How would you feel if you had to pay a special tax every time you bought a sugary beverage? What if that tax money bought healthy food for local people in need?
When Boulder, Colorado passed a soda tax in 2019, the county health department saw an opportunity, as NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin reports. They wanted to help folks who don’t qualify for federal food benefits because of their immigration status, or because they earn too much money to qualify but not enough to afford fresh produce. They started Fruit and Veg Boulder, which gives vouchers to local families that can be redeemed pretty much anywhere in Boulder where fresh produce is sold.
Ana Karina Casas Ibarra, who helps run the program, immigrated years ago from a village in central Mexico with her family. "People who come from where I come from, they know how to cook from scratch – what is missing is that access to the variety of fruits and veggies," she says.
Research shows that people in programs like this tend to buy and consume more fresh produce. "There's no silver bullet to preventing diabetes or obesity or heart disease, but clearly, eating more fruits and vegetables is a good idea," says food policy and nutrition researcher Jim Krieger. Here’s how it’s working in Boulder.
Also: Millions of American families struggle to get food on the table, report finds
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Last weekend I had a front row seat to toddler behavior at my friend’s son’s first birthday party. The birthday boy and his fellow one-year-olds all essentially wanted to do the same thing, over and over and over again. Two kids were busy filling up cardboard boxes with little plastic balls, only to dump all the balls out and start all over again. Another child was mesmerized by a whack-a-mole toy. And so on.
NPR’s Rhitu Chatterjee noticed this obsession with repetition in her own three-year-old who loves doing things like watching the same video about tractors and farm equipment on loop. It turns out repetition has many functions in child development, according to education and development expert Rebecca Parlakian.
The brains of young children are very plastic. For the first few years of a child's life, the brain overproduces synapses – the connections between neurons. This allows kids to learn and develop new skills. So when they’re learning words or movements through repetition, they’re establishing neural pathways and pruning away excess synapses, says neuroscientist Charles Nelson, III. Plus when little kids repeat a behavior – like throwing balls into a box, dumping them out and filling the box again – they’re learning to predict how the world works.
Here’s why repetition is key for kids.
Plus: Baby babble isn't just goo goo! And hearing 2 languages is better than one |
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All the best,
Andrea Muraskin and your NPR Health editors |
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