September 2025

Recognizing National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month: NCCOR’s Approach to Creating a Healthier Future for All Children, Their Families, and Communities

September 2025, NCCOR

This September, NCCOR will recognize National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month by highlighting the Collaborative’s multipronged approach to build evidence and advance practice to reduce childhood obesity in the United States. Approximately one in five American children have obesity, with a higher prevalence among certain populations, including adolescents, Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black children, and children in families with lower incomes.[1]

Compared to children with healthy weight, children with obesity are at a higher risk for chronic issues, such as asthma, sleep apnea, bone and joint problems, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. Additionally, children with obesity are more likely to have obesity as adults. For nearly 20 years, NCCOR has been at the forefront of exploring emerging topics around childhood obesity and building on the evidence base for multi-sector interventions related to the policies, systems, and environments (PSE) that influence health outcomes.

Throughout the month, NCCOR will share relevant information and tools illustrating how the Collaborative uses the following approaches to advance strategic priorities in children’s nutrition, physical activity, obesity prevention, and overall ​well-being.

• Collaborating Across Disciplines and Sectors: We will highlight recent NCCOR projects that promote multisector partnerships to spur innovation in childhood obesity research, including a new series of learning guides for students.

• Developing and Promoting Tools and Resources: We will share existing NCCOR tools and resources that aim to increase understanding of the nuances of research, practice, policy, and evaluation.

• Translating Research into Practice: We will share new NCCOR tools that help support the adoption and implementation of evidence-based practices to improve broader public health impact.

Follow NCCOR on LinkedIn and X throughout National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month to learn more about how the Collaborative works to create connections with new partners; explore emerging topics; and build on the evidence base for multisector interventions related to the policies, systems, and environments (PSE) that influence health outcomes.

[1] Childhood Obesity Facts [Internet]. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, c2025 [cited 2025 Aug 18]. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood-obesity-facts/childhood-obesity-facts.html

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NCCOR Toolbox: Kickstart Your Semester with NCCOR’s Student Hub

September 2025, NCCOR

Back at campus? NCCOR’s Student Hub is your go-to resource for diving into the world of childhood obesity prevention and public health research. Designed specifically for undergraduate and graduate students, the Student Hub offers free tools and resources that can support your schoolwork and research. Whether you’re crafting a thesis or exploring data for a research project, the Student Hub connects you with the knowledge and resources to thrive. Visit the Student Hub today and sign up for the quarterly student e-newsletter here.

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Ultra-Processed Food Consumption in Youth and Adults: United States, August 2021–August 2023

August 2025, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Ultra-processed foods tend to be hyperpalatable, energy-dense, low in dietary fiber, and contain little or no whole foods, while having high amounts of salt, sweeteners, and unhealthy fats. Ultra-processed food consumption has been associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. This report presents estimates about ultra-processed foods during August 2021–August 2023 by top caloric contributors and mean percentage of total calories from ultra-processed foods by sex, age, family income, and 10-year trends.

[Source]

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Bike Buses: Let’s Bike to School Together

August 2025, National Center for Safe Routes to School

The concept behind a bike bus is a simple one: Groups of students and adults riding to school together. However, a bike bus is more than the sum of its parts, sparking enthusiasm among families and showing communities what’s possible for the trip to school. Bike buses, also known as bike trains, come in all shapes and sizes. In Tempe, AZ, riders in a monthly bike bus meet in a local church’s parking lot, then the group rolls in the bike lane all the way to school. The weekly bike bus in Orem, UT, follows a route with planned stops along the way, growing in size until the riders gather for a few snacks before pedaling the final blocks to school. A bike bus in Portland, OR, has attracted worldwide attention and regularly features 150 riders.

A bike bus can be small and informal with a few families riding together, or it can be more complex and attract many riders. All bike buses offer an active, social, and fun way to travel to school that helps communities envision streets where people can walk and bike, not just drive.

[Source]

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Responsive Parenting May Help Reduce Behaviors Linked to Childhood Obesity

August 18, 2025, The Pennsylvania State University

One in five children in the United States has obesity, which is a significant predictor of chronic health problems later in life. Infants who gain excessive weight prior to their second birthday are at an increased risk of developing obesity in childhood, especially those who are encouraged to finish all of their food even after expressing fullness, according to researchers from the Penn State Department of Nutritional Sciences and Geisinger College of Health Sciences. The research team recently demonstrated that mothers who received responsive parenting guidance better identified and responded to their children’s needs and reported fewer behaviors that could contribute to their child’s risk for obesity.

The study  — led by Yining Ma, nutritional sciences doctoral student, Jennifer Savage Williams, professor of nutritional sciences and director of the Center for Childhood Obesity Research, and Lisa Bailey-Davis, professor of population health sciences and the director of the Center for Women’s & Children’s Research at Geisinger College of Health Sciences — was published in Pediatric Obesity.

