Eating SmartEating SmartBy Debra Gibbons, R.D.
The nation has a growing problem-the rising number of overweight and obese children.
Overweight children are more likely to become overweight adults. Overweight children are at a high risk of developing adult disease at an early age. Once upon a time it was very rare to find a child with high cholesterol or type-2 diabetes, but now they are developing these conditions in ever-increasing numbers. This is a complex problem with no simple answer but awareness of what is happening alerts us that changes in our community are needed to help our children.
Our children spend a great deal of their time in school. Schools play a powerful role in influencing children's choices, including food. Making changes in the school's environment could help facilitate healthier food and beverage selections.
Some schools have started to adjust cafeteria menus by lowering the salt, as well as saturated and trans-fat content. Offering healthier foods allows the students to make better food choices on their own.
Then there is the allure of the vending machine at which students can easily obtain candy, snack cakes and soda without asking anyone's permission. Modifying the vending machine and school store options needs to be done simultaneously to prevent students from spending their lunch money on the low-nutrition treats from the vending machine rather than the intended purpose of obtaining a nutritious school meal.
Recently a middle school teacher commented to me how she observes students buying junk food out of the vending machine at lunchtime. She testified that the soda machine was turned off during school hours, but couldn't understand why it was turned on for the students attending after-school programs. This, she felt, implied that it was okay for students to ingest these sugar-sweetened soft drinks.
The message of the need for good nutrition has to be universal as well and directed at all children regardless of their weight. Just singling out the "fatties" only serves to further damage their self-esteem, thus creating a new set of problems and can even lead to more over-eating.
Vending machines should be modified to feature choices that include fruit, yogurt, trail mix, fruit and cereal bars, pretzels, and even baked chips or crackers. They also should include lower-calorie beverages such as plain or flavored bottled water, diet soda, and sports drinks that contain less than 100 calories per 12-ounce serving.
The soda companies may argue that soda is not the cause of obesity, but there are studies that show soda as well as low-nutrition snack foods play a big role in contributing to an excessive calorie intake. Average adolescents consume 11 percent of their calories from soft drinks. For every additional serving of a sugar-sweetened drink, the odds of becoming obese are increased by 60 percent.
Just think, by drinking one 12-ounce soda daily at school you can end up gaining seven or eight pounds by summer vacation. Changing to 15-ounce bottle of fruit juice does not lower the calorie content of the drink, but stocking the vending machines with water would make a difference.
Obviously it would also be beneficial if our schools kept nutrition education as an essential component of the curriculum. But it has been disillusioning to see the decrease in physical education requirements resulting in a further decrease in activity. Children are a captive audience in our schools so shouldn't we take advantage of that and try to promote better eating habits by offering them more nutritious food and beverage choices?
Schools are one place where we get all our children together to learn the lessons of good nutrition, lessons that they should, but may not always get at home or in the community.
(Ms. Gibbons, a Registered Dietician and Certified Diabetes Educator, provides Outpatient Nutrition Medical Therapy at Cape Cod Hospital.)