Joannah &amp; Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition

Convocation 2024

Faculty of Arts & Science

Alumni

Honorary Degree

Trinity College

University College

Together, they have inspired countless others with their thoughtful leadership and generous spirit. And as donors, they like to think ahead. With an eye on future generations, Joannah and Brian Lawson have made climate change and child nutrition central to their philanthropy, including at the University of Toronto.

Today, for their outstanding service to the university as supporters, ambassadors and thoughtful advisers, and for their commitment to making a positive difference in everything they do, the Lawsons will each receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from U of T.

Raised in Toronto, Brian attended U of T, earning a bachelor of arts degree in 1982, with an emphasis on economics and computer science. After graduation, he joined Touche Ross (now Deloitte) and decided to study accounting, becoming a chartered accountant in 1985.

Joannah, who also grew up in Toronto, completed a master’s degree in industrial relations at U of T in 1989.

Brian joined Brookfield, an investment firm, in 1988 and soon moved into senior roles, including chief financial officer of Brookfield Asset Management, which he held from 2002 to 2020. In 2013, he was selected as Canada’s CFO of the year by Financial Executives International Canada, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Robert Half International.

During Brian’s tenure as CFO, Brookfield evolved into a large, global investment firm, with assets under management of US$600 billion in 2020 and operations in more than 20 countries – principally in Canada, the United States, Australia and Brazil.

(photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

Joannah, meanwhile, worked in change management in the high-tech sector before launching a second career as a nutritionist in 2012 via her own consulting business: Appetite for Change.

She is also co-founder and president of the Brian and Joannah Lawson Family Foundation, which collaborates with other philanthropic foundations, not-for-profits, universities and think tanks to make food systems around the world healthier and more sustainable. The couple created the foundation in 2008 to advance two causes they believe in: addressing climate change and promoting healthy dietary patterns. Joannah has since shifted her focus to leading the foundation.

“Our particular emphasis is on supporting and sponsoring initiatives that improve the health and well-being of our communities [and] the environment,” Brian told the Globe and Mail in 2014.

In an interview with U of T, Joannah drew a connection between healthy food and sustainability, noting that “nutrient-empty foods take a heavy toll on the planet.”

These concerns are reflected in how the couple has supported U of T philanthropically, with significant donations to establish the Lawson Centre for Sustainability at Trinity College and the Joannah and Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

They view their focus on child nutrition as strategic, adding that a person’s first few years is a critical window for lifelong health. “If you start changing things in childhood, you have the greatest opportunity to have a bigger impact on a person’s life,” Joannah told the Temerty Faculty of Medicine in 2017. “It’s going further upstream to get to the root of the problem.”

“It’s an inflection point for parents too,” Brian said in the same interview. “Parents often start trying to eat healthier when kids come along, so focusing on children benefits the whole family.”

“Ultimately,” Joannah said, “the number one thing we’re doing is setting out to prevent chronic disease. If you prevent chronic disease, you reduce suffering, improve quality of life and improve economic outcomes. It’s a win-win-win.”

Both Brian and Joannah have volunteered extensively with U of T. Brian is chancellor of Trinity College, co-chair of the Defy Gravity Campaign and a past chair of U of T’s Governing Council. Joannah is a past member of the Trinity College Board of Trustees and continues to serve as an adviser to the college. Together, they have served as co-chairs of the campaign cabinet at U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and on the Boundless Campaign executive

Both have received the university’s Arbor Award for volunteer service, and honorary doctorates from Trinity College.

In his speech today, Brian urged graduates of Trinity and University colleges to focus their efforts on opportunities that tick three boxes: what they’re good at, what they’re passionate about and where they can make a difference. “Think of how you want the world to be – and exemplify that yourself,” he said. “People around you will notice. And that might be the greatest impact of all.”

In her speech, Joannah encouraged graduates to draw inspiration from others. “Find out who is already working on the issues you care about most, and look for ways to contribute, either directly by working with them or indirectly by building on their work.”

And if no one else is working on the issue? “Lead the way.”

Liver can generate palmitic acid to maintain brain health, study suggests

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 21:58:42 +0000

Liver can generate palmitic acid to maintain brain health, study suggests

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 01/22/2024 - 16:58

Cutline

Researchers Richard Bazinet, left, and Mackenzie Smith, right, found that the liver will generate palmitic acid when the brain isn't getting enough through food sources, suggesting the acid's importance to brain health (photo by Temerty Faculty of Medicine)

Topic

Brain

Subheadline

“The results were surprising because when you lower a lipid in the diet, it usually becomes lower in the brain"

Researchers at the University of Toronto have found that palmitic acid, one of the most common fats in meats and dairy products, as well as human breast milk, is made by the liver and sent to the developing brain when it’s low in the diet.

