What Was New York’s Secret For Improved Child Wellness?

New York is known as ‘The Big Apple’ and, according to a new study, that nickname may be more appropriate than ever, as New York has managed to make a positive impact on its children’s weight and wellness thanks to changes to its WIC federal nutrition programme.

Though all 50 states in 2009 made huge improvements to the menu of foods available in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, New York was the first to offer a new package of food vouchers, which added vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, substituted low-fat for whole milk, and reduced fruit juices, as well as adding in a core service of promoting healthy lifestyles, such as encouraging physical activity over screen time.

For the study, the researchers from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the New York State Department of Health, and Public Health Solutions, a New York-based non-profit company, wanted to assess the impact of the WIC changes and so used 3.5 million New York State WIC records from before and after the January 2009 changes in the food package for their analysis. They saw wellbeing improvements for many New York children, as 1 year olds had a 6% decline in obesity, and 2-4 year olds had decreased obesity rates by 3%.

State Health Commissioner Nirav R. Shah, MD, MPH, explained ‘The new WIC food package was designed to promote healthier eating choices for children and we are excited by results that show it is helping to reduce paediatric obesity’. Shah went on to celebrate New York for being ‘the first state to implement the new WIC food package’ and ‘the first to report that changing the foods provided to children under the program helped to improve their eating behaviour and achieve healthier weights. Changing WIC foods does change what children eat’ he added.

Sally Findley, PhD, Professor of Clinical Population and Family Health and Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia’s Mailman School, also advised ‘If you help keep kids at normal weight during early childhood, they are much more likely to stay at normal weight throughout childhood and beyond’ and ‘The new WIC food package appears to be having the hoped for effect of promoting healthy eating, building a foundation for healthy choices about diet, exercise, and other healthful habits’ she concluded.