other than for nutrition and fuel, they're contributing to laying down that neural circuitry. That if they use food to regulate mood, then they're going to be stuck in that cycle for the rest of their lives.
Kids look at that huge plate of food now and say, "That's what I want." That's a hard cycle to break. And it's having a profound effect on their health. In the past, adults would get type 2 diabetes in their 40s or 50s, then live for two or three decades with the disease, developing eye disease, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, and other complications. But kids are now getting type 2 diabetes—at 10 years old! What's going to be the effect of living, not for two or three decades with the disease, but for four, five, and six decades? That concerns me as a pediatrician.
Limiting where we eat, when we eat, and what we eat is vitally important with kids. But we can't just deprive our kids or give them rules. If kids feel deprived, it's not going to work. You've got to give them the tools so they can understand what good nutrition is so they will want to eat foods that will sustain, satisfy, and nourish them.
There are going to be problems if our kids eat foods layered with fat, sugar, and salt for lunch at school, if they use vending machines there, and if stores around the school also sell products layered with fat, sugar, and salt.
We all got into this jam together. We created this problem in the last four or five decades—and it's going to take all of us to undo it. You can't just do it at home, you can't just do it in the schools—you have to do it together.
Originally published in the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Educational Leadership, 67(4), pp. 6–10.
A Supersize Problem
by Eric K. Gill
School wellness policies tackle overweight students, declining physical activities, and everpopular vending machines.
An estimated 17 percent of U.S. children are overweight, and policymakers are turning to schools to help students trim down and shape up. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention reports the number of overweight children ages 6–11 has doubled in the past 20 years; for adolescents 12–19 years old, the overweight figure has tripled. The CDC found that 80 percent of all high school students fail to eat the recommended daily allowance of fruits and vegetables, while more than 60 percent of U.S. children consume too much saturated fat (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006).
These statistics arrive 40 years after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Child Nutrition Act. At the time, many children in poor urban and rural communities came to school hungry and went home unfed. The law acknowledged the relationship between "nutrition and the capacity of children to develop and learn," and the government pledged to assist states "through grants-in-aid and other means, to meet more effectively the nutritional needs of our children" (Child Nutrition Act of 1966, Section 2).
Today's overweight epidemic is also occurring predominantly within the nation's poorest urban and rural areas. The CDC reports childhood overweight numbers are highest among Mexican American boys, non-Hispanic black girls, American Indian youth, and non-Hispanic white students from low-income families. In its well-meaning effort to feed the nation's poorest children, it seems the United States has succeeded at feeding them poorly.
Generation Extra Large
Among the many causes of today's overweight problem are fast-food chains, snack-food companies, and beverage manufacturers, which target young people and encourage consumption through promotional tie-ins, two-for-one deals, and free beverage refills. Apparently, these marketing strategies work. The CDC claims the average daily consumption of soft drinks among young girls doubled from 1978 to 1998, while consumption of carbonated sodas nearly tripled among boys during the same 20-year span.
As Coca-Cola boasts, "More than 1.3 billion times a day someone enjoys one of our beverages" (The Coca-Cola Company, n.d., para. 2).
Meanwhile, magazine covers tout sugar-free, low-carb, high-fiber, polyunsaturated foods for kids. Last fall, Mickey Mouse even scurried into the act when Disney announced it would revamp the children's menus at its theme parks with healthier foods.
The renewed focus on adolescent eating habits arrives as districts participating in federally funded school-meals programs are required to develop local wellness policies. The Child Nutrition and WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) Reauthorization Act of 2004 requires districts partaking in subsidized school breakfast and lunch programs to establish nutrition guidelines and physical activity goals by the end of the 2006–07 school year.
"The U.S. wellness policy requirement reinforces the actions many schools and districts had already begun in order to support the needs of the whole child," said Theresa Lewallen, ASCD's director of Healthy School Communities. "Successful, sustained implementation will only come about, however, if schools and communities work together to ensure that students learn in environments that help them develop lifelong healthy habits."
Mirroring ASCD's whole child approach, the CDC is promoting a Healthy Youth! initiative with its Coordinated School Health Program. The underlying theme is cooperation. "Schools by themselves cannot, and should not be expected to, address the nation's most serious health and social problems," the CDC declares on its Web site. "Families, health care workers, the media, religious [and] community organizations that serve youth, and young people themselves also must be systematically involved" (CDC, 2005, para. 1).
Imogene Clarke, director of Student Nutrition Services for Richland One School District in Columbia, S.C., is optimistic parents will participate in improving children's health. Richland One has more than 24,000 K–12 students enrolled in 47 schools. It implemented a Healthy and Nutritious Environment policy in compliance with the Reauthorization Act of 2004, and one goal is to curtail consumption of sodas.
"We don't have a say-so over what students bring for lunch from home, but we asked parents for their cooperation in not sending carbonated beverages to school, and you'd be surprised how many have complied," said Clarke, who supports schools taking an assertive role in child nutrition. "I think because we have students for such a long time during the day, it's an excellent opportunity for us to safeguard their health."
Penny McConnell, director of Food and Nutrition for Fairfax County Schools in Virginia, agrees: "We need to provide an environment, a wellness policy, and partnership where students are ready to learn. I stress the term 'partnership' because I think it's important that we work with parents, teachers, nurses, and students."
In South Carolina, Clarke pointed out, culture plays a huge role in what children learn to eat. "I'm African American, and I don't prepare food the way my mother did, but with lower-income families, you buy and eat what you can afford."
Despite the data showing a preponderance of overweight problems among poor American students, experts agree that nutrition education is important for everyone, regardless of economic levels.
"Parents also need to be educated, and they need to take an active role in planning family exercise programs," said McConnell of Fairfax, which is ranked 11th in highest per capita income among U.S. counties. "Nutrition education impacts what students eat—before and after school. Parents need to work with us and become role models."
The Fairfax County school district, which has about 164,000 K–12 students enrolled in 239 schools, implemented a progressive "competitive foods" policy in 1986. Although Fairfax schools allow vending machines, McConnell explained they incorporate electronic timers designed to prevent sales of sodas during school hours.
Soul
