Like exercise for kids, eliminating junk food from schools 'may help to stem child obesity'
Date: 02/03/2010 / Category: Indoor play for schools and groups
Eliminating sugary beverages and junk foods from schools may help to stem the increase in childhood obesity, according to a San Francisco State University study.
Eight years of body mass index (BMI) data from children aged ten to 11 and 12 to 13, collected as part of California's annual Physical Fitnessgram testing, was studied by researchers.
The study compared BMI trends in the years preceding the enactment of legislation banning sodas and other highly sweetened beverages, restricting the sale of junk foods in all of California's public schools, with the years following the legislation.
Obesity among students was on the increase prior to the legislation but decreased in the three years after, the data showed.
"Although policymakers cannot directly influence student behaviour, our study shows that governmental policies can help define the environment in which children learn to make food choices and thus shape the food behaviours, influencing overweight trends in entire student populations," said the study's first author, Emma Sanchez-Vaznaugh, assistant professor of health education at San Francisco State University.
Meanwhile, in the UK, the government recently announced that its Change4Life campaign, which promotes healthy eating and exercise for kids through TV adverts and other means, had helped to level-out the prevalence of child obesity in the UK.
Posted by Sarah Thomas
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