Put school programs on the slow burner
01 August 2007 10:24
Maura Maxwell
America’s childhood obesity epidemic has prompted a raft of government programs to encourage kids to eat more healthily. Yet disheartening new research into the effectiveness of such schemes appears to show they are, by and large, a waste of time.
The Associated Press review of the scientific studies examining 57 government nutrition programs reveals that just four achieved any real success in improving the children’s eating habits. A typical example is a pilot program offering free fruits and vegetables to school kids, in which Grade 5 pupils became less willing to eat them than they had at the start – because they didn’t like the taste!
Since the 1970s, obesity rates in the US have risen five-fold among 6-11 year-olds and tripled in teens and children aged 2-5, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Government and health professionals are scratching their heads as to how to halt the inexorable ticking of the obesity time bomb.
As one eminent pediatrician acknowledges: “the forces that make kids fat are really strong and hard to fight with just a program in school”.
He’s right of course, but it’s too early to
write off such schemes yet. What is needed is a fundamental shift in attitudes. Just look at drinking and driving. It has taken almost 40 years of relentless media campaigning for it to become socially unacceptable, whereas most of our parents’ generation regularly drove after enjoying more than a tipple.
It takes time for attitudes to change and, as with road deaths, there will be many casualties along the way.
But we must persevere with school programs and hope that on some level, they do leave a lasting impact on children. Perhaps not enough to make them modify their own behavior. But at the very least they will be equipped with the right tools to help them make the right nutritional choices for their children.
America’s childhood obesity epidemic has prompted a raft of government programs to encourage kids to eat more healthily. Yet disheartening new research into the effectiveness of such schemes appears to show they are, by and large, a waste of time.
The Associated Press review of the scientific studies examining 57 government nutrition programs reveals that just four achieved any real success in improving the children’s eating habits. A typical example is a pilot program offering free fruits and vegetables to school kids, in which Grade 5 pupils became less willing to eat them than they had at the start – because they didn’t like the taste!
Since the 1970s, obesity rates in the US have risen five-fold among 6-11 year-olds and tripled in teens and children aged 2-5, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Government and health professionals are scratching their heads as to how to halt the inexorable ticking of the obesity time bomb.
As one eminent pediatrician acknowledges: “the forces that make kids fat are really strong and hard to fight with just a program in school”.
He’s right of course, but it’s too early to
write off such schemes yet. What is needed is a fundamental shift in attitudes. Just look at drinking and driving. It has taken almost 40 years of relentless media campaigning for it to become socially unacceptable, whereas most of our parents’ generation regularly drove after enjoying more than a tipple.
It takes time for attitudes to change and, as with road deaths, there will be many casualties along the way.
But we must persevere with school programs and hope that on some level, they do leave a lasting impact on children. Perhaps not enough to make them modify their own behavior. But at the very least they will be equipped with the right tools to help them make the right nutritional choices for their children.
|