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Eliminating Ultra-Processed Food From School Cafeterias Will Be Costly, Complicated, Study Warns
U.S. News & World Report reported:
It will be far from cheap or easy to eliminate ultra-processed foods from school cafeterias, a new study warns. California’s public schools are required to start phasing out ultra-processed foods starting in July 2029 under a new state law that prohibits cafeterias from serving foods high in sugar, fat, salt and food additives.
But it’s going to take more money, staff and equipment for many schools to meet that goal, researchers reported Sept. 27 in the journal Public Health Nutrition. “It’s easy to say, ‘Let’s remove ultra-processed foods from school meals,’ but school districts will likely face many challenges in implementing this policy,” senior researcher Dr. Anisha Patel, a professor of pediatrics at Stanford Medicine, said in a news release.
The state statute — called the Real Foods, Healthy Kids Act — requires schools to completely rid their menus of ultra-processed foods considered harmful to children by July 2035.
Mold and Heat Closed Pittsburgh‑Area Schools — an Expert Explains the Risks to Kids
For many southwestern Pennsylvania students, this school year has already included days away from the classroom because of the buildings themselves. Mold has closed schools in at least four districts, and early September heat pushed 35 Pittsburgh Public Schools buildings to remote learning.
The problems aren’t limited to the region: A 2025 statewide study found that environmental hazards, including mold, lead and radon, are widespread in Pennsylvania schools.
The age and upkeep of these school buildings affect students’ health and their ability to learn. Kids spend more than 1,000 hours in school each year; students tend to do better in schools with healthy indoor environments. I’m an epidemiologist who studies how environmental exposures affect health, with a focus on western Pennsylvania.
Horrifying Research Finds What Happens to 12-Year-Olds Who Get Smart Phones
New research suggests a grim consequence of giving smartphones to minors before they even hit their teen years. By analyzing an existing survey of thousands of children and teenagers in the US, the researchers found that kids who owned a smartphone by the time they were 12 years old were more likely to develop eating disorders compared to kids who didn’t own one, they reported in a new study published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Beyond the devices themselves, the findings are the latest to illustrate the perils of being exposed to social media at such a formative part of a child’s life. “A smartphone can put a world of appearance-focused content in a young person’s pocket,” exposing them to images and messages that may foster unhealthy eating behaviors, lead author Jason Nagata, an adolescent medicine specialist at the University of California San Francisco, told CNN.
“It’s important for parents to be aware that getting a smartphone isn’t just about the device. It can change a child’s access to different content and exposures in the digital world.” To study the impact of young smartphone ownership, the researchers analyzed a widely cited cognitive development survey of thousands of schoolchildren. A full 70 percent of the participants, or over 6,200 adolescents, said they already had a smartphone at 12 years old.
Type 1 Diabetes Overall, Type 2 Diabetes in Kids on the Rise
Rates of both type 1 diabetes (T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) are rising among youth in the United States, while the global T1D burden is expected to skyrocket in the coming years, data from two epidemiologic studies suggest. Results of both studies are being presented separately here at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) 2026 Annual Meeting.
The incidence of T1D in those younger than 20 years has been rising since 2014, while T2D in that age group has been increasing steadily — and at a higher rate than T1D, since 2003 — said epidemiologist Tessa Crume, PhD, of the Colorado School of Public Health, Aurora.
“What’s going on in Colorado is not unique to Colorado,” she told Medscape Medical News. “This has been happening at a larger scale throughout the United States…It points to the importance of screening teens for metabolic health.”
Screen Time Linked to Poorer Academic Performance, More Emotional Problems in Kids and Youth
Greater exposure to screen-based media was associated with lower academic achievement, poorer language development, as well as more emotional, peer, and behavioral problems among children and adolescents.
Researchers conducted a quantitative umbrella review of 23 meta-analyses involving more than 2.8 million children and adolescents aged 18 years or younger across 64 countries.
Exposure measures captured the duration of screen use per day in minutes or hours across device types, such as television, smartphones, video games, and social media.
Outcomes included academic functioning, cognitive skills, socioemotional development, and mental health symptoms.
Middle-Schoolers Are Seeking Out AI Friends Instead of Real Human Ones
The Wall Street Journal reported:
Mileva Repasky was worried about her 12-year-old daughter Madelyn. The typically chipper sixth-grader had grown moody and quiet. On the way home from dance practice one day in May, she learned why. Madelyn told her she had been talking to someone online. She was nervous that her mom would be mad. Mileva’s heart sank.
Every parent’s nightmare is that their child is communicating with a predatory adult.
“It’s not a person, it’s a chatbot,” Mileva recalls her daughter saying. Mileva, a mother of four in Phoenixville, Pa., wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or even more concerned.
She had read the headlines about adults and teens who suffered delusions and formed unhealthy attachments to chatbots, sometimes subsequently taking their own lives.
Now, even younger children are getting hooked on chatbots.
Mom Realizes 6-Year-Old Can’t Bear Clothes on Skin — Then Her Eyes Went Dark
When my family first moved to the small town we now call home in Monmouth County, it felt like we were building the life we had always wanted with our young daughter, Seramina. We were enjoying establishing new traditions and watching her grow and evolve. It felt like there was always something to look forward to.
Our daughter thrived academically. She was curious, social, and deeply passionate about nature. She loved to sing and wanted to try everything at least once. She had an enthusiasm for the world that made people around her smile. There was no reason to worry. We were simply excited about our future.
When she was six, she began tugging at her clothing and complaining about how things felt on her skin. The behavior became distressing, but our pediatrician reassured me it was normal and would pass. Her confidence was a relief to me. But it didn’t pass. The sensory issues worsened.