The preclinical findings underscore the importance of palmitic acid for brain health and point to a need for more research on lowering its levels in infant formula – a step some manufacturers have taken recently to reduce costs and limit the harvest of palm trees, a major source of palmitic acid.

“When we changed the levels of palmitic acid in the diets of developing mice, it didn’t do a thing to the brain,” said Richard Bazinet, principal investigator on the study and a professor and acting chair of the department of nutritional sciences in U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

“The results were surprising because when you lower a lipid in the diet, it usually becomes lower in the brain. But here the liver was able to up-regulate production to ensure the brain gets enough of it, despite extreme differences in dietary intake.”

The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.

Mackenzie Smith, left, and Richard Bazinet, right (photo by Temerty Faculty of Medicine)

Palmitic acid is a saturated fat that supports brain health in several ways, across the lifespan. It contributes to the structure and function of myelin sheathing, which insulates neural connections and acts as precursor to molecules that regulate inflammation and promote cell signalling.

Scientists have long known that humans and other mammals can get palmitic acid from food or generate it in a process called de novo lipogenesis, which mainly requires glucose for its synthesis. Much less is known about which source the body relies on relative to diet and at different stages of growth and maturity.

Bazinet said the study findings highlight the importance of palmitic acid for brain health at all stages, but especially during development, when need for the fat appears to be highest.

“It’s interesting that although the brain can make palmitic acid, the liver up-regulated it so much. These systemic redundancies are built in, so the body won’t take a chance on not getting enough,” said Bazinet, who is also a researcher at U of T’s Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition.

The results should give pause to manufacturers looking to reduce the amount of palmitic acid in infant formula, said Mackenzie Smith, first author on the study and a doctoral student in the Bazinet lab.

“It’s possible that we can lower levels in formula, which could have a positive ecological impact, but we don’t yet know the potential health effects,” Smith said. “Are there implications for behaviour or development when the liver produces so much? Might there be negative effects for the liver?”

Smith also noted that even in mice that received the lowest amount of palmitic acid through diet, levels of the fat were still higher than those sought by some manufacturers of formula. That discrepancy adds to the rationale for further preclinical studies, as well as research in humans, Smith said.

To uncover the source of palmitic acid in the brains of developing mice, the researchers applied a new carbon isotope technique. Isotopes are different versions of the same chemical element that vary slightly in mass; for their study, the researchers drew on natural differences in carbon isotope ratios in the environment, based on how plants absorb carbon in photosynthesis.

“Most plants use the same path to fix carbon from the atmosphere and have the same carbon ratio, but sugars such as corn and sugar cane – which the liver uses to generate palmitic acid – have a different ratio,” said Smith.

In the brains of mice, a depleted carbon ratio signature indicated a dietary source of palmitic acid, Smith said, whereas an enriched signature suggested de novo lipogenesis.

The researchers were able to track those signatures at many stages throughout mouse development, to determine the liver was the main source of palmitic acid in the developing brain – a finding they corroborated by looking at changes in genetics.

The approach opens new research opportunities. “As opposed to traditional radioactive tracers, which are very expensive, this new technique allows for a cost-effective and long-term study design,” said Smith.

Building on the current study’s findings, researchers in the Bazinet lab are now applying the same technique in tissue from adult human brains. The method could also provide a new way to measure and track the dietary sources of other fats and nutrients, Bazinet said.

“Nutrition researchers often rely on people reporting their food intakes, which can lead to unreliable data,” he added. “Those problems could potentially be flagged with this kind of technology to track the source and amount of added sugars, for example. It could be very fruitful for nutritional science.”

The research was supported by funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canada Research Chairs Program.

GTA parents concerned about limited access to school food programs: Researchers

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 13:19:09 +0000

GTA parents concerned about limited access to school food programs: Researchers

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 04/18/2023 - 09:19

Topic

Graduate Students

Early results from a University of Toronto stakeholder study on school food programs find that parents and caregivers in the Greater Toronto Area are concerned about limited access to current programs and the ability of schools to provide culturally appropriate food, among other issues.

