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In St. Paul schools, the no-sweet life

December 24, 2010 by

St. Paul’s public schools will be “sweet-free zones” by the end of the school year, reports the Minnesota Star-Tribune. The ban includes “sweet, sticky, fat-laden [and] salty treats.”

Forty percent of St. Paul’s fourth-graders, most of whom are poor and minority, are obese, 11 percent higher than the national rate.

St. Paul administrators say they’re preparing for stricter rules that could soon be handed down through the $4.5 billion Child Nutrition Bill signed by President Obama last week.

The bill will disburse that federal money to school districts to provide healthier lunches to more students. In the next year, the federal government will write new rules that can determine what kinds of foods are allowed to be sold on school grounds, including in vending machines and at fundraisers.

Jim Tillotson, a Tufts professor of nutrition policy, said childhood obesity is a complex issue that schools can’t solve with “silver-bullet” snack rules. “Nobody has the money or the will to do the real work it’s going to take to get American kids to lose weight.”

Children aren’t enthusiastic either, reports the Star-Tribune.

“All my friends say, ‘This really sucks,’” said Misky Salad, a 10-year-old fifth-grader at Chelsea Heights Elementary. “A lot of us feel it should be up to us to determine what we should do with our bodies.”

In addition to banning sweets brought from home, school cafeterias stopped serving second helpings and selling sweet deserts this year.

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Nanny state says no to brownies, pizza

December 3, 2010 by

Uncle Sam could ban school bake sales and pizza days under a child nutrition bill on its way to President Barack Obama, reports AP.

The legislation, part of first lady Michelle Obama’s campaign to stem childhood obesity, provides more meals at school for needy kids, including dinner, and directs the Agriculture Department to write guidelines to make those meals healthier. The legislation would apply to all foods sold in schools during regular class hours, including in the cafeteria line, vending machines and at fundraisers.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will have the power to decide when a food-based fundraiser is “infrequent” (OK) or “frequent” (not OK).

Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest says the bill is aimed at curbing daily or weekly bake sales or pizza fundraisers that become a regular part of kids’ lunchtime routines.

What so awful about a weekly slice of pizza? Obesity starts at home, not at school.

Filed Under: Health, Parenting Tagged With: , , , ,

San Francisco may order ‘sad meals’

September 29, 2010 by

San Francisco may ban “happy meals” that come with a toy, unless the meal includes a serving of fruit and vegetables or meets the city’s nutritional requirements, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

San Francisco’s “sad meals” should include “creepy, insulting and/or humiliating promotional toys with any meal that fails to meet the city’s exacting nutritional guidelines,” writes Zombie on Pajamas Media.

* Circular metallic stickers featuring a frowny-face and the words “I’m a fatso!” or “Lard-butt.” Parents will be required to affix the stickers to their children’s foreheads during meals eaten in public.

* Wind-up toys which speak any of ten different phrases, including “You’re morbidly obese!”, “Sure, keep stuffing your fat little face,” and “You make me sick, you disgusting pig!” Children can choose either the Sinister Clown, Nagging Granny, or Scary Bully designs.

* Miniature flipbooks featuring full-color photos of actual surgical procedures taken during heart bypass operations and liposuction sessions.

* A new line of collectible figurines called Chubbies, with names such as Friendless Fritz, Diabetic Debbie, and Acne Ashly.

Very few children eat most of their meals at fast-food restaurants. Obesity begins at home. Parents have to stop buying junk food — often for themselves — and start pushing fruit and veg.

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Do school lunches plump up poor kids?

September 3, 2010 by

Students who eat school lunches are more likely to be become obese, a new study shows. But students who eat school breakfasts are lighter. Eating both breakfast and lunch produces the slimmest children, reports Miller-McCune Online.

Low-income children, who qualify for free meals at school, are more prone to obesity. But the researchers think the lunches themselves are encouraging weight gain.

Daniel Millimet, an economist at SMU, theorizes that school breakfasts comply with federal nutrition guidelines, or come close. At lunch, students may buy extra items that aren’t subject to nutrition guidelines because kids are spending their own money.  Schools keep the profits from desserts or snacks students pay for themselves and can use the money as they see fit.

Filed Under: Children, Health Tagged With: , , ,

Too much TV hurts toddlers

May 7, 2010 by

TV-loving toddlers “are more likely by age 10 to be disengaged at school, get picked on by classmates, be overweight and eat an unhealthy diet,” concludes a study by researchers from the University of Montreal and the University of Michigan. From Time’s Wellness Blog:

. . .  each additional hour of TV that children watched at 29 months corresponded with a 7% decrease in classroom engagement, a 6% drop in math achievement, a 13% decrease in physical activity on weekends, a 10% increase in video-game playing and a 10% greater likelihood of getting teased, assaulted or insulted by classmates.

