Print

Mail

wiki links

Chocolate is out in US' battle against childhood obesity

Freshmen or new pupils at the Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda in the US state of Maryland are welcomed with a big celebration on their first day at school.

The school, with around 2,000 students and an excellent educational reputation, greets the mostly 14-year-old pupils with a "pizza party." And in the canteen they will find their favorite food -- chips, hamburgers and greasy chicken nuggets.

They can get chocolate bars, chips and lemonade at kiosks and from the vending machines -- only Coke is banned because it "makes the kids nervous," says school management.

Although the public health issue of obesity is being fought with national campaigns, most schools provide popular fattening foods.

Fast food chains like McDonald's or Pizza Hut often have branches in schools, where many children spend their afternoons.

The canteens do offer salads, yoghurt and fruit juice along with high calorie classics, but that doesn't affect the dominance of fast food.

"We are killing our children with this food," thunders the Texan Department of Agriculture commissioner, Susan Combs, a pioneer in the US fight for healthy food in schools.

Not even homemade brownies are allowed into Texan schools.

But that is not typical of the US. Since 1970, the number of overweight children has doubled or even trebled according to a study by the Institute of Medicine commissioned by the US Congress.

About 9 million US schoolchildren are overweight or about 15 percent of children. Other studies put it at around 40 percent.

"The epidemic spread of obesity among children is increasing much faster than predicted," says the director of the independent Center for Health in Arkansas, Joe Thompson.

At the same time, there is less and less sport at school. More than 40 percent of schoolchildren have no sport at school at all, according to Time magazine, and only 6 percent have sport every day.

Part of the problem seems to be the increasing pressure on kids.

"There is a clear change of culture, from an early age it is about academic ability and achievement. Simple children's activities are being squeezed out," says Rhonda Clements, president of the Society for the Right of Children to Play.

The younger generation has more and more stress "and stuffing themselves is one answer," she said.

The reality in US schools is often very different to those of the health ministry. There are basic rules for school canteens, but most schools can only warm food up instead of cooking it. Often the budget is less than one dollar per pupil.

"The war against obesity," Combs says, has started though.

Twenty-one of 50 US states have passed laws restricting the installation of soft drink and sweet machines in schools. Campaigns and new ideas for canteens, as in California, New York or Washington, are supposed to lead children to healthier diets.

In Arkansas, children are weighed every year and their parents informed of the result. Minneapolis has a more capitalist approach -- mineral water and muesli bars are cheap, sweetened soft drinks and chocolate snacks are hidden away and expensive.

"Money is a great motivator," enthuses Simone French of the University of Minnesota.

Recently a broad alliance of politicians has formed to fight youth obesity, which includes former president Bill Clinton and the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But one should not underestimate the opposition. The food industry invest more than 10 billion dollars on advertising targeting children every year, according to the Institute of Medicine.

School principals are interested in sweet and soft drink machines because the licenses help with tight budgets for the library, school trips and cultural programs.

And many educationalists oppose a "nutrition police" in schools.
This story has been viewed 2893 times.