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Ultraprocessed Food Intake Tied to High Asthma Risk in Kids
Children who consumed 30% or more of total energy from ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) had a nearly fourfold higher risk of developing asthma during the early school years than peers who consumed less; no significant association was observed between the consumption of UPFs and the risk for other allergic diseases. Researchers sought to determine whether high childhood intake of UPFs increased the risk of developing asthma and other allergic diseases later in life.
They analyzed data on 691 children (mean age, 4.86 years; 52.5% girls) from the SENDO cohort whose intake of UPFs was grouped into tertiles. The lowest tertile (T1) comprised children who consumed less than 30% of total energy from UPFs and was compared with a combined category of the highest intake tertiles (T2+T3; 30% or more of total energy from UPFs).
Dietary data were collected using a validated food frequency questionnaire at baseline, and children were followed up for a mean duration of 3.4 years. “Our findings suggest that UPF consumption could represent a particularly potent modifiable risk factor for childhood asthma in specific populations or contexts,” the authors wrote.
The MAHA Movement Is Coming to School Cafeterias. Here’s What That Means for Kids
In a social media era rife with mouthwatering food content, kids will no longer settle for a drab school meal. “I don’t have a TikTok account, but they’re telling me, ‘Hey, I saw this on TikTok. Can you make this? Can we do this?'” said Nichole Taylor, supervisor of food and nutrition services at the Great Valley School District in Malvern, Pennsylvania.
“I would have never asked my lunch lady to make something special for me. I would’ve just ate what they told me,” she said, adding that the students are “very engaged.” Taylor has been working to refresh the suburban Philadelphia district’s meal program since she took over a year and a half ago, trying to balance a desire to cook more fresh food from scratch with budget constraints and a lack of skilled labor. But now, districts like Taylor’s and others across the U.S. are waiting to see whether it will become even more expensive to prepare a meal.
That’s because in January, the Trump administration overhauled the national dietary guidelines. Announced by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., they follow the Make America Healthy Again blueprint, urging Americans to avoid highly processed foods and prioritize “high-quality, nutrient-dense” protein at every meal. Those guidelines form the basis of federal nutrition standards that schools participating in federal meal programs must follow.
Kids Are in a ‘Reading Recession,’ as Test Scores Continue to Decline
Before every important test, teacher Nancy Barajas dims the lights, turns on a disco ball and blasts music from her playlist. Her sixth graders dance together as a “pre-celebration” to boost their confidence, then take their exam.
Lately, there’s been a lot to celebrate in elementary schools in Modesto, California. Both reading and math scores have increased consistently over the past several years.
But across the country, results are gloomier. Researchers warn that the U.S. is experiencing a reading recession — a slide predating the pandemic’s disruptions in schooling.
Scholars at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth analyzed state test scores from third to eighth grade for over 5,000 school districts in 38 states, allowing comparisons across school districts and states in a national Education Scorecard. What they found was sobering: Only five states plus the District of Columbia had meaningful growth in reading test scores from 2022 to 2025. Nationally, students remain nearly half a grade level behind pre-pandemic reading scores and only slightly better in math.
Teen Depression Linked With Higher Substance Use Rates
Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. adolescents experienced depression between 2021 and 2023, and those teens were significantly more likely to use substances such as alcohol, marijuana and opioids, according to a new national study.
Andrew Yockey, a University of Mississippi assistant professor of public health, and graduate student Aminul Apu found that adolescents struggling with depression are more likely to use substances. Their study, published in the Journal of Medicine, Surgery and Public Health, underscores the need to treat mental health and substance use together, rather than as separate issues.
“Research shows that depression will be the top contributor to mortality by 2030, and we know it is affecting adolescents,” Yockey said. “Depression is something that we have pharmacologically studied for years, but in this study, we wanted to look at the shifting patterns and correlations between depression and drug use.
AI Driving Rise in Child Sexual Abuse Material Cases, North Dakota Investigator Says
A member of the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation told state lawmakers Wednesday the agency needs more tools to address a rise in child sexual exploitation involving images generated by artificial intelligence.
“Child exploitation has always existed, but what AI has done is made it faster, easier and more scalable while making it harder for us to detect and investigate,” Cassidy Halseth, commander for the North Dakota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force said.
The BCI received about 2,700 online tips in 2025 about child sexual abuse material, a record for the department. Many of the cases involved AI-assisted exploitation.