“Responsive parenting helps moms and caregivers to be in tune with their baby and correctly identify their baby’s needs to respond in a supportive and nurturing way,” Ma said. “For new parents, recognizing signs of hunger or tiredness in their baby can be challenging. When these cues are missed or misread, it can sometimes lead to overfeeding, which may contribute to excessive weight gain.”

The researchers used data from 288 mother-infant pairs from low-income households in the Women, Infants, and Children Enhancements to Early Healthy Lifestyles for Baby (WEE Baby) Care study, a clinical trial led by Savage Williams and Bailey-Davis that tested how integrated care between pediatricians and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutritionists supported educating mothers in responsive parenting.

Mothers in the six-month-long study received either the responsive parenting intervention with coordinated care between pediatricians and WIC nutritionists or standard care at well-child visits. The responsive parenting intervention included guidance on infant feeding, soothing, sleep and interactive play. Mothers in both groups completed a lifestyle risk assessment at the infant’s two-month and six-month wellness visits, answering questions about their infants’ feeding practices, obesity-promoting risk behaviors, sleep, interactive parent-child play, appetite traits and relationship with caregiver. The results of these assessments were integrated into the electronic health records to facilitate personalized counseling for the mothers.

“The Early Healthy Lifestyles (EHL) Screening tool used to assess lifestyle risk allowed us to target a combination of obesity risk behaviors at developmentally relevant times to better help mothers with their unique needs rather than focusing on a single behavior,” Bailey-Davis said.

Mothers who received the responsive parenting intervention were found to be less likely to pressure their infant to finish a bottle, put their child to bed after 8 p.m. and to use devices like a smartphone or TV when feeding or playing with their child. They also reported fewer nighttime feedings. The authors developed a total obesity risk behavior score for all mother-infant pairs, finding that those in the intervention group had significantly lower scores at two months compared to those receiving standard care, though this difference was not seen at six months.

“Our main finding demonstrated the effectiveness of responsive parenting behaviors for reducing the obesity-promoting risk for children during the first two months of infancy,” Savage Williams said. “The education that WEE Baby Care’s intervention provided helped mothers better understand their baby’s cues and needs and how to respond appropriately to them.”

The researchers also noted that this study demonstrated the effectiveness of using coordinated care across healthcare settings to reduce obesity risk during infancy.

The research team plans to continue investigating the utility of the EHL risk assessment tool as a practical resource for practitioners to identify obesity risk behaviors during infancy and the patterns of obesity risk behaviors on infant weight status.

“For many families, especially those with limited access to educational resources, programs like WEE Baby Care and WIC provide vital support in helping caregivers learn babies’ behavior cues and building confidence in caring for a new baby,” Ma said.

Amy Moore, assistant professor of nutritional sciences, also contributed to this research.

This study was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Maternal and Child Health Field-initiated Innovative Research Studies Program and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.

[Source]

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A Novel Culinary Medicine Service Line: Practical Strategy for Food as Medicine

August 13, 2025, The New England Journal of Medicine

Abstract

Evidence-based, practical nutrition and cooking guidance is seen as a strategy to address rising chronic disease burden. However, this resource remains limited in health care settings due to lack of time, expertise, funding, and access to registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs). To address this challenge at an academic medical center, the culinary medicine (CM) clinical service line was developed and piloted at a community clinic beginning in December 2022. This unique, billable service provided outpatient consultations with both a physician and a dietitian certified in CM. The pilot study focuses on the design and evaluation of the first 2.5 years after implementation of this novel service, specifically highlighting the patients referred to the clinic, the source of referrals, and how payers reimburse the CM service. The model was developed as an interprofessional three-arm CM clinical service line with phased implementation of three billable encounter types: electronic consults (physician to physician or RDN electronic consult), one-to-one clinic consults (patient sees physician, physician discusses with RDN, patient sees RDN), and shared medical appointments (about 10–16 patients with physician, RDN, and volunteers at a community center with a kitchen). This article provides analysis of the clinical encounter, scheduling, and billing data over 30 months for the novel one-to-one clinic consult implementation and includes description of patient demographics (age, sex, race or ethnicity), referral data, referral diagnoses, appointment scheduling, reimbursement, and participant and stakeholder experiences. Between December 2022 and May 2025, the CM clinic received 387 total referrals, with 199 completed new patient consults (54% completion rate). Primary care clinicians generated most of the referrals (88%, N=327). The mean patient age at referral was 54 years, and patients were mostly women (78%) and African American (62%). The top three referral diagnoses were hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and type 2 diabetes. The gross insurance collection rate was 99.7% for 267 initial and follow-up visits; however, the mean contractually adjusted rate as a percentage of the charge varied by payer mix, from 15.8% to 69.8%. Most visits (97%) were covered under Medicare and various managed health maintenance organization and preferred provider organization plans. Based on a follow-up survey, 92% of 49 responding patients were very satisfied or satisfied with their experience, and qualitative feedback from referring physician stakeholders described the need for CM to fill a gap in access to nutrition support for their patients. This pilot demonstrated proof of concept of a novel, insurance-reimbursable CM service line. Initial data show successful reimbursement across payer plan types for common health conditions impacted by diet. Future directions include increasing clinic capacity, understanding patient-level impacts on health behaviors and disease control, and exploring the downstream economic impacts of this service.

