Strategies to optimize early-life nutrition provide an important opportunity for primary prevention of childhood obesity. Interventions that can be efficiently scaled-up to the magnitude needed for sustainable childhood obesity prevention are needed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of an eHealth intervention on parental feeding practices and infant eating behaviors. The Norwegian study Early Food for Future Health is a randomized controlled trial. Parents were recruited via social media and child health clinics during spring 2016 when their child was aged 3 to 5 months. In total 718 parents completed a web-based baseline questionnaire at child age 5.5 months. The intervention group had access to a webpage with monthly short video clips addressing specific infant feeding topics and age-appropriate baby food recipes from child age 6 to 12 months. The control group received routine care. The primary outcomes were child eating behaviors, dietary intake, mealtime routines and maternal feeding practices and feeding styles. The secondary outcomes were child anthropometry. This paper reports outcomes at child age 12 months. More than 80% of the intervention group reported viewing all/most of the video clips addressing infant feeding topics and indicated that the films were well adapted to the child’s age and easy to understand. Children in the intervention group were served vegetables/fruits more frequently (p = 0.035) and had tasted a wider variety of vegetables (p = 0.015) compared to controls. They were also more likely to eat family breakfast (p = 0.035) and dinner (p = 0.011) and less likely to be playing or watching TV/tablet during meals (p = 0.009) compared to control-group children. We found no group differences for child anthropometry or maternal feeding practices. Our findings suggest that the eHealth intervention is an appropriate and feasible tool to propagate information on healthy infant feeding to Norwegian mothers. Our study also suggests that anticipatory guidance on early protective feeding practices by such a tool may increase young children’s daily vegetable/fruit intake and promote beneficial mealtime routines. ISRCTN, ISRCTN13601567. Registered 29 February 2016, http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN13601567

Use of ultra-processed foods has expanded rapidly over the last decades and high consumption has been positively associated with risk of e.g. overweight, obesity and type 2 diabetes. Ultra-processed foods offer convenience as they require minimal time for preparation. It is therefore reasonable to assume that such foods are consumed more often among people who experience time scarcity. The main aim of this study was to investigate the association between time scarcity and consumption of ultra-processed foods among parents of 2-year olds in Norway. A secondary aim was to investigate the association between sociodemographic correlates, weight status and consumption of ultra-processed foods. This cross-sectional study included 497 participants. Chi-square and cross tabulations were used to calculate proportions of high vs. low consumption of ultra-processed foods in relation to time scarcity, sociodemographic correlates and weight status. Binary logistic regression analyses were performed to test the relationship between independent variables and consumption of ultra-processed foods. Participants reporting medium and high time scarcity were more likely to have a high consumption of ultra-processed dinner products (OR = 3. 68, 95% CI = 2. 32–5.84 and OR = 3.10, 1.80–5.35, respectively) and fast foods (OR = 2.60, 1.62–4.18 and OR = 1.90, 1.08–3.32, respectively) compared to those with low time scarcity. Further, participants with medium time scarcity were more likely to have a high consumption of snacks and soft drinks compared to participants with low time scarcity (OR = 1.63, 1.06–2.49). Finally, gender, ethnicity, educational level, number of children in the household and weight status were identified as important factors associated with the consumption of certain types of ultra-processed foods. Results from the present study showed that time scarcity, various sociodemographic factors and weight status was associated with consumption of processed foods. Future studies with a longitudinal design are needed to further explore these patterns over a longer period of time.

Aim: The academic performance of children impacts future educational attainment which may increase socioeconomic status which again influences their health. One of several factors that might affect academic performance is the diet. The aim of this study was to investigate the cross sectional relation between diet and self-reported reading-, writing-, and mathematical difficulties in Norwegian adolescents. Methods: In total, 475 ninth- and tenth-grade students out of 625 eligible ones from four different secondary schools in three different municipalities in Vest-Agder County, Norway, participated, giving a participation rate of 77%. The students filled in a questionnaire with food frequency questions of selected healthy and unhealthy food items, questions of meal frequency and different learning difficulties. Results: Regular breakfast was significantly associated with decreased odds of both writing and reading difficulties (OR: 0.44 (0.2–0.8), p = 0.01) and mathematical difficulties (OR: 0.33 (0.2–0.6), p ≤ 0.001). In addition, having lunch, dinner and supper regularly were associated with decreased odds of mathematical difficulties. Further, a high intake of foods representing a poor diet (sugar-sweetened soft drinks, sweets, chocolate, savory snacks, pizza and hot dogs) was significantly associated with increased odds of mathematical difficulties. Conclusions: Having a less-frequent intake of unhealthy foods and not skipping meals are associated with decreased odds of self-reported learning difficulties in Norwegian adolescents in this study. The results of this study support the need for a larger study with a more representative sample.

To assess the association of eating meals, and never watching TV while eating meals, with weight status among children, ages 10–12 years across Europe. 7915 children (mean age: 11.5 years) in eight European countries (Belgium, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland) completed a questionnaire at school. Data on meals eaten the day before questionnaire administration and the frequency of eating meals while watching TV were collected. Height and weight of the children were objectively assessed. Multinomial and binary regression analyses were conducted to test associations of eating meals (adjusted for gender and ethnicity) and never watching TV while eating meals (adjusted for gender, ethnicity and total TV time) with overweight/obesity, and to test for country- and socio-demographic differences. The proportions of children reporting eating breakfast, lunch and dinner were 85%, 96%, and 93% respectively, and 55%, 46% and 32% reported to never watch TV at breakfast, lunch and dinner respectively. The children who ate breakfast (OR = 0.6 (95% CI 0.5-0.7)) and dinner (OR = 0.4 (95% CI 0.3-0.5)), had lower odds of being overweight compared to those who did not. The children who never watched TV at lunch (OR = 0.7 (95% CI 0.7-0.8)) and dinner (OR = 0.8 (95% CI 0.7-0.9)) had lower odds of being overweight compared to those who watched TV at the respective meals. The odds of being overweight was lower for children who ate breakfast and dinner compared to those who did not eat the respective meals. The odds of being overweight was lower for children who reported to never watch TV at lunch and dinner compared to those who did. A focus towards meal frequency and watching TV during meals in longitudinal and interventions studies in prevention of overweight and obesity, may contribute to a better understanding of causality.

Background: A diet high in fruit and vegetables (FV) is inversely related to chronic diseases, and some studies suggest that increasing the intake of FV reduces the intake of unhealthy snacks.