Katie Tiedt: Fight against obesity starts with healthy school menus
A letter to the editor
Dear Editor: The Madison Board of Education passed a wellness policy that bans all soda and candy from Madison schools and school-related activities.
The policy states candy and soda have to be removed from all vending machines and no candy can be used as rewards in the classroom.
After Sept. 1, 2008, no candy will be sold for fundraising. The school board is trying to help prevent obesity, but just getting rid of soda and candy isn't going to prevent obesity. The school lunches need to be healthy and parents need to be better role models for eating healthy.
School lunches consist of French fries, burgers, pizza, chicken fingers, nachos, chocolate chip cookies, puppy chow, sub sandwiches, taco salads and other choices. Most of these choices are not healthy.
Some high school students have open campus where they have McDonald's, Taco Bell, Taco John's, Burger King and other fast-food restaurants to choose from.
In addition to getting rid of the candy and soda, and improving the school menu, they need to change the open campus to a closed campus. Parents also need to help prevent obesity by making homemade meals where the kids have to eat fruits or vegetables.
Parents need to cut down on takeouts from restaurants and taking their kids to fast-food restaurants. Parents, schools and students need to help solve the obesity problem by having a healthy menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Katie Tiedt
Madison
Published: December 5, 2006
Childhood Obesity Fight Starts at School