EChO - Eradicate Childhood Obesity Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity based in

Cambridge, MA Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

dedicated to ending childhood obesity. Established in 2015, the foundation aims to promote healthier lifestyles through the use of nutrition education, technology, and novel, easy-to-understand food labels.

History

Founder and President

Laurent Adamowicz Laurent Adamowicz is a French businessman, entrepreneur, lecturer, author, and public health advocate. He is the founder and president of the public charity EChO – Eradicate Childhood Obesity Foundation and a member of the Harvard T.H. Chan Scho ...

established EChO - Eradicate Childhood Obesity Foundation, Inc. in 2015 with researchers and public health advocates Dr. George Blackburn
Dr. Steven Heymsfield

Eric Rimm Eric Bruce Rimm is an American nutrition scientist and epidemiologist. He is Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and director of the Harvard School of Pub ...

, and Pastor Raymond Jetson. The foundation aims to create innovative solutions to combat childhood obesity and help children build healthier lives by spreading awareness of the dangers of added sugar consumption. Adamowicz and Jetson are 2011 Senior Fellows of the Advanced Leadership Initiative at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. Since its establishment, EChO has created initiatives focused on decreasing the consumption of

processed foods Convenience food, also called tertiary processed food, is food that is commercially prepared (often through processing) to optimise ease of consumption. Such food is usually ready to eat without further preparation. It may also be easily por ...

containing added sugars, a proven contributor to childhood obesity. In 2019, EChO became a partner of the National Salt and Sugar Reduction Initiative (NSSRI).

Board of Directors and Executives

* Dr. George L. Blackburn, director (2015-2017) * Dr. Steven Heymsfield, director * Kathy McManus, director * Raymond Jetson, vice president, director *

, president and founder

The Added Sugar Repository

The Added Sugar Repository (ASR) was launched by EChO as an open source, collaborative project in 2018. The ASR is an exhaustive list that aims to contain all names of added sugar that are found to be used in food and beverage products throughout the United States. The repository was made to allow consumers to have information on what is added sugar and the different forms used by the food industry. The Added Sugar Repository is supported by

Robert Lustig Robert H. Lustig (born 1957) is an American pediatric endocrinologist. He is Professor emeritus of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he specialized in neuroendocrinology and ...

and his Sugar Project.

SugAR Poke

In June 2017, EChO- Eradicate Childhood Obesity Foundation, Inc. partnered with Pandora Reality to release a novel diet app, "SugAR Poke", free on iPhone and Android. SugAR Poke is the first public health app to utilize augmented reality (AR) technology, helping consumers make healthier food choices with better knowledge of added sugar. The demo app scans front labels of popular salad dressings to provide consumers with real-time added sugar content by superimposing an added-sugar front label on the bottle. A green label means that there is no added sugar in the product. A black label appears over the product if it contains added sugar, displaying the number of teaspoons of added sugar in the entire bottle. Founder and President Laurent Adamowicz introduced SugAR Poke at th
AR in Action
Conference at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

, followed by the launch of a Kickstarter campaign to allow for full development of the app. Eventually, the fully developed app will include all processed foods sold in the United States and a gaming component to better educate children on the dangers of added sugar.

Other Initiatives

Added Sugar Front Label Initiative and Study

The Added Sugar Front Label Initiative proposes added sugar front labels displaying the quantity of added sugar in processed goods. This aims to decrease consumption of added sugar and prevent childhood obesity.The Influence of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Health Warning Labels on Parents’ Choices Christina A. Roberto, Diandra Wong, Aviva Musicus, David Hammond Pediatrics Jan 2016, peds.2015-3185; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2015-3185 A research component to the initiative will pilot-test added sugar labels to prove the ability to influence food-purchasing behavior via a large-scale study conducted at food retailers and/or public school vending machines in the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

area.

Principal Investigators for Added Sugar Front Label Study

* Rania Mekary, MSc, Ph.D.
Christina A. Roberto
Ph.D.

Universal Cooking and Nutrition Education (U-CANE)

EChO - Eradicate Childhood Obesity Foundation, Inc. is an avid promoter of cooking and nutrition education for all, especially children. EChO launched the Universal Cooking and Nutrition Education (U-CANE) movement to encourage the U.S. public school system to reform their curriculum to include mandatory cooking and nutrition classes from kindergarten to medical school.

References

{{reflist 501(c)(3) organizations