Based on online surveys and focus groups, the analysis is part of a larger effort launched by U of T researchers at the Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition called Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds, which looks at how school food programs function across Canada.

“The need for universality in school food programs has really been a key theme of our research to date,” said Selina Mae Quibrantar, a master’s student in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine who is leading the caregiver analysis with direction from Vasanti Malik, an assistant professor in the department of nutritional sciences. “Universality means broad access to programs, which was a problem before the pandemic and has since worsened – but also local flexibility so that schools can adapt programs for their physical environments and diverse student populations.

“A key goal with Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds is a broadly inclusive approach, and I hope our study will help enable that – in particular through parental and community knowledge, which is often missing from policymaking on child nutrition.”

Selina Mae Quibrantar says a key theme that has emerged from the stakeholder study focuses on the need for universality in school food programs (photo by Don Campbell)

Preliminary results showed child participation in school food programs in the Greater Toronto Area was about 65 per cent. Many parents and caregivers commented on program reductions, noting less food and fewer days of access per week after the COVID-19 pandemic.

While public health restrictions forced some of those changes as the pandemic began, food inflation costs have since become a significant challenge to school food programs in Toronto and elsewhere, Quibrantar said.

In addition, some schools lack kitchen facilities and volunteers to help prepare food while meeting health and safety guidelines, the study showed.

Caregiver perspectives, especially those from ethnic minority households, have received little attention in child nutrition research, Quibrantar said. Here too, the stakeholder analysis is helping fill a knowledge gap.

The researchers recently ran four focus groups with caregivers from households that identify as South Asian and Southeast Asian, finding that participants stressed the importance of culturally adapted food in school programs. “It’s important to caregivers that children see their own cultures’ food served in schools to foster a sense of belonging and inclusion,” Quibrantar said.

As well, caregivers emphasized the need for an intentional approach when bringing foods from various cultures into school food programs.

“Caregivers want a program that is meaningful and does not run the risk of cultural appropriation,” Quibrantar said. “They instead see programs as a way to teach [children] about cultural heritage and sustainability, such as where a food comes from and how it’s made, or by taking time to learn about a culture while sampling the food.”

Quibrantar has presented early results from a pilot study to colleagues in U of T’s department of nutritional sciences and plans to share more findings at the Canadian Nutrition Society annual conference in May.

She and researchers from the Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds project will assemble some of their findings into a dashboard to be shared with other researchers, schools, non-profit groups and policymakers later this year.

Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds is funded by a $2-million investment from President’s Choice Children’s Charity, and by the Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition at the University of Toronto.

More evidence that sugary drinks cause weight gain: Study

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 14:23:54 +0000

More evidence that sugary drinks cause weight gain: Study

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 03/06/2023 - 09:23

Cutline

(photo by Seksan Mongkhonkhamsao/Getty Images)

Topic

A review of dozens of studies from the last decade recently found that sugar-sweetened beverages promote weight gain in children and adults.

The review, led by researchers at the University of Toronto and Harvard University, is the largest and most thorough analysis to date of research on sweetened drinks, and overweight and obesity – both of which heighten risks for diabetes, heart disease, some cancers and other diseases.

Vasanti Malik led the study – published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition – with colleagues in Toronto and Boston. Malik is an assistant professor of nutritional sciences at U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition.

She recently spoke with writer Jim Oldfield about the findings and what they mean for public policy and personal health.

Why do this study now?

Our last meta-analysis on this topic was 2013. You want to update a meta-analysis every five to 10 years anyway, but especially in this area because there has been so much new research in the last decade. Evidence has continued to accumulate showing associations among sugar-sweetened beverages – or SSBs, as we call them – and weight and chronic disease. And it’s very important to have an updated synthesis of that evidence, especially for public policy. The Canada Food Guide is clear on the need to limit SSBs and recommends water as the drink of choice – and added sugar intake, including SSBs, has declined in Canada, in part due to public policies. But levels here are still too high. As well, the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans are arguably not as strong – and with U.S. policymakers coming together soon to discuss the 2025 guidelines, our study will be an important piece of evidence to inform their work.

What did your study show?

We expected to find a positive association between SSBs and weight gain among adults and children, and in cohort studies and randomized clinical trials. And that was exactly what we found. We analyzed 85 studies, which totaled over half a million participants. In cohort studies, which follow people over long periods of time, each serving-per-day increase in SSBs was associated with a 0.42-kilogram (almost one pound) higher body weight in adults. In children, we saw a 0.07-unit higher body-mass index (just under one-twelfth of a BMI unit). Perhaps most striking, findings from our dose-response analysis showed that weight gain increases with increasing levels of SSB intake in both children and adults. A dose-response relationship provides strong evidence for a cause-and-effect relationship.

