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The Clout of RI Kids Count: Is It Time to Lead on Ultra-Processed Foods?
November 24, 2025/
Today, as RI Kids Count gathers to celebrate three decades of progress in children’s health and wellbeing, and present awards to those who lead the way, a new question sits in the backdrop: Who will take the lead on the food-quality crisis that is now driving childhood obesity higher than hunger, for the first time in history?
Today, RI Kids Count will hold an event to celebrate successes and give out recognitions.The Celebration of Children’s Health & Well-Being will reflect on the progress that Rhode Island has made in achieving positive health outcomes for children. The event highlights policy measures to keep children healthy, and underscored the important role that youth, parents, and other community members play in achieving important policy changes that support children’s health.
The RI Kids Count FactBook, published each year is a key planning document for state departments and others to track children’s issues over time.
As part of today’s event, there will be a powerpoint presentation.
A presentation from 2024, A Celebration of Children’s Health and Well-Being, – can be accessed HERE. Two charts of interest to our discussion about the food our children are eating and the result childhood obesity and being overweight are here:
Most notably on the list is the last measure – for Four Core Cities where percentages have risen from 15% to 22% to 37%. Given that was 2 years ago, we’d expect the rate today to be higher than that.
RINewsToday asked RI Kids Count if they will be addressing some of the proposals of the new administration in Washington, mostly led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Sect. of the US Dept. of Health and Human Services around food, removing food dyes and additives, addressing ultra-processed foods, improving the school lunch program, etc.
The mission of Rhode Island KIDS COUNT is to improve the health, safety, education, economic well-being, and development of Rhode Island’s children with a commitment to equity and the elimination of unacceptable disparities by race, ethnicity, disability, zip code, immigration status, neighborhood, and income.
In this data report we searched for – “food – nutrition – diet – fast food – ultraprocessed food” – etc. But could not find them, though there are the words “obesity and overweight”. This is not meant to be hypercritical of RI Kids Count, and their work, for data-gathering is critical, as witnessed in the two charts, above. We encourage the group to put their substantial power and political clout behind the new wave that is coming, and here already – to improve our food supply, and particularly that of our children, as well as marketing tactics being used to target them.
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A major new Series published this week in The Lancet, a well respect professional medial journal is sounding an urgent alarm about the global rise of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and their impact on children’s health. While the analysis spans countries and income levels worldwide, its warnings resonate here in Rhode Island, where families, schools, and pediatric practices are already grappling with many of the same challenges. The report’s data — from UNICEF and leading nutrition researchers — paints a stark picture of how deeply UPFs have penetrated children’s diets and what governments must do to address the mounting health consequences.
“For more than two centuries, The Lancet has sought to address urgent topics in our society, initiate debate, put science into context, and influence decision makers around the world. The Lancet Group has evolved as a family of journals but retains at its core the belief that medicine must serve society, knowledge must transform society, and the best science must lead to better lives.”
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are everywhere. Our supermarket aisles, billboards, and offline and online media are filled with brightly coloured packages of sweet and savoury snacks, baked goods, ready meals, and sugar-sweetened beverages. Given their ubiquity and cheap price, it’s unsurprising that the share of UPFs in diets has increased worldwide in the past few decades.
According to UNICEF’s 2025 Child Nutrition Report, 60% of adolescents globally and more than 50% of children aged 6–23 months in 13 of 20 low-income and middle-income countries surveyed consumed a sweet beverage or food in the previous day. In some high-income countries, UPFs now account for at least half of total energy intake among adolescents. As a new Lancet Series highlights, diets high in UPFs are linked to overeating, poor nutritional quality, and exposure to harmful chemicals and additives.
Under the Nova classification, UPFs are branded, commercial formulations made from cheap ingredients (eg, refined fats and sugars, protein isolates) and combined with food additives (eg, dyes, artificial sweeteners, emulsifiers) to make the final product look, feel, sound, smell, and taste good. They are designed and marketed to displace fresh and minimally processed foods and traditional meals, maximising corporate profits over health and nutrition.
