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There’s a lot of talk about the 2012 Olympics in London as the city seeks the nod. Local authorities are using that buzz to build some buzz of their own around an initiative to get kids moving and combat rising obesity rates there. The program, called Fit for London 2012, will highlight to children the benefits of regular exercise—at least 60 minutes a day—at such things as walking, cycling and swimming. We tip our lids to our friends across the pond!
Stonyfield's got its own sort of kid fit program, Good2Go, which has been running in one school district in Rhode Island this spring.
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In Iowa, they’re planning on turning off the vending machines for the school day, but leave them dispensing junk food and soda during after-school hours. Items with high sugar or high sodium content cannot be sold during school hours. Iowa schools have been working toward offering more healthy food in the machines and considering a ban in recent years. In defending the after-school snack policy, one school board member noted that everyone who comes into the school should have freedom of choice in their snack purchases. "Adults should be able to choose their snacks and beverages. Whether it sets a good example for kids - that's up to the families," Ward said.
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One television station in Ohio set out to find out why more salad bars aren’t offered in neighboring schools, as an alternative to the “French fries, nachos, pizza” that is the usual lunchroom fare there. What they discovered—not surprisingly—is 1) fresh food costs more and 2) schools would be at greater financial risk if students did not take to the salad offerings. One nutritionist explained, the federal government reimburses schools 21 cents for every regular-priced meal it serves (higher for free- or reduced-price lunches for students with low incomes). But, on that 21 cents, a food service director can feed more kids French fries than salads. Is the answer here in the federal government? Should we all be lobbying for more than 21 cents per meal?
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The state of Connecticut is making headlines this week as they appear to be poised to pass one of the strongest "junk food laws" in the nation. The state house there has voted to ban junk food from school vending machines, cafeterias and school stores, in an effort to curb the growing girth of its students. It's big news because the proposed law is very broad and it applies to all grades, whereas many districts across the nation have passed similar, but limited, bans. The bill passed by the house also requires 20 minutes of physical activity for children from kindergarten through fifth grade, in addition to regular physical education classes. Pundits say the bill is likely to pass the Connecticut senate this week. A critic of the bill points out that the ban may be bogus, because cafeteria's will still be allowed to serve their usual cheeseburgers, nachos, pizza, and fries.
What do you think? Does the Connecticut bill go too far? Not far enough?
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You don't have to eat meat today!
That's just one message of the Meatless Monday campaign, a national public health initiative to prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer - four of the leading causes of death in America. Going meatless is a great way to reduce consumption of saturated fat, and reducing saturated fat is a great way to build a diet that might prevent those common health problems. Since reducing saturated fat is a key recommendation from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, and the American Heart Association, why not start children off on the right eating habits?
The Meatless Monday goal is to reduce consumption of saturated fat by at least 15 percent by 2010.
To help eaters go meatless at least once a week, the Meatless Monday campaign has put together a great website and newsletter with recipes to follow. Here's one section featuring healthy sandwiches.
Meatless Monday is a nonprofit organization working in association with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Twenty-eight other public health schools are also supporting the campaign, including Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.
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Teens who regularly sit down to dinner with their families are less likely to use drugs and alcohol, suffer from depression, and consider or attempt suicide, according to a University of Minnesota study out last year. Need we say more? We already knew family meals help kids eat better and learn good eating habits. This study also suggested that family meal-sharing turns into higher grade-point averages, especially among teen girls. So…maybe skipping a soccer practice or two…leaving work a little early…banning meals on the go…all that would go a long way toward healthier families.
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It used to be that students earned pizza parties for reading a lot of books, or donut days for turning in assignments on time. Now in Buffalo, New York, they're handing out prizes to kids who eat the most carrots. Well..not exactly that way. But the school lunch lady is suddenly keeping track of which students put which fruits and vegetables on their trays, and rewarding them at the end of the week with prizes like key chains or bracelets. The schools got a grant to help afford the more expensive wider variety of fruits and vegetables that food service personnel want to add to the lunch line. We tip our lids to these courageous food service personnel in Buffalo.
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Up in Kodiak, Alaska, the school board has decided to form a task force to study the issue of junk food vending in public schools. A group of public health and school nurses has urged policy makers to take a look at the school’s current vending practices, and wrote, “It is inappropriate to offer empty nutrition as an ongoing choice (to school students).”
The challenge will be to pass such a ban when the vending machines provide much-needed revenues. Seven vending machines in the Kodiak High School, for example, rake in $19,000 that goes to fund student travel to athletic competitions. Check out our own efforts to put some healthy vending in to the schools of America.
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We were somewhat taken aback by this story out of New York where the schools are admitting to keeping kids indoors to watch videos, rather than giving them recesses outdoors. It's a complicated set of scenarios that make this into what appears to be a growing trend, but the bottom line is that kids aren't getting outside, even now that spring is here. With so much pressure on teachers' time and school budgets, we know everything is a balancing act--yet shouldn't physical education in some form be a part of every child's school day?
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Food chains Quiznos, Jason's Deli and Fazoli's join Legal Sea Foods, Ruby Tuesday and Au Bon Pain in stripping items laden with trans fats from their menus. Trans fat is found in vegetable oils, shortening and some margarines, among other things, and is something food manufacturers use to increase and improve a food’s shelf life. Trans fat is the culprit in raising LDL cholesterol level (the “bad” cholesterol), which leads to an increased risk of coronary heart disease. Soon food makers will be required to list trans-fat content on their food labels, probably why the restaurants noted above are already moving in that direction. Trans fats, found mostly in vegetable oils and shortening and some margarine, result when food manufacturers process oil for shelf life and flavor stability. Check out BanTransFat.com.
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One month after agreeing to a new diet, three disruptive students at a special school in Manchester, England, are no longer disruptive! Their concentration is better, and they are more sociable. The boys were hand-picked by an expert after he discovered the boys were consuming something like 100 teaspoons of sugar a day (as hidden sugars in the food they consumed). One expert concludes: "These kids were digging their own graves with a knife and fork. We're seeing outrageous imbalances in brain chemistry caused by the kinds of foods that sadly millions of kids are eating, and no one's doing anything about it."
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