[Source]

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University of Hawaiʻi Researchers Discover Link Between Maternal Obesity and Autism-Like Behaviors in Offspring

August 11, 2025, EurekAlert!

In a groundbreaking study conducted at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, researchers from the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) have uncovered a mechanistic link between maternal obesity prior to pregnancy and autism-related behavioral outcomes in offspring. The study, led by Professors Dr. Alika K. Maunakea and Dr. Monika Ward from the Department of Anatomy, Biochemistry & Physiology and the Yanagimachi Institute for Biogenesis Research (YIBR), sheds new light on how maternal health even before conception can program long-term neurodevelopmental trajectories in children.

The researchers demonstrated that obesity-induced changes in the mother’s metabolic environment lead to lasting epigenetic alterations in oocytes—the precursors to eggs. These modifications, specifically changes in DNA methylation patterns, were carried into the developing embryos, ultimately disrupting the expression of critical neurodevelopmental genes such as Homer1. In male offspring, the study found increased expression of the short Homer1a isoform, known to interfere with synaptic function, resulting in behaviors consistent with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

“This work highlights how a mother’s health prior to pregnancy—not just during gestation—can shape her child’s brain development in profound ways,” said Dr. Maunakea. “We were surprised to find that even without direct maternal contact after conception, these epigenetic imprints from the egg carried enough weight to alter behavior.”

Utilizing an in vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer model, the team separated the effects of maternal obesity before conception from influences during pregnancy, enabling a more precise view of how early epigenetic programming unfolds. Behavioral tests in adolescent male mice revealed impaired social behaviors and repetitive grooming patterns reminiscent of ASD, correlating with altered gene regulation in the cortex and hippocampus.

“This discovery exemplifies the core mission of the YIBR,” said Dr. Ward. “By leveraging our institute’s expertise in developmental biology, reproductive science, and epigenetics, we are beginning to understand how early-life programming can ripple through generations.”

The Yanagimachi Institute for Biogenesis Research, named after world-renowned fertility pioneer Dr. Ryuzo Yanagimachi, fosters interdisciplinary collaboration in reproductive and developmental biology. This study, reflecting the synergy between Dr. Ward’s expertise in reproductive science and Dr. Maunakea’s research in neuroepigenetics, exemplifies the institute’s commitment to translational discoveries with long-term health implications.

With rising global rates of both obesity and ASD, these findings could open new paths for early interventions—potentially even before conception. The researchers hope future studies will explore therapeutic strategies that may reverse or mitigate these effects through nutritional or pharmacological means.

The study has been accepted for publication in Cells, a leading peer-reviewed journal, and represents a significant step forward in our understanding of how early life factors shape brain development.

[Source]

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Kids of Obese Parents More Likely to Develop Obesity Due to Inheriting Related Genes

August 5, 2025, EurekAlert!

A new study finds that kids with obesity are more likely to have obese parents because they inherit obesity-related genes, and to a smaller extent, are impacted indirectly by genes carried by the mother – even when those genes aren’t passed down. A new study led by Liam Wright of the University College London, UK, and colleagues, reports these findings August 5th in the open-access journal PLOS Genetics.

Studies commonly show that children with obesity often have parents with obesity, but the cause of this trend has been poorly understood. Children may inherit genes from their parents that increase their risk of obesity, or they could be shaped by conditions in the womb, or by the food and lifestyle choices their parents make.

In the new study, researchers investigated the effects of the parents’ genetics on the weight and diet of their children. They looked at a measure of obesity called the body mass index (BMI), along with the diet and genetic data from more than 2,500 mother-father-child trios. They focused on obesity related genes in the parents – both the ones that were directly passed down to their children, and the genes that weren’t, but that may indirectly impact weight by shaping the child’s environment, which are called genetic nurture effects. They found that, though mothers’ and fathers’ BMIs were consistently correlated with the child’s BMI, this trend could be mostly explained through the genes that children directly inherit. Genetic nurture effects from obesity-related genes in the mother that were not inherited had a smaller impact, only during the child’s adolescence.

The results suggest that a mother’s BMI may be particularly important for determining a child’s BMI, both due to the effects of genes that children directly inherit, and through indirect nurture effects from genes that weren’t passed down. Meanwhile, fathers had little impact on their child’s BMI, apart from the genes that were directly inherited. The study’s authors suggest that analyses that don’t consider the inherited genes are likely to give misleading estimates of the parents’ influence on a child’s weight.

The authors add, “Our results suggest mother’s weight could affect their children’s weight; policies to reduce obesity could have intergenerational benefits.”

[Source]

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