August 9, 2026

by Andrea Muraskin

This week: Goldfish on the playground, Cheerios in the car, gummy worms at the sleepover. It can feel like today’s kids are munching on something at all times of day. Researchers say this snack-heavy culture is the result of decades of marketing by food companies, and it’s not good for kids’ health. Here’s how to take the reins back. And: Produce contaminated with cyclospora parasite has been making folks run for the toilet. Here’s what we know about the nauseating science behind the cyclosporiasis outbreak. Also: The men who work Appalachia’s coal mines are suffering from a resurgence of black lung disease, and regulations have not kept up.

Common advice about kids' snacking is outdated. Here's what parents should know

Cartoon: A child stands with arms lifted, ready to receive a shiny apple from a giant outstretched hand.

Michael Driver for NPR

Common advice about kids' snacking is outdated. Here's what parents should know

On a visit to the mall the other day, I found myself surrounded by snacking opportunities. There was a kiosk selling chocolates and another serving milkshakes, a candy store and even a cotton candy vending machine. Everywhere you turn, a nosh.

Psychologist Dr. Kelly Brownell says when he was a boy in the 1950s, it was a different world. On-the-go nibbling wasn’t a thing, and “nobody ate in their automobile.” he says. Kids ate three meals in a day and maybe a snack, which would be enjoyed at home.

Today, children eat about three snacks a day. They eat nearly everywhere they go, and ingest lots of ultraprocessed foods. The recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatricians is three meals plus two snacks. But even that may be too much, as NPR contributor Michaeleen Doucleff reports. That’s because advice on child nutrition comes from studies done using fruits, veggies and whole foods, says Tamara Hannon, a pediatrician at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Brownell and colleagues published a study showing that the food industry intentionally shifted the social norms around families' eating habits over the course of the 20th century. First, vending machines sprouted up in schools and public places, and ultraprocessed snacks became available at gas stations, train stations and airports. Then food companies added preservatives and designed packaging that makes it easy to carry around snacks without needing refrigeration.

As you probably can guess, the high concentrations of sugar, fat and salt in these snacks aren’t great for kids’ health. But it’s not too late to reset your child’s snacking habits, researchers say. (I know, easier said than done.) Here are some expert tips on how to do it.

🥨 Cut out snacks with high “total carbohydrate” on the label
Ultraprocessed foods don't have to be packed with added sugar to be bad for kids’ health. Cut out salty snacks like pretzels, crackers and even dried pea snacks, especially if they have a high value in the “total carbohydrate” column on the nutrition label, advises Ashley Gearhardt, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan and contributor to the new study. (As a general rule, the FDA considers a 20% daily value or more of a nutrient to be high.)

The refined starches often found in these foods act similarly to sugar in the body, triggering a blood pressure spike and setting kids up to be “in this kind of craving and crashing cycle, as sugary foods do," she says. Plus, the high levels of sodium in many of these foods have been shown to make eaters crave more.

😤 Understand that just because a child wants – or demands – a snack doesn't mean they're actually hungry
Big food companies have engineered ultraprocessed snacks to coax kids into eating even when they're not truly hungry, Duke's Kelly Brownell has found. "With these foods, their brains and guts don't behave as they should," he says. "Cues created by the food industry start to drive their eating instead of a biological need for food."

Rather than going “cold turkey” on processed snacks, parents can gradually decrease the amount of processed snacks and add in more whole foods as a replacement, Brownell says. "So give them 75% of the processed snack and 25% slices of fruit at first," he explains. Eventually, you can remove the processed stuff altogether. If you offer a whole food and your kid refuses, they’re not physiologically hungry he says – even if they insist they are.

🧀 Focus on quality and portion size rather than the number of snacks per day
In a recent study, the number of daily snacks didn't correlate with a child's risk for obesity or their diet quality, says Jennifer Orlet Fisher, a behavioral nutritionist at Temple University. But it did matter what the kids ate.

Fisher recommends sticking to whole and minimally processed foods for snacks, like produce, nuts, beans and dairy. That improves a child’s diet by increasing intake of vitamins and fibers. Keep the portion size small, adds pediatrician Tamara Hannon. "Snacks are really a piece of fruit or a vegetable, maybe with some cheese, or a banana with some nuts," she says. "They are a very small amount of food."

Read the full story for more on how industry conditioned kids to crave frequent, nutritionally poor snacks — and how to decondition yours.

Also: What we know about the health risks of ultraprocessed foods

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What Cyclospora does inside the gut and how it gets there

Cyclosporiasis is a parasitic illness caused by eating or drinking contaminated food or water.

wildpixel/Getty Images

Put down your fork — this is about to get gross. The nasty parasite-driven digestive condition cyclosporiasis isn’t new, but in the United States we’re currently experiencing the biggest outbreak on record. As of August 4, the CDC received reports of 10,468 laboratory-confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis, spanning 45 states.

