a focus on infant formulas that contain corn syrup. Those formulas are more likely to spike blood sugar than are lactose-based formulas, he says. “If you’re spiking blood glucose with corn syrup in babies,” he says, “you can see how that would be problematic for long-term control of blood sugars.”

In one study, Goran and colleagues looked at obesity trends in 15,246 children who received formula through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Babies who consumed any formula with corn syrup were 10 percent more likely to be obese by age 2 than babies who didn’t. Nearly 90 percent of the study’s participants were Hispanic.

In other research, epidemiologist Carmen Isasi of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York helped lead the Study of Latinos (SOL) Youth study, which delved into the extent to which a child’s family circumstances contribute to obesity and metabolic changes that may boost risk of youth-onset diabetes. Isasi and colleagues found chronic stress to be pervasive. Three-quarters of parents and caregivers reported stress and 29 percent detailed three or more stressors related to health, work or relationships. The higher the number of parental stressors, the more likely the child was to be obese.

Isasi also has looked at the relationship between food insecurity and metabolic health. Hispanic youths raised in households with the highest levels of food insecurity had significantly worse metabolic results, including elevated blood glucose and triglycerides, a type of cholesterol. Families dealing with food insecurity, Isasi says, probably have a lower-quality diet and skimp on costlier protein and fresh produce.

Preventing diabetes has proved challenging. A review paper looking at diet-related and other lifestyle initiatives targeting Hispanic youths found few studies to date that have shown improvements in body mass index or blood glucose levels.

Adolescents of lower socioeconomic status may also shoulder responsibilities that can undercut efforts to stay healthy, says Erica Soltero, a behavioral scientist at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine, who works with Hispanic youths. For instance, older teens may struggle to attend an exercise class if they have an after-school job or must pick up younger siblings or start dinner. Technology, Soltero says, may be a better way to reach busy Hispanic teens; she’s piloting a study that will provide text-based lifestyle guidance to Hispanic teens with obesity.

Approved medication options remain limited for children and teens. If metformin doesn’t work, the alternative is insulin, and parents may resist giving injections because of the difficulties involved, Rodriguez says. She’s involved with an ongoing study in youths with type 2 diabetes to study the effectiveness of oral semaglutide, one of the newer diabetes drugs that also has achieved notable weight loss. Rodriguez estimates the results will be available by 2026.

The new NIDDK study won’t assess medication treatments, as it’s an observational study. But researchers involved are bullish that study-related insights could lead to better prevention and treatment approaches. “If someone is predisposed to beta cell dysfunction, should we be much more aggressive in treating their overweight/obesity,” Bacha says, “so that this beta cell function is preserved for a longer period of time?” Doctors could, for example, decide to start treatment earlier, she says.

Neither are researchers like Soltero deterred by the long-standing difficulties involved with revamping lifestyle habits. Soltero, who has worked with overweight and obese Hispanic adolescents to improve exercise and make dietary changes, describes them as often highly motivated given the damage they’ve seen the disease inflict on their own families.

“A lot of times they’ll have a touch point with a relative who’s on dialysis and maybe had a digit amputated,” Soltero says. Or “they’ll say, ‘I don’t want to prick myself every day like my Uncle So-and-So.’ Or ‘I don’t want to be on medicine for the rest of my life like my grandma.’ ”

[justaboot]

tw disordered eating /

i personally hc that della REALLY struggles with food after the moon (and also that she had an ed when she was a teen/young adult). ur the della expert what do u think

I’ve definitely written about that, mostly in some more in-depth in works I don’t really plan on publishing. I do think she’d have a complicated relationship afterwards, and without getting to far into it, it’s hard to get back into eating, especially anything more than “turn the hunger button off” meals after a long time going without. You can’t not eat and then slam back a meal, and I think she’d let an invisible problem get out of hand rather than acknowledge long-term moon after effects that would get her grounded from traveling or put under a spotlight.

Very often, when people write about ed’s, the default is a character not eating, because western society has twisted that to be sympathetic and desirable, and while I do think she’d struggle with routine, I hc any issue would come from either scarcity or physical complications, which would have a more nuanced result.