How much weight gain might one drink per day lead to over time?

We estimated the associated change in body weight over a one-year period. For adults, one additional 12-ounce serving per day was linked to a 0.20-kg higher body weight (about half a pound) in one year. Over 10 years, that could be about five pounds. In children, we observed a 0.03-unit higher BMI for each additional daily serving of SSBs over a one-year period. Although these results may seem modest, weight gain is a gradual process, with adults averaging about one pound (0.45 kg) of weight gain per year. So, limiting SSB consumption could be an effective way to prevent age-related weight gain. Limiting SSB intake among children is also an important strategy to help them develop healthy lifestyle habits and weight trajectories.

How common is excess consumption of these drinks?

It’s very common. Sugar-sweetened beverages include sodas, fruit drinks, sports and energy drinks, and they are the largest source of added sugar in the North American diet. Moreover, the rise in consumption of these drinks has mirrored the epidemic of overweight and obesity. In 2016, almost two billion adults were estimated as overweight and 650 million had obesity. Even more worrying, the rate of increase in obesity in children and adolescents is now greater than in adults. The prevalence of childhood obesity has increased more than four-fold globally since the 1970s, which is truly alarming.

What are some of the health effects of SSBs?

A typical 12-ounce serving of an SSB contains over 140 calories and more than eight teaspoons of sugar. That nearly reaches the recommended daily limit for added sugar, which is no more than 10 per cent of total calories, or about 200 calories for a 2000-calorie per day diet. These drinks are sugar in liquid form. They’re usually made with table sugar, high-fructose corn syrup or other sweeteners that provide calories and are digested rapidly – more so than sugar consumed as a solid. This bolus of glucose increases blood sugar levels, which triggers a glycemic response that over time can lead to insulin resistance and diabetes. The fructose component also floods the liver, which can cause lipogenesis (creation of fat), that puts a person on the path to fatty liver and metabolic disease. Fructose also increases uric acid, which contributes to insulin resistance and risk for cardiovascular and other diseases. Insulin spikes from the glycemic response can result in an appetite cascade and over-eating, as can excess insulin in the blood over longer periods. Some evidence shows that SSBs activate the dopaminergic reward system in the brain and encourage addictive behaviour and that they alter the gut microbiome – but we need more research on those effects.

Are you optimistic, given these effects and the research evidence?

Intake levels of SSBs have come down in the developed world. We’re still seeing increases in the developing world, but taxes in some of those countries are working. Thailand introduced a tax that has reduced consumption, as has Mexico and South Africa. At least 85 countries now have a tax on SSBs, which in part reflects the World Health Organization’s stand on this issue. In Canada, Newfoundland introduced a tax recently and several U.S. regions and cities have had a tax for years in response to public health efforts, more awareness and advocacy. The general effect of these taxes is reduced intake and the revenues can be put toward further public health measures and health care. Other changes will help in Canada and elsewhere as well, such as limiting marketing to children and better front-of-pack and nutrition labels. All these efforts will push intake down, but it’s important to remember that people need access to clean, safe drinking water as an alternative. That’s an ongoing challenge globally and in many parts of Canada that we really need to address.

Malik holds a Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and Chronic Disease Prevention at U of T and an adjunct faculty position in nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Michelle Nguyen, a doctoral student at U of T, conducted the study analysis and wrote the paper.

U of T report shows food insecurity persists across Canada, varies by province

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 14:22:38 +0000

U of T report shows food insecurity persists across Canada, varies by province

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 08/16/2022 - 10:22

Cutline

A report led by U of T's Valerie Tarasuk found that 15.9 per cent of households in 10 provinces experienced some degree of food insecurity between the fall of 2020 and the fall of 2021 (photo by Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Topic

Food Security

The latest national data from researchers at the University of Toronto show that food insecurity in Canada has remained largely unchanged over the last three years, with stark differences among the provinces.

The report, “Household Food Insecurity in Canada 2021,” shows that 15.9 per cent of households across 10 provinces experienced some degree of food insecurity in the year before fall 2021, with little change since 2019. Researchers define food insecurity as inadequate or insecure access to food due to financial constraint.