. . . On average, the study found, children were watching nearly 9 hours of TV per week at 29 months, and nearly 15 hours per week by 53 months. (Children with more educated mothers watched less; those from single-parent homes watched more.) The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children under 2 watch no TV at all; children older than 2 should get no more than 1 to 2 hours of “quality programming” each day. Although the TV-watching habits of children in the current study were within or close to the limits set by the AAP, the data suggest the children still suffered negative consequences.

Pediatricians tell parents not to put TV sets in their children’s bedrooms and to monitor what they watch.

Filed Under: Children, Health Tagged With: , ,

Fat Santa

December 18, 2009 by

Santa Claus promotes obesity, complains Dr Nathan Grills, a professor at Monash University in Australia.  From The Telegraph:

(Grills) said the idea of a fat Father Christmas gorging on brandy and mince pies as he drove his sleigh around the world delivering presents was not the best way to promote a healthy and safe lifestyle among the young.

. . . Father Christmas could also potentially promote drunk-driving, argued Grills, referring to the tradition of leaving Santa Claus a brandy to wish him well on his travels.

At my husband’s family’s Christmas party, there was a move to draft the only new guest to play Santa for the little kids. But there weren’t enough pillows to make the costume fit 145-pound Seth, boyfriend of Susie the nutritionist. I wanted to tell the kids that Santa had acquired a personal nutritionist and taken off some weight, but this was vetoed.

Via The Corner’s Grinchwatch.

Filed Under: Children, Health Tagged With: ,

Fat city

June 17, 2009 by

MeMe Roth’s crusade against cupcakes is driving P.S. 9 to the brink, reports the New York Times. The Upper West side mother, who runs National Action Against Obesity, is furious about “the cupcakes that come out for every birthday, the doughnuts her children were once given in gym, the sugary Fun-Dip packets that some parent provided the whole class on Valentine’s Day.”

The Roth kids are supposed to put “junk food” in a plastic container, but this went wrong when a teacher handed out juice pops.  Roth sent one of her vituperative e-mails. It all culminated with a suggestion the family request a “health and safety transfer.”

. . . Both parents left feeling they were being pushed out of P.S. 9, which they perceive as exhausted by Ms. Roth’s intense lobbying for, among other things, permission slips for any food not on the official lunch menu. It would not be the first time: The Roths previously lived in Millburn, N.J., where, after Ms. Roth waged war on the bagels and Pringles meal served to kids at lunch, received e-mail from one member of the P.T.A. that said, “Please, consider moving.”

. . . The police were called to a Y.M.C.A. in 2007 when she absconded with the sprinkles and syrups on a table where members were being served ice cream. That was Ms. Roth who called Santa Claus fat on television that Christmas, and she has a continuing campaign against the humble Girl Scout cookies, on the premise that no community activity should promote unhealthy eating.

The Roths had better not move to Chicago: Nachos rule Chicago public schools, reports a Tribune blog (via This Week in Education).

In today’s Tribune we look at the No. 2 most served entree to Chicago Public School students: nachos. When did nachos become an entree, much less an acceptable entree to serve daily to some of the most obese kids in the nation?

Nachos are a choice on high school menus every day, often served with tater tots and chocolate milk.

I’m a Type 2 diabetic from an all-diabetic family, so I know the challenges of living in a world of unhealthy goodies. But the key to good nutrition is a balanced diet. Going nuts over an occasional cupcake or the need to say, “No thanks” to a juice pop is just nuts.

I wonder how old “MeMe” was when she decided to spell her name that way?


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PE effect is zero, researchers say

May 11, 2009 by

Pumping up PE won’t affect obesity, concludes a British study. Children who exercise more at school do less at home. Those who get little exercise at school do more on their own.  The net effect on energy expenditure and body mass is zero.

In the end, a child will expend the same amount of energy, whether in school or out, suggesting that his level of activity is set by some kind of internal meter in the brain, said the lead researcher, Terry Wilkin, professor of endocrinology and metabolism at Peninsula Medical School in the British city of Plymouth.

The research was conducted on children eight to 10 years old at three schools. Inner-city students did PE at school two hours a week;  a prep school for wealthy students provided nine hours of PE. The third school was in the middle in exercise and socioeconomics.

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: ,

Fat camp for military recruits

January 13, 2009 by

The Army may start a fat camp to slim down overweight recruits.

Maj. Gen. Thomas Bostick, head of the Army Recruiting Command, said he wants to see a formal diet and fitness regimen running alongside a new school at Fort Jackson that helps aspiring troops earn their GEDs.

Obesity is a bigger challenge than finding recruits with adequate educational credentials, Bostick told AP.

Hot Air provides a link to Stripes: John Candy enlists to become a lean, mean fighting machine.

Filed Under: Careers, Health Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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