Dr. Mercola October 30 2008 11,304 views
In an effort to combat the growing obesity problem, the school board of Neenah, Wisconsin, has banned children from bringing in sweets to share with others for birthdays and other special occasions.
Since 1980, childhood obesity rates in the U.S. have more than doubled, and adolescent obesity rates have tripled. Nationally, more than 17 percent of kids ages 6 through 19 are obese. Even more are overweight but not yet considered obese.
Studies have shown that those kids who buy lunch at school are more likely to be overweight. Neenah is hoping to promote a junk-food-free zone at school.
While I am certainly not a fan of governmental regulations, there is a proper place for government in protecting our safety. You certainly would not want your child’s school to allow alcohol or cigarettes in the lunchroom. So I believe it is a great step in the right direction to safeguard your children’s health by banning junk food.
Not only will sweets adversely affect their health, they will clearly negatively influence their ability to learn and isn’t that why they are in school in the first place?
The Obesity Epidemic is Claiming Younger and Younger Victims
Research calculations indicate that by mid-century, the growing risk of serious obesity-related illnesses like diabetes, heart disease and cancer, could lower the current average life expectancy of about 78 years by as much as five years. This statistic is a reversal of a trend that in 2002 promised a life span of 100 years by mid-century.
Even more concerning for parents: the unprecedented increase in childhood obesity may have already shortened children’s lives by anywhere from four to nine months.
Current obesity statistics are mind-blowing:
If this epidemic is not reversed we will, for the first time in history, see children living shorter lives than their parents. I am convinced that we will wake up long before that.
The Challenge of Making Good Choices
As I read through the Live Science article I thought, “How far should schools go in making decisions about what your children do and don’t eat?”
The article highlights a trend that is simultaneously good, and bad.
The good news is that in an effort to curb the epidemic of childhood obesity, some school systems are taking the bull by the horns when it comes to student access to poor food and drink choices. School boards like the one mentioned in the article are taking steps to eliminate the temptation of deadly sugary beverages (especially soda) and foods on campus.
The bad news? Simply removing temptation doesn’t help your children learn to make their own healthy choices.
As parents know, children learn most of their health habits at home. Moms and dads must lead by example and teach kids the importance of good nutrition, physical activity, and emotional health.
Facing the Truth: Is Your Child Obese?
Surprisingly, many parents don’t realize their child is overweight or obese. According to researchers, this is because we are so used to seeing overweight children that we don’t recognize the problem. And it’s not even a matter of denial, as one-third of mothers and over half of the fathers in a study thought their obese child was a normal weight.
Five Life-Changing Steps You Can Take to Help Your Overweight Child
Children can easily cut down on the amount of sugar they eat by eliminating soda and juice and only drinking water. This step alone can have a dramatic effect on your child’s weight and health, since every soft drink or sugar-sweetened beverage consumed increases the risk of obesity by a whopping 60 percent.
It’s important for parents to encourage their children to eat healthy, nutritious foods, but this does not necessarily mean low-calorie diets or not allowing children to eat when they’re hungry. Children need calories and nutrients to grow and develop -- just make sure to encourage healthy foods geared for your child’s nutritional type, and bypass junk and processed foods.
A word about grains and sugars. Any meal or snack high in carbohydrates or sugars generates a rapid rise in your child’s blood glucose level. To adjust for this rise, the pancreas secretes the hormone insulin into the bloodstream, which lowers your child’s glucose (sugar) level. Insulin is essentially a storage hormone, which is used to store the excess calories from carbohydrates in the form of fat.
Insulin, stimulated by the excess carbohydrates in overabundant consumption of grains, starches and sweets, is responsible for your overweight child’s bulging tummy and fat rolls.
Even worse, high insulin levels suppress two other important hormones -- glucagons and growth hormones -- that are responsible for burning fat and sugar and promoting muscle development, respectively. So insulin from excess carbohydrates promotes fat, and then wards off the body's ability to lose that fat.
TV is a destructive influence on children. Not only does it encourage inactivity, but it also exposes them to commercials promoting worthless foods. Just as you don’t want your child exposed to ads for cigarettes during Saturday morning cartoons, neither should your kids be bombarded by non-stop commercials for sugary foods and snacks.
Exercise is extremely important for all children. Your overweight or obese child needs at least 30 minutes of exercise a day, and major studies have shown that 60 minutes a day is best. Any activity that gets your child up and away from the television set, video game or computer is a good idea. Start out with a daily walk with your child, and then gradually increase the intensity to include activities such as jogging and using an elliptical machine.
Emotions play a major role in childhood obesity and often, weight loss efforts get sabotaged by emotional eating. Your child may also have a hard time giving up junk food snacks. This is where the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) comes in. EFT can be profoundly helpful in alleviating not only food cravings, but also the underlying emotional challenges, such as low self-esteem, that can lead your child to eat unhealthy food or overeat. For more information on EFT, check out my free 25-page EFT manual.
