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By Matthew Rees

Food and Health Fact #187:

The ominous obesity outlook emanating from American schools

I post on Twitter semi-regularly. Find me at @foodhealthfacts The full catalog of my previous posts, articles, and commentaries can be found on the Food and Health Facts websiteHave an idea for something I should write about? Send it along by replying to this email.

Of all the dismal obesity data in the United States, the worst may be that nearly one in five children qualify as obese – compared to one in twenty in the 1960s.What does it take to qualify as obese? It differs by age and sex, of course (find a body mass index calculator here), but a 12-year-old boy who is 5’5” would need to weigh at least 185 pounds.

In the uphill battle against the adolescent bulge, there’s been some mildly encouraging news recently. But also evidence of the formidable forces arrayed against progress. Let’s start there.

Last week, a Republican state senator in New Mexico, Gregg Schmedes, introduced a bill that would “prohibit soda, defined as a beverage that contains carbonated water and a sweet flavoring, from being sold, dispensed, or vended on the school grounds of any public prekindergarten, elementary school, secondary school, junior high school, or high school.”

Following the bill’s introduction, Schmedes, a surgeon, sent a tweet that read as follows: “This week, I found out what happens when you try to BAN SODAS in public schools… Coca Cola flies 6 executives on a private jet to your state and kills your bill.” (The bill was tabled in the Senate Education Committee.)

It turns out that soda sales are banned in elementary school and middle school – and they are only permitted in high schools if they contain no more than 10 calories. The Coca-Cola Company has produced a handy “cheat sheet” on precisely what’s permitted at different school levels (see here).Fruit juice can be sold at all levels, even though these drinks lack the fiber that kids (and adults) need. Serving apples, oranges, and other fruits would be a much healthier alternative.

Somewhat more promising is the Biden’s Administration’s recent proposal to limit the added sugar that appears in products served as part of federally-financed school lunches, which are served to 30 million children. There will also be limits on sodium levels.

This is long overdue – remarkably, there are no limits today on how much sugar can be added to school lunches. Alas, these standards are going to remain overdue for several more years. If approved, they will not be implemented until the 2027-28 school year (sugar limits) and the 2029-30 school year (sodium limits).

Predictably, the School Nutrition Association – a group heavily funded by the food and beverage industry – is already opposing this modest reform. Their opposition prompted New York University’s Marion Nestle to write, “I will never understand why everyone isn’t behind healthier foods for kids, but I’m not trying to get them to eat junk food.”

While these measures fall into the category of “better late than never,” their value will be offset by the ubiquity of other calorically dense foods that are high in sugar and low in nutrients. In the federal food stamp program (SNAP), where 43 percent of the beneficiaries are children, there are effectively no limits on the foods and beverages that can be purchased with SNAP benefits.

The result is high levels of SNAP spending on many of the foods and beverages at the root of the nation's obesity epidemic. About 20 cents of every SNAP dollar goes toward sweetened beverages, desserts, salty snacks, candy, and sugar, according to a report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Soft drinks, potato chips, and processed meats are among the top ten items purchased with SNAP benefits.

(The big winner from this arrangement? The food and beverage companies, and the stores that peddle their products, as these sales total $74 billion.)

SNAP’s flexible rules, coupled with the aggressive marketing of junk food to children, may explain the modest impact of the school lunch reform measures associated with Michelle Obama.A recent study of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which she lobbied for and her husband signed in 2010, showed only a small decline in enrolled kids who are overweight or obese. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that weight loss for an overweight 10-year-old boy amounted to one pound. That’s right, one.

So we can blame the school environment for children being overweight and obese, right? Not so fast. A 2021 study by researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University revealed a sobering fact: the healthiest source of food for American children is their school.

The study, which analyzed consumption patterns of about 21,000 children and 40,000 adults, found that in 2018, 24 percent of the meals children consumed at school were of poor nutritional quality (based on criteria from the American Heart Association and the Healthy Eating Index).

But that was better than meals from grocery stores (45 percent had poor nutritional quality), entertainment venues and food trucks (52 percent), and restaurants (80 percent). Overall, the study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, noted that 32 percent of adults and 49 percent of children have poor quality diets.

This study underscores how America’s children have been collateral damage as the United States has experienced dietary decline. Sadly, there’s little evidence that the troubling trends of the past 60 years are going to be reversed anytime soon.

Want to read more Food and Health Facts articles on this topic?  

Schools should be teaching home ec

Fast-food outlets are targeting teens

Weight gain by American children during Covid

American children get two-third of their calories from junk food

Fast food marketing to children

Obesity projections for American children

The rising childhood obesity rate – in the U.S. and globally