Kids' path to healthy eating goes through home, school
JEANINE STICE
July 24, 2006
Robbie Miller has a good point. In a letter to the editor titled "Parents, not schools, are at fault for youth obesity," Miller states, "Solving obesity begins at home."
Still, good efforts made at home must be reinforced, not contradicted, in the schools. That is why the recommended wellness policy, which I helped draft as a member of the Salem-Keizer School District's Nutrition Task Force, is needed.
Federal law requiring the policy was passed last year primarily in response to concerns from the Centers of Disease Control, the surgeon general and the medical community about rising childhood-obesity rates.
Research has shown that what kids and adults eat is inconsistent with the U.S. dietary guidelines. Good intentions at home, where parents offer milk, juice or water most of the time, haven't been the same at school.
Once kids hit middle and high school, healthy choices compete against sweetened drinks and other nutrient-light, calorie-laden snacks. Chances are the child will push the button for the jingle that comes to mind, rather than the milk mustache. Healthier snack options have never been heavily advertised to our kids, a fact that parents and schools are up against.
In a report by the Institute of Medicine, at least 30 percent of the calories in the average child's diet comes from sweets, soft drinks, salty snacks and fast foods. Nationally, pediatricians note that it is typical to see overweight children consuming 1,200 to 2,000 calories per day from soft drinks.
For many Salem-Keizer students, at least two meals per day are eaten at school, either from the food-service program or the vending machines. Food records I obtained in 2005 from 50 Salem-Keizer students showed overwhelming consumption of lemonade, punch and carbonated drinks rather than milk, water or juice.
Also, the idea that marketing in schools and on television is not to blame "cannot be rejected," the institute's report says.
Child-targeted marketing works. American children spend close to $30 billion of their own money each year on these grab-and-go food products. Schools are making money -- but at what price?
Of the 600 or so new children's-food products that hit the market during the past decade, most were high in sodium and in sugar and low in micronutrients supporting brain development and normal growth. Promoting convenient consumption of these junk foods in school does nothing to promote our kids' nutritional status. It might, in fact, sabotage efforts at improving academic achievement.
The federally mandated wellness policy recommended by the Nutrition Task Force and the Superintendent's Executive Cabinet received support from the medical, dental, child-advocacy and parental communities during open forums held in November. It aims to change the status quo, not the availability of vending machines. Schools still will be plugged in, but what's pushed and poured out will be different.
Youths will quench their thirst and stop their growling stomachs with noncarbonated drinks such as flavored milk, water, juice or juice blends that contain at least 50 percent juice and foods that meet the following criteria:
1) single serving size;
2) provide a maximum of 300 calories per serving with no more than 30 percent of the calories derived from fat and no more than 10 percent from saturated fat (excluding nuts, seeds and peanut-butter products, which naturally have more fat);
3) no more than 35 percent of product weight from added sugars during the school day and between 400 and 600 milligrams of sodium.
Because you can't digest percentage points, examples of the types of foods and drinks that might be available in student stores and vending shelves include drinks such as Tropicana juice blends, V8 Splash products and my son's favorite, chocolate milk. Joining them will be a wide variety of granola and cereal bars, cheese-and-peanut-butter cracker snacks, cheese-and-wheat crackers, cookies, maybe even PowerBars.
Snack companies won't forfeit the cash cow of the children's market, so they have been powering up their product line of healthier foods in the past year. It's exciting so see healthy options become convenient.
It's even better to see the government go beyond just studying problems and calling kids fat. Requiring communities to get involved and do something to support parental efforts to change a child's life may actually make a difference.
Jeanine Stice of Salem is the mother of three young sons, has a master's degree in public health and is a registered dietitian. Her column appears every other Monday.
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