Professor Valerie Tarasuk

“We’ve seen no palpable improvement in food insecurity for low-income households in Canada,” said Valerie Tarasuk, a professor of nutritional sciences in U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, whose research group PROOF led the study with data from Statistics Canada.

During the same period, Quebec had the lowest rate of household food insecurity at 13.1 per cent, while Alberta was highest among the provinces at 20.3 per cent.

“Quebec has emerged with consistently lower food insecurity than other provinces, which I think speaks to the power of provincial policy,” Tarasuk said.

Policy structures and payments for low-income households in Quebec differ from other provinces in several areas, including income support, workplace benefits and child care.

“Social programs in Quebec are targeted to the vulnerable in ways we don’t always see in other provinces,” said Tarasuk, who is also affiliated with U of T’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition. “Some focus on families with children, and all are indexed to inflation, which matters hugely at a time like this.”

Quebec has done especially well addressing severe food insecurity, the new report shows. People living in Quebec were less than half as likely (2.8 per cent versus 6.3 per cent) as those in Alberta to experience severe food insecurity, which includes hunger and is most strongly associated with increased health-care spending, poor health outcomes and premature death.

“It’s not like Quebec is off the charts, and we saw hints of this difference before 2019,” said Tarasuk. “But their low rates warrant more study, so we can continue to build on findings by our group and others that show the importance of higher minimum wage and more generous social programs for reducing food insecurity.”

Ontario was middle-of-the-pack for both severe and overall food insecurity, at 4.6 per cent and 16.1 per cent, respectively. That equates to well over two million people living with food insecurity in Ontario, the province with the largest population. Across all provinces, 5.8 million people now live in food-insecure households, including almost 1.4 million children.

The survey does not include people living on Indigenous reserves, but the rate of food insecurity among off-reserve Indigenous Peoples was 30.7 per cent. Other studies have also shown high vulnerability among on-reserve communities.

New data on food insecurity in the territories is not yet available, but the most recent numbers from Statistics Canada in 2020 – which only include moderate and severe food insecurity – are grim: 46.1 per cent in Nunavut, 23.1 per cent in the Northwest Territories and 15.3 per cent in Yukon.

The PROOF report drew on data from 54,000 households in Statistics Canada’s Canadian Income Survey. This is a change for Tarasuk’s team, which had tracked food insecurity since 2011 through the Canadian Community Health Survey. Both surveys employ the Household Food Security Survey Module, but Tarasuk says the income survey has a better response rate and is likely more representative of the Canadian population.

The change has allowed Tarasuk’s group to access data on food insecurity shortly after collection, and to compare numbers annually across all provinces. “Historically, some provinces including Ontario opted out of the survey module in some years, which left holes in the data,” Tarasuk said. “We now get consistent data in almost real time.”

The new data has also enabled soon-to-be-published studies from Tarasuk’s lab on the Canada Child Benefit and Employment Insurance relative to food insecurity. The research will add to the large body of evidence on how federal and provincial policies can reduce food insecurity by improving incomes of low-income households.

Data based on the Canadian Income Survey show higher rates of food insecurity than those collected in the Canadian Community Health Survey. But Tarasuk cautioned against comparing the two data sets and drawing the conclusion that food insecurity has worsened between 2018 and 2021.

Tarasuk said it was surprising that food insecurity did not appear to worsen during the pandemic, and that quick action by governments to introduce income supports may have prevented more widespread food insecurity.

But she is quick to stress that the problem hasn’t gotten better – and could soon get a lot worse. “The situation now is that inflation and prices are skyrocketing,” Tarasuk said. “People with severe food insecurity will suffer more deprivation, and more often turn to acts of desperation in the face of hunger. That’s the urgent challenge for policymakers.”

The research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds: Researcher Mavra Ahmed studies school food programs in Canada

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 29 Apr 2022 16:19:37 +0000

Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds: Researcher Mavra Ahmed studies school food programs in Canada

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 04/29/2022 - 12:19

Cutline

Mavra Ahmed is helping lead a U of T study reviewing all breakfast, lunch and snack programs in Canadian schools, along with their impact on children’s academic achievement and health (photo courtesy of Temerty Faculty of Medicine)

Topic

Alumni

Anthropology

Children

Faculty of Arts & Science

Hospital for Sick Children

Schools

When Mavra Ahmed first heard about a new post-doctoral leadership position with Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds – a University of Toronto study of school food programs in Canada – she thought the role sounded like a great fit for her expertise, which ranges from basic science to clinical nutrition to population health.

