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Forum: Lunch Reforms Needed as Kids' Health Worsens

What children are taught in class about nutritious foods and what appears in school cafeterias often are at odds, according to educators and health experts. An award-winning filmmaker calls on schools to dump the junk food and make lunch a teaching tool. Included: Ways to improve school lunches and help reduce childhood obesity.

The time for blame in the child obesity crisis is over, and now schools, communities, and parents need to work together to help children eat better and develop healthier lifestyles, according to speakers at a recent forum on childhood obesity.

Sponsored by the Connecticut Commission on Children, the big draw for the forum was filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his documentary Super Size Me: A Film of Epic Proportions. Forum attendees saw excerpts from the movie.

The film examines obesity in America, especially the growing problem among children, and takes a critical look at fast-food-like selections students are consuming in school cafeterias. It also follows the affects on Spurlock of 30 days on an-all McDonald's diet. Spurlock spent several months speaking at colleges and schools about the risks of the fast-food life. A version of the film adapted for students was slated for release in 2005.

"The time for finger pointing is done," said Spurlock, about who is to blame for the obesity crisis in the U.S., to an overflow crowd in the state's legislative office building. "My grandfather always said if you point a finger at someone, you're pointing three at yourself."

CURBING THE CRISIS

Dr. Keith-Thomas Ayoob, an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City who attended the forum, added that, "You can place blame anywhere you want -- but it can stop now."

The fast food culture is pervading schools, the place where students need to learn to practice good eating habits, said Spurlock, now recovered from his McDiet. "[But] we want to give kids what they like, and they like what they see on T.V.," he said. Spurlock saw an array of high-fat, high-sugar foods in school cafeterias when he was making the film. "We're teaching them in the classrooms and then abandoning them in the lunchroom. We're not teaching life lessons. We're teaching kids it's okay to eat like this [high-fat foods] every day."

While children are eating more fast foods, time for recess, physical education, and health classes in schools is being cut back, Spurlock added.

At one school Spurlock visited, a cafeteria worker told him that the school lunch was the only hot meal many students had each day, suggesting that they wanted to make sure children ate it. "So shouldn't that one meal be freaking fantastic?" Spurlock asked.

SCHOOLS, STATES ON THE MOVE

Numerous school districts and states are starting to implement ways to encourage more healthful eating and lifestyles. When Spurlock made a commitment to the forum, Connecticut Commission on Children members made a commitment to "have the most cutting edge legislation in the country" to fight childhood obesity, said COC's executive director, Elaine Zimmerman.

Among the legislation that has been proposed in the state's General Assembly are bills to ban soda sales from schools, mandate that students have at least 20 minutes of recess per day, and to have a commission develop a list of more healthful foods to sell in school cafeterias. Some legislators also want schools to work more closely with area farmers to bring more fresh fruits and vegetables into schools.

Schools that eliminated junk food have seen test scores increase and discipline problems drop, according to Spurlock.

Dr. Ayoob, though, was a little more cautious about the overall impact of school lunch choices on children's health. "Are school lunches ruining our kid's lives? I'm not going there. There are a lot of things ruining our kid's lives," Ayoob said. In his practice as a pediatric nutritionist, he sees pre-schoolers who are nearing the obese level, adding that one mother brought in her 5-year-old son at 9:30 in the morning, clutching a bottle of orange soda and a bag of cheese puffs, explaining she had not had time to get him breakfast. Parents have the biggest influence on their children's eating habits, and must take more responsibility for that, Dr. Ayoob said.

At the same time, schools can take simple steps to promote good nutrition, noted Dr. Ayoob. One high school that wanted students to eat more fruits and vegetables, decided to take them out of the cafeteria and put boxes of apples and oranges in the hallways. While he had visions of a school-wide food fight, the idea has been working well, he added.

In California, soda has been removed from school vending machines and replaced with milk, juice, and water. Arkansas no longer permits elementary school students to access vending machines; Louisiana requires that all elementary school children have 30 minutes a day of physical activity.

Some districts and states, such as Texas, are considering obesity report cards, which would tell parents their children's weight and whether or not it is unhealthy.

Those schools that are trying to change their menu items and end contracts with vendors often face pressure from food and beverage companies, and some schools fear a loss of revenue, said Connecticut Senate President Pro Tempore Donald E. Williams Jr. But that should not influence legislators' positions.

"No school should balance it's budget on the waistline of our children," Williams said.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

In an interview, Spurlock called the segment on school lunches in Super Size Me the most important part of the film. He got the idea for Super Size Me while channel surfing on Thanksgiving Day 2002 after dinner ("a fitting and ironic day to come up with an idea for a move like this.") He saw a commercial in which a spokesman for McDonald's criticized a lawsuit filed by two girls who said eating McDonald's food caused