I do think it’s interesting in the show she’s seen as resource guarding (I guess is the best way to put it) what with carrying around the gum after months, and I do think there would have been more about it in a more mature show.

[wolfsong-the-bloody-beast]

Achievement Unlocked: Feeding the hungry - Find a lunch for Hugo

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Iowa Republicans are proposing sweeping changes to the state's food assistance program — including banning beneficiaries from buying grocery staples like meat, American cheese, or flour.

A bill co-sponsored by 39 Republican state legislators would limit those getting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to buying food on a more restrictive list from a separate program intended for pregnant women and children.

SNAP recipients wouldn't be able to buy a variety of foods, including white grain bread, buns with added nuts or seeds, white rice, pasta sauce, canned fruits or soups, baked beans, cheese slices, butter, or flour.

They would instead be limited to foods approved for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program.

The foods people can purchase in the WIC program are much more restrictive than those allowed in SNAP. That's because WIC is designed to complement SNAP, and is meant to provide necessary nutrition specifically for — as the name suggests — pregnant women, new mothers, and infants, according to Michelle Book, the president and CEO of Food Bank of Iowa.

WIC is "not designed for people that rely on SNAP benefits to make ends meet," Book told Insider.

Book said the proposed changes would put an "additional burden on people that are food insecure" and are part of an ongoing push by state legislators to cut back on benefits.

"Year after year, the legislature wants to tear down SNAP benefits for the state of Iowa. So this isn't new to us, " Book said.

But she said this bill is "one of the most egregious attempts we've seen over the last many years."

The Des Moines Area Religious Council, an interfaith organization, also slammed the bill as a "punitive policy that will do nothing to improve the health and nutrition of Iowans, but rather be a detriment."

The bill would provide $1 million for the state's Double Up Food Bucks program but would reduce the number of people who qualify for SNAP benefits and also force those who are part of the state's Medicaid expansion to work at least 20 hours a week.

The Iowa Republicans say the money spent on SNAP could be used more efficiently elsewhere.

"It's these entitlement programs," said Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley, who is a co-sponsor on the bill, according to local outlet KCCI. "They're the ones that are growing within the budget and are putting pressure on us being able to fund other priorities."

The bill is currently being reviewed by the state legislature's Health and Human Services committee.

[rhymeswithfart]

Click for full view

If you see this, look below:

This campaign is vetted on the gazavetters' list at #99. Low on funds, €1,948 / 70k ≈ 3%

This family has three children. The father, Hani Hamid, suffered a shot to the leg and needs treatment, and the mother, Nour, suffered the loss of her baby due to malnutrition. Read more about their story in this post.

[indizombie]

The National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (MDM Scheme), launched in August 1995 emphasises on the provision of cooked meals with a minimum of 450 – 700 calories and 8-12 grams of proteins and was further converted by the National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013 into a legal right upto Class 8. Over 94% of the children in government and government aided schools come from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Classes and minority communities. For a majority of children in government schools who are from marginalised communities and malnourished, garlic, onion and eggs form an important part of their diets, limited only by the factor of affordability. Eggs have been denied to children as part of the mid-day meals in schools for several years. Described as the ‘menstrual discharge’ of the hen, eggs are labelled as ‘sinful’, ‘violent’, and agitating the senses, with egg eaters deserving to be ‘destroyed’. If, instead of this unscientific propaganda, the nutritional value of eggs had been the primary deciding factor, children would have been given eggs as part of the mid-day meal scheme on 5 days of the week.

Dr Sylvia Karpagam, ‘A critical look at Indian healthcare‘, Aura

[collegetalks]

Obesity in Children: Nipping the Epidemic in the Bud

Introduction Obesity in children has reached alarming proportions in recent years, becoming a significant public health concern worldwide. The prevalence of childhood obesity has risen to unprecedented levels, leading to numerous health complications and long-term consequences. As parents, educators, and policymakers, it is crucial to address this issue and take proactive measures to curb the…