A year and a half later, Ahmed says her first impression could not have been more accurate.

“This study offers several opportunities I was looking for – from leadership and mentorship to work with national and international researchers, and with local schools and community groups,” says Ahmed, who completed doctoral studies at U of T with a focus on nutritional intakes during deployment or training among Canadian Armed Forces personnel.

“And of course, it’s a great opportunity to help ensure more children eat well at school and are ready to learn.”

Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds is led by U of T’s Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition, and includes a review of all breakfast, lunch and snack programs in Canadian schools, along with their impact on children’s academic achievement and health.

The work began last summer under Ahmed’s guidance, with the hire of two nutritional sciences undergraduate students. The students reviewed existing monitoring and assessment tools for school food programs and environments, as well as news and other reports on the impact of COVID-19 on program delivery.

The team worked closely with Lawson Centre scientists Daniel Sellen, who also has cross appointments in the department of anthropology in the Faculty of Arts & Science and at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Zulfiqar Bhutta, who is also co-director and director of research at the Hospital for Sick Children's Centre for Global Child Health, and public health researcher Vasanti Malik and others. They will begin to share their results this year. Their findings will be critical to the design and delivery of Canadian school food programs, and will include equity indicators such as race and income.

School food programs in Canada vary greatly in terms of who delivers them, which children they reach and what’s on the menu. Many advocates including the Coalition for Healthy School Food have said for years that heterogeneity hinders effective and broad program delivery.

Canada is the only G7 nation without a national school food program, although the federal government committed to develop a policy on the issue in its 2022 budget.

Other countries have put in place or are developing national programs with various areas of focus, and Ahmed says their experiences should prove useful for Canada. She recently joined INFORMAS, an international network for food and obesity researchers, and the global School Meals Coalition, in part to tap learnings from across Canada and abroad, and to leverage existing findings.

One early insight from interaction with those groups was that researchers have developed new equity indicators to track how programs work for under-privileged students, especially in Brazil and other Latin American countries, Ahmed says.

“Capturing established and emerging program assessment tools is a complex undertaking,” Ahmed says. “We didn’t realize how vast it would become, which is challenging, but it has also afforded some great opportunities for two-way learning and collaboration.”

Longer-term, Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds will enable the researchers to design and test school-level interventions to improve meal program delivery. The project will run over four years.

“Given that Canada is so culturally diverse and geographically vast, we’ll likely need to take the best elements of programs in Canada and adapt approaches from around the world if we want an effective strategy for feeding children well in our schools,” Ahmed says. “I’m excited about how that could look.”

How effective are school food programs? U of T researchers launch nationwide study

lanthierj — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 11:50:38 +0000

How effective are school food programs? U of T researchers launch nationwide study

lanthierj Fri, 12/10/2021 - 06:50

Cutline

(Photo by Siarhei Shuntsikau/Dreamstime)

Topic

Child Development

Child Health

St. Michael's Hospital

Researchers at the University of Toronto have begun studying school-based meal programs across Canada to better understand which programs work well, how they have functioned during the COVID-19 pandemic – and whether a long-discussed national program could improve child nutrition in this country.

School food programs in Canada number in the thousands, reaching an estimated one-fifth of the country's five million students. Researchers will identify and evaluate the programs and explore opportunities to pilot improvements, with a focus on vulnerable groups in urban and rural schools and underserved communities.

Daniel Sellen

“Many people and organizations put huge effort into feeding children in schools every day across this country,” says Daniel Sellen, the study lead and director of the Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at U of T. “We need a much fuller picture of this work to guide policy and program development, and to improve delivery at the community level.”

School-based food programs in Canada vary greatly in design and are delivered by many organizations including charities, school boards, governments, churches and corporations. Despite these efforts, Canada ranked 37^th of 41 wealthy countries in a recent UNICEF report on children’s access to healthy food.

The U of T study, called Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds, will inform discussion of a more cohesive, national program – an approach endorsed by more than 180 organizations through the Coalition for Health School Food, and an idea to which the federal Liberal government committed $1 billion in its election platform this year.

Katerina Maximova

“Canada is the only G7 nation without a national school food program,” says Katerina Maximova, a member of the study’s steering committee and an associate professor at U of T’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. “The timing is right for policy development on a national program, and this study will provide a strong evidence base for those efforts.”

