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Purpose: The objective of this secondary analysis is to describe the types of commercial complementary foods (CCF) consumed by infants and young children enrolled in the European Childhood Obesity Project (CHOP), to describe the contribution of CCF to dietary energy intakes and to determine factors associated with CCF use over the first 2 years of life. Methods: The CHOP trial is a multicenter intervention trial in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Spain that tested the effect of varying levels of protein in infant formula on the risk for childhood obesity. Infants were recruited from October 2002 to June 2004. Dietary data on CCF use for this secondary analysis were taken from weighted, 3-day dietary records from 1088 infants at 9 time points over the first 2 years of life. Results: Reported energy intakes from CCF during infancy (4–9 months) was significantly higher (p ≤ 0.002) amongst formula-fed children compared to breastfed children. Sweetened CCF intakes were significantly higher (p ≤ 0.009) amongst formula-fed infants. Female infants were fed significantly less CCF and infant age was strongly associated with daily CCF intakes, peaking at 9 months of age. Infants from families with middle- and high-level of education were fed significantly less quantities of CCF compared to infants with parents with lower education. Sweetened CCF were very common in Spain, Italy and Poland, with over 95% of infants and children fed CCF at 9 and 12 months of age consuming at least one sweetened CCF. At 24 months of age, 68% of the CHOP cohort were still fed CCF. Conclusions: CCF comprised a substantial part of the diets of this cohort of European infants and young children. The proportion of infants being fed sweetened CCF is concerning. More studies on the quality of commercial complementary foods in Europe are warranted, including market surveys on the saturation of the Western European market with sweetened CCF products., SCOPUS: ar.j, DecretOANoAutActif, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Nikolaos Maniadakis,1 Vasiliki Kapaki,1,2 Louiza Damianidi,3Georgia Kourlaba4 1Department of Health Services Organization and Management, National School of Public Health, Athens, 2University of Peloponnese, Peloponnese, 3Department of Allergy, Second Pediatric Clinic, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens School of Medicine, Athens, 4The Stavros Niarchos Foundation – Collaborative Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Outcomes Research (CLEO), First and Second Departments of Pediatrics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens School of Medicine, Athens, Greece Background: As part of the efforts to curb obesity, a new focus seems to be put on taxing foods that are perceived as being associated with obesity (eg, sugar-sweetened beverages and foods high in fat, sugar, and salt content) as a policy instrument to promote healthier diets.Objective: To assess the possible effects of such taxation policies by identifying and analyzing all studies which investigate the impact of price increases on consumption, caloric intake, or weight outcomes.Methods: Electronic data bases were searched with appropriate terms and their combinations. Thereafter, abstracts were reviewed and studies were selected based on predefined criteria. The characteristics of the selected studies and the results were extracted in a special form and consequently were reviewed and synthesized.Results: Price increase may lead to a reduction in consumption of the targeted products, but the subsequent effect on caloric intake may be much smaller. Only a limited number of the identified studies reported weight outcomes, most of which are either insignificant or very small in magnitude to make any improvement in public health.Conclusion: The effectiveness of a taxation policy to curb obesity is doubtful and available evidence in most studies is not very straightforward due to the multiple complexities in consumer behavior and the underling substitution effects. There is need to invest