More Tips for Creating a Healthy Eating Environment
Ultimately, teaching your child the importance of healthy foods and exercise -- not restricting their food intake or freedom of choice -- is the key to maintaining health. With that in mind, here are some tips to foster a healthy view of food and self-esteem in your child.
It's not a law, it's a District decision and if you saw the kids that I see day to day you would understand the need for it to happen. We serve a fresh salad bar everyday (very seldom from cans) with beautiful fruits and vegetables. The kids are making great choices when the options are there! Every month each child in the school is introduced to a different fruit or vegetable through a great program we have. It's amazing to see the positive changes that are happening. I can honestly say that I am proud of the food I serve!
Well said, Samurai!
I am glad this school has prohibited the junk food. Junk food is an epidemic. In my kids school the teacher gives candy to the children all the time as treats. My kid has allergies therefore I send in a gluten free box of cookies. So far this year I have send in 4 boxes. This is appaling!!! If I do not send in the organic cookies, my son will get candy laced with melamine high fructose corn syrup importated from China. Cookies are not good regardless of whethter they are organic or not but I feel obligated to send the cookies so my son will not eat the poisenous stuff that will certainly kill him over the short run.
samurai, the trouble is, if you have 30 or 40 children in a class, these treats become more than'once in a while'. On top of the class treats, there are also birthday parties (at home) and on it goes. I'm so glad I don't have young children any more - we didn't have to cope with all this!
I am with you completely!
Instead what you get is an unsubstantiated claim: that he's provided "many viable alternatives", as though he is the sole arbiter of what is an acceptable path to choose or that he's even provided “many” alternatives. He's long on claims and insults and short on substance. His posts offer a bipolar world where education is either homeschooling OR child abuse, politics is either libertarianism OR fascism, and other such absolutist dichotomies. Since candor isn't his strong suit, one is left reading between what few lines he offers. As an example, he says his kids are homeschooled, yet he tells us that he, his wife, and friends “play roles” in teaching them, as opposed to actually telling us what this homeshooled arrangement is. It sounds like he's got an arrangement that allows himself and his wife to work while at the same time having his kids "homeschooled". Rather than recognize his good fortune, he criticizes others for not having it as well, if they would even find it desirable to begin with.
Great point about the problem with public education being that intellect is looked down upon in the US, Islander. I totally agree. There's lots wrong with our schools and unless people start thinking outside of the same old box we aren't going to get anywhere fast.
On the topic- I see nothing wrong with birthday treats- it's the school lunches that have to re-vamp to serve REAL food and not fake stuff. They also have milk as the only drink and we all know that low-fat, pasturized and homogonized milk is not healthy.
SwamiBarmi wrote: <i>"This is perfectly within the confines and design of constitutional law; a school board should have the autonomy to make whatever rule they see fit without federal or state interference, never mind the interference of public busy-bodies transforming a benign local decision into a national scandal via the internet."</i>
There is one flaw in this logic - children are forced to go to schools. Certainly any truly private organization can have these rules, but when a citizen is compelled, not as the result of any criminal activity, to attend events, it only compounds the problem to deny basic rights in food or clothing choices.
Lucy, nice try on the html. As you can see, the board won't take it. You can use it in the Vital Votes section, though.
Anyway...I fail to follow your logic. Swami mentioned local control, of which this is an example, and which all parents profess to want. The function of school boards and committees is to set policy for their district. You elect the members of this board. As a parent you can attend their meetings and voice your opinion. If you have issues with the way they do things, run for that office yourself.
Yes, we require that children be educated; we do not force them to attend school. Nor do we value what is free. In some parts of the world, families make financial sacrifices to send their children to be educated; many cannot afford what is for them a luxury. No, our system is not perfect, but at least here every child has the OPPORTUNITY to become educated...an opportunity we take for granted.
I work for the school district as a Food Service Assistant. I see EVERYDAY children eating what is most likely their most nutritional meal of the day. Our district is very concerned with the obesity problem in America. There have been many changes the last few years that at first I wasn't quite happy about because as a parent I too, felt that our kids need to be able to induldge from time to time. That being said, what I didn't realize right away was that school is not the place for that! Schools are for education! The education shouldn't stop in the classroom. We have an obligation to these children that do not get properly educated about food (whether it be from cultural, ethnic or financial means) and we are doing a very good job. We do not sell or even allow sodas, outside sweets (cakes, cupcakes or cakes, candy) into our schools, There is no need. We do not deny them sweets either! We do (in the kitchen) make cakes, brownies and cookies for the children as a treat once in a while. The difference is that these treats are lower in saturated fats, calories and made from wheat.