Although more research in children is needed, UPF consumption has been associated with cardiometabolic risk markers such as increased bodyweight, fat mass, waist circumference, and blood lipid abnormalities. The hyper-palatability and soft texture of UPFs create products that shape children’s appetitive traits and preference for these foods for life.
In adults, high exposure to UPFs is known to increase risks of overweight or obesity, chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension, and all-cause mortality.
Navigating the current food environment—dominated by the economic power and political influence of transnational corporations—is an uphill battle for individual consumers. Governments must set ambitious and comprehensive policies to restrict the marketing, availability, and affordability of UPFs, and a coordinated global response is needed to confront such corporate influence.
Child-focused policies should ban UPF marketing to all children younger than 19 years, including on digital spaces, and restrict UPFs in school meals and environments. Expanding front-of-package warning labels on unhealthy foods and stricter regulations on nutrient and health claims are needed to help young people and parents make informed choices.
A key gap in regulations is baby and toddler foods and beverages, many of which are ultra-processed and have high sugar content (often in the form of fruit juices or purees but marketed as natural and healthy).
Importantly, there must be complementary policies to support the production, availability, and affordability of fresh and minimally processed foods, including in ready-to-consume or ready-to-heat forms, to provide healthy alternatives that are compatible with busy lifestyles.
Child health professionals have a key role in helping families navigate dietary choices in a balanced and non-judgmental way. They can educate parents about the health impact of UPFs and the tactics of food companies—that children’s preference for UPFs is not a parenting failure but by design these foods are engineered to be hyper-palatable.
They can also provide easy-to-follow advice on identifying UPFs versus healthier options and preparing simple, nutritious meals at home. Weaning is a sensitive window where pediatricians can challenge beliefs that young children need to be given baby or toddler food, review the home food environment, and encourage parents to provide age-appropriate whole foods, which are cheaper and more nutritious.
While recognizing that convenience food is often unavoidable in busy households, pediatricians can help parents set small, achievable goals (eg, not buying sugar-sweetened beverages for a week) and empower parents to set boundaries—for example, not having UPFs at home or visiting a fast food restaurant (covert restriction) is often easier than saying no to children in front of their favorite snacks (overt restriction).
2025 marks the turning point where the prevalence of obesity among 5–19 year olds surpassed underweight (9·4% vs 9·2%) for the first time globally. The wide availability, affordability, and aggressive marketing of UPFs to children is putting a whole generation’s health at risk.
Governments must tackle the UPF industry head on with decisive and meaningful action.
We cannot allow commercial interests and profits to dominate children’s diets—from first tastes to lifelong habits—at the expense of their health and wellbeing.
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Rhode Island has an opportunity to lead.
How often has it been that food companies such as Coca-Cola would test their products here – why not test a brave new world of healthy food here, with our children the winning recipients? With strong public-health voices, engaged school districts, active pediatric practices, and a statewide commitment to child wellbeing, we can push for the policies that protect families from a food environment stacked against them.
Local initiatives — from clearer food labeling to stronger limits on marketing to kids, and more support for fresh, minimally processed foods in schools and community programs — can make a meaningful difference here at home. The health of Rhode Island’s children depends on choices we make now: whether we let corporate interests continue shaping what ends up in their lunchboxes, or whether we put their wellbeing first and build a healthier path forward from infancy through adolescence.
For the first time in history, the percentage of children who are overweight now exceeds the percentage who are undernourished.
Rhode Island has an opening to lead — not someday, but now. For decades, food companies have tested new products in our state because of our size, diversity, and responsiveness. That same landscape could make us a model for the next era: one where fresh, minimally processed foods replace UPFs in school cafeterias, corner stores, and children’s lunchboxes. With their credibility, influence, and statewide reach, RI Kids Count is uniquely positioned to help drive that shift, expanding their already essential data work to include what children are actually eating and how corporate marketing is shaping those choices.
As childhood obesity overtakes hunger globally, and as federal policymakers signal a new willingness to confront dyes, additives, and aggressive marketing tactics, Rhode Island can move first — and move boldly. For 31 years, RI Kids Count has raised the alarm on issues that matter for children. This moment calls for the same courage and leadership. Our kids can’t wait.
Thank you for publicizing this! SM