NPR’s Pien Huang reports on where Cyclospora parasites come from and how they wreak havoc on human digestion.

Cyclospora like us a lot more than we like them. In fact, they rely on the human body to survive and reproduce. They form microscopic pods known as oocytes that mature while sitting around in human excrement. When traces of this excrement end up on produce like lettuce, parsley and raspberries, these hardy pods hitch a ride to their next human host.

Once swallowed, the pods “respond to signals in the gut, like body temperature, probably bile, digestive enzymes. This causes the parasites to be released," says Vernon Carruthers, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Michigan Medical School. Then the parasites head for the lining of the small intestine, where they burrow in and take over cells to make copies of themselves. "These grow from just a few of the parasites we would take in, to millions of parasites replicating inside our intestinal cells," Carruthers says.

This whole disgusting process eventually erodes the lining of the small intestine, says Joel Barratt, a molecular parasitologist and associate professor at Emory University School of Medicine. The lining can’t absorb as many nutrients, and patients experience nausea and harrowing, lingering diarrhea. Infections can last weeks or even months, and in rare cases can be deadly.

If there’s any good news here it’s that cyclosporiasis isn't typically fatal. And a combination of certain antibiotics — sold under the brand names Bactrim, Septra or Cotrim — can help by stopping the parasites from replicating and giving the immune system a better chance to clear them, Carruthers says.

Taco Bell’s shredded lettuce from Taylor Farms in central Mexico has been linked as one source of illnesses in a nine-state cluster, and Taylor Farms recalled the lettuce in mid-July. Public health authorities are still working to figure out additional sources. In North Carolina's outbreak, parsley and cilantro may be culprits, according to the state health department.

In the meantime, health officials recommend washing and/or cooking fresh vegetables.

For even more gory detail, read the full story.

Plus: Nurses chase Cyclospora using grocery receipts, food apps and detailed interviews

Black lung rates in Appalachia are high as the 1970s, with thousands of miners sick

Like many miners with advanced black lung disease, Tim Balthis looks healthy, sitting with his wife Fran Balthis on their porch in Pound, Va. But a scan of his lungs shows so much fibrotic tissue a doctor told Balthis he was surprised he was still alive.

Roger May for NPR

The number of coal miners working in the United States declined about 62.5% between 1974 and 2024, according to federal data, from over 182,000 to about 68,000, according to data from the Department of Labor. And yet the rates of black lung disease among coal miners are as high as they were 50 years ago, as Justin Hicks with the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom and Howard Berkes report. Black lung, also known as coal workers' pneumoconiosis, is fatal and incurable.

Veteran miners fare the worst. According to a new federal report, one in three miners working in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia with at least 25 years of experience test positive for the disease. The 32.5% number matches the rate for miners with the same work history in 1978. The last time this report was issued in 2018, the rate was 20.6%. Rates are climbing for miners with fewer years of experience too.

More than 1,700 coal miners died from black lung from 2020 through 2023, according to an earlier study. Charts of black lung disease rates in Appalachia show a decline in the 1990s and then a steep incline in the 2010s.

The report says worsening disease patterns are linked to coal miners’ exposure to silica dust, which has become more common on the job. In recent decades, the biggest coal seams in Appalachia were mined out. Mining companies turned to the thinner seams that remained, digging through mountains to reach and then mine them. That requires cutting lots of silica-rich rock, creating clouds of both coal dust and highly toxic silica dust.

Researchers have inspected lungs removed in autopsies and after transplantation. "We can see the silica in these lungs," says Scott Laney, an epidemiologist who contributed to the report. Silica dust is 20 times more toxic than coal dust alone and contains fine particles that are easily inhaled. Silica particles cause lungs to fight back with fibrotic tissue that builds and builds, severely inhibiting the ability to breathe.

NIOSH, the agency behind the report, recommended tougher limits on silica dust exposure all the way back in 1974. But federal controls remained the same until 2024, when the Biden administration passed new regulations. The mining industry sued, and enforcement of the new rules is indefinitely delayed.

Coal miner Tim Balthis (pictured above with his wife Fran Balthis) was diagnosed five years ago, and his labored breathing interferes with basic tasks. He carries an inhaler to get more than a few minutes of playing time with his grandchildren or even to sing at church. "I've had several doctors say that I should already be dead… And I tell them …'God's not done with me yet,' " he says.

There’s much more to this complex story. Read the full report, and see photos and data from coal country here.

Plus: Young men making quartz countertops are facing lung damage. California is taking action

Before you go:

Miles Delivers Action Coalition cofounder Margaret Reynolds, center, stands with her son Otto at a joint press conference July 24 with Maine Democratic gubernatorial candidate Hannah Pingree (left).

Elaine Appleton Grant

How a community in Maine is fighting to save their birthing center

Nicotine pouches can be marketed as “lower risk” than cigarettes. Is that dangerous?

A new flu vaccine geared to older people is coming soon

Listen or watch: The heavy weight of diet culture

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