Policymakers are now working to develop a framework for a National School Food Policy, laying the groundwork to establish a national program, says Maximova, who holds a Chair in Early Life Interventions at MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions with St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto.

But the many groups involved with design and delivery of a national program will need finer detail in the coming years.

“What should a national program look like, and how best to implement it while building on existing capacity? We need to answer these questions,” Maximova says.

Further concerns include which foods should be on the menu and how to source them, and how best to monitor and regulate a program to national standards.

The new study will address these and other issues over a four-year span, and will include researchers from medicine, public health, social work, engineering, humanities and early child development.

The researchers will begin to share findings in 2022, including a planned review of all Canadian programs with information on school meal program format and nutritional quality, and the ages, socioeconomic and health status of children served.

Later phases of the study will employ workshops and consultations with local educators, school nutritionists and public health units, followed by trials, cohort studies and a national knowledge-sharing campaign.

The need for better data and a more effective approach to school food programs across Canada is pressing.

Pre-pandemic studies showed that fewer than one-third of Canadian children consumed enough fruits and vegetables, and that almost one-third were overweight or obese. Global research has long linked child diets to academic performance and health, and shown that school food programs such as breakfasts, lunches and snacks can be effective interventions.

In the first few months of the pandemic, Statistics Canada reported a jump in food insecurity, or the inadequate access to affordable and nutritious food, from 12.7 to 14.6 per cent of households. Global studies have also shown weight gain among children of all ages during the pandemic – a trend some experts have noticed in Canada.

Sloane Freeman

“Anecdotally, I’ve seen both worsening nutrition and growing weight gain,” says research team member Sloane Freeman, an assistant professor of paediatrics at U of T and a clinician-scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto. “More children have missed meals they would have had at school. Many were home all day and snacked on less nutritious food.”

The new study will help quantify those impacts on child nutrition, and on school-based food programs – many of which responded to the pandemic with new food safety measures and creative delivery options such as food boxes and cards.

This new data should inform COVID recovery planning in 2022, and the broader goal of better child nutrition through more effective school-based programs in the long-term, says Freeman, who is also the founder of the Model Schools Pediatric Health Initiative.

The scope of the project is unprecedented. Some Canadian research groups have detailed the need for a more integrated approach to school-based nutrition, including the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph. But Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds will be the largest and most comprehensive study of the topic to date.

“It’s a really big project, that’s one reason it hasn’t been done before,” says Freeman. “It requires a Herculean effort from a multidisciplinary, dedicated team with robust funding. We are that team, and I’m excited to see what we can do.”

Failed bill to limit food marketing to children generated intense industry lobbying: U of T study

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:12:19 +0000

Failed bill to limit food marketing to children generated intense industry lobbying: U of T study

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 03/25/2021 - 09:12

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Researchers looked at at more than 3,800 lobbying interactions in the three years before the Child Health Protection Act failed and found that over 80 per cent were by industry (photo by Chalisa Thammapatanakul/EyeEm via Getty Images)

Topic

Food

Marketing

Kim Barnhardt and Jim Oldfield

Researchers at the University of Toronto have found that food industry interactions with government heavily outnumbered non-industry interactions on Bill S-228, also known as the Child Health Protection Act, which died in the Senate of Canada in 2019.

The researchers looked at more than 3,800 interactions – including meetings, correspondence and lobbying – in the three years before the bill failed. They found that over 80 per cent were by industry, compared to public health or not-for-profit organizations.

They also found that industry accounted for over 80 per cent of interactions with the highest-ranking government offices, including elected parliamentarians and their staff and unelected civil servants.

“Industry interacted with government much more often, more broadly and with higher ranking offices than non-industry representatives in discussions of children’s marketing and Bill S-228,” said principal investigator Mary L’Abbé, a professor in nutritional sciences and at the Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition in U of T's Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

The study was published in the journal CMAJ Open this week.

The researchers drew data from Health Canada’s meetings and correspondence on healthy eating database, which was set up in 2016 and details the type and content of interactions between stakeholders and Health Canada on nutrition policies. They also used Canada’s Registry of Lobbyists, which tracks the names and registrations of paid lobbyists but provides limited details on the content of the meetings.

“We’re fortunate to have access to this information in Canada, as it offers insight into the story of government bills,” said Christine Mulligan, a doctoral student in L’Abbé’s lab and lead author on the study. “Industry stakeholders bring important viewpoints, but the volume and breadth of their lobbying on this bill was clearly disproportionate, especially compared to public health.”