So, I say, "Good Job" to the schools that are trying to help our kids eat and stay healthier. If parents would take the time to educate themselves and their children about nutrition then this wouldn't be such an issue. But since parents are always on the go and looking for the quick fixes (not always the healthier ones) it is important that the schools step in and do their part and educate.
*Part of the reason for not allowing outside food in is also because of the food allergies that are on the rise. Of course, there is the reason of fear of contamination and lack of sanitary conditions with food prep.*
Your comment about food allergies makes a lot of sense-one dear friend of mine has a daughter who is deathly allergic to peanuts and just a trace on a plate or the smell sends her to the ER.
Thank you for your service to the children:)
I sent home baked cupcakes or cookies to my son's school. I used apple sauce instead of oil, fresh ingredients, etc. If frosted, never a can of that creepy Franken Nonfood! That stuff is scarier than uranium!
Fresh ingredients only to make frosting, or cookies, etc. All things in moderation. I'll take an extra helping of oxygen, please.
mom2mattandtrev,
I am very interested in knowing how your school has been able to set up a lunch program with a fresh salad bar (fruits and vegetables) and healthier foods being produced in the school kitchen. What is the program that you have that allows you to introduce a different fruit/vegetable every month? Can you give a contact name/number or is this something that someone at your school set up? I would love to be able to enact some change at our school with regards to the meals. We are a smaller parochial high school and they provide the two parochial grade schools in the county with the daily hot meals. The one grade school is 1 block from the high school, so those kids just walk to the high school cafeteria for their hot lunch. Our grade school is 8 miles from the high school, so the food has to travel.
We, personally, have been trying to "influence" some of the students into eating healthier foods. My daughter has been in FCS (Family and Consumer Science-which is Home Ec) and takes squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini,and peaches, etc, to the class to prepare and eat. I sent articles on the hidden dangers of microwaving food for the teacher to read and discuss. One girl would only try a new fruit or vegetable if it was "good for her hair and skin"! My daughter would always tell her "Of course it's good for your hair and skin. It's homegrown, garden fresh fruits and vegetables. Have I ever brought anything to class that wasn't?"
Now, if we could just get that to carry over to our school lunch program!
Just as a side note, this article was not about the goodness, badness,politics or anything else about public schools. It was about a school board in Wisconsin that chose to "ban" sharing sweets from home to celebrate birthdays and other occasions as their effort to address the concern over the rising rates of obesity. This was a local "mandate" and I hope a large number of people/school families were involved in the discussion.
Unsanitary baking conditions????? Had the school been in any of these homes???
Did any of us get sick from eating foods baked in other people's homes? Even those whose moms didn't clean real well?
Were there cockroaches baked into the treats? Dog hairs? Vomit?
I am truly disgusted by this kind of logic. It automatically assumes people are dirty and unsanitary.
Many people working in licensed stores who sell baked goods do not practice sanitary habits. So this is all nonsense.
I have 5 kids who work in some way with the food industry and I can tell you horror stories of what my kids have heard and witnessed (and sometimes turned in!). Spit in people's food, food dropped on floor and picked up, money handled and then food without washing of hands (I witness this all the time!), and so on. Is this more sanitary than someone's home?
I am also sure that store-bought foods are NOT safer nutritionally than what is often baked in the home! I find this a scary trend!
For at least 10 thousand years man has eaten in what is now considered unsanitary conditions and he has not only survived, but has been stronger for it! Many culures around the world stomp on their food with bare feet, prepare foods outside or in dirt floored huts, and some even eat uncooked meats and other "unsafe" foods.
I sometimes feel like the USA has turned into the Twilight Zone! we have allowed common sense to go out the window and allowed bureacrats to control every aspect of our lives. It is disgusting.
I trust foods made in most any home over many of the things I have seen happen in restaurants! I have worked in restaurants and have seen waitstaff eat foods off of people's plates (scallops), not wash their hands after handling money then doing food prep, touch their hair and then food, blow their nose then touch food and other surfaces, and other disgusting things. And this is considered more sanitary than a mom making food with love?????
I am truly amazed and disheartened. Ridiculous
I live in Wisconsin and our schools, like yours, do not allow homemade snacks/treats to be shared in the classroom. They said it was because of allergies and not knowing how foods were prepared. Most kids brought in mass produced baked treats, but I refused to go that route. I sent my kids with a couple 3 pound bags of organic apples. Quick and easy and healthy.
Lori, I agree with you wholeheartedly. But this is probably all to do with litigation - if anyone got sick they could blame it on the 'home baked' food.
We now have laws in Australia that insist all chutneys, jams etc sold at church, school or charity fund-raising events have to be in new jars - no more recycled jars. This has put a lot of people off, as jars are expensive and can only be bought in quantity.
It's a crazy world we are living in!