The food industry has a long history of effective lobbying in Canada and other countries, and a growing body of research has documented both that extensive influence and the need for policy-makers to be aware of it when creating policy that promotes the health and safety of all citizens.

Health Canada met with industry 56 per cent of the time regarding the 2016 Healthy Eating Strategy, researchers at the University of Ottawa found last year. During the creation of the recent Food Guide, Health Canada restricted industry lobbying – so effectively that industry persuaded officials at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to lobby Health Canada on their behalf, as the Globe and Mail and other organizations reported.

Mulligan says the disparity in interactions with government among stakeholders was even greater for S-228, and that it marks a stark contrast between this bill and interactions on the Healthy Eating Strategy more broadly.

Industry lobbying has also been prominent on a stalled bill to introduce front-of-package labelling that would inform consumers about foods high in salt, sugar and saturated fat, said L’Abbé, who advised Health Canada on both bills and the Healthy Eating Strategy.

L’Abbé said that more transparency on interactions with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and other federal departments would help, as would more detail in the Registry of Lobbyists. All stakeholder comments related to proposed regulations are part of a public docket in the U.S., and some groups have called for a similar approach in Canada.

“We desperately need better management of the consultative process on legislative bills for public health policy in the public good,” said L’Abbé.

The research was funded by the Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Pasteurizing breast milk inactivates SARS-CoV-2 virus, U of T study shows

lanthierj — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 13:34:42 +0000

Pasteurizing breast milk inactivates SARS-CoV-2 virus, U of T study shows

lanthierj Mon, 07/13/2020 - 09:34

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(photo by GOLFX/iStockimages/Getty Images)

Topic

Coronavirus

Faculty of Medicine

Researchers at the University of Toronto and Sinai Health have found that a common technique to pasteurize breast milk inactivates the virus that causes COVID-19, making it safe for use.

It's the first time the impact of pasteurization on coronaviruses in human milk has been reported in the scientific literature and the findings provide assurance for parents and families who use human milk banks to feed their infants.

Current advice is for women with COVID-19 to continue to breastfeed their own infants and it is standard care in Canada to provide pasteurized breast milk to very-low-birth-weight babies in hospital until their own mother's milk supply is adequate.

“In the event that a woman who is COVID-19-positive donates human milk that contains SARS-CoV-2, whether by transmission through the mammary gland or by contamination through respiratory droplets, skin, breast pumps and milk containers, this method of pasteurization renders milk safe for consumption,” the authors write in their study, published last week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The lead author on the paper was Sharon Unger, a professor of paediatrics and nutritional sciences at U of T and neonatologist at Sinai Health, who is medical director of the Rogers Hixon Ontario Human Milk Bank.

Unger said the current pandemic is a time for extra efforts to protect the supply of donated human milk, in part because formula was scarce and previous pandemics – notably HIV/AIDS – created major challenges for human milk bank supply.

The Holder method, a technique used to pasteurize milk in all Canadian milk banks (62.5°C for 30 minutes), is effective at neutralizing viruses such as HIV, hepatitis and others that are known to be transmitted through human milk.

Professors Deborah O'Connor and Sharon Unger

In this study, researchers spiked human breast milk with a viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in U of T’s combined containment level three unit and tested samples that either sat at room temperature for 30 minutes or were warmed to 62.5°C for 30 minutes. The virus in the pasteurized milk was inactivated after heating.

Interestingly, the virus in the unheated milk was also weakened, said Deborah O’Connor, the senior author on the paper who is chair of nutritional sciences at U of T and a researcher in the Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition.

O’Connor said this finding suggests some properties of breast milk may counteract the virus, and she recently received funding to pursue research on that topic.

More than 650 human breast milk banks around the world use the Holder method to ensure a safe supply of milk for vulnerable infants.

The research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and through the University of Toronto and the Temerty Foundation, which provided funding for enhanced capacity and operations of the university’s combined containment level three facility during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Children who drank whole milk, as opposed to reduced-fat, less likely to be overweight: U of T study

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 16:54:32 +0000

Children who drank whole milk, as opposed to reduced-fat, less likely to be overweight: U of T study

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 01/09/2020 - 11:54

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The study's findings, which are at odds with Canadian and international guidelines, were based on a meta-analysis of existing studies involving almost 21,000 children (photo by Dragonimages via Getty Images)

Topic

Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation

Pediatrics

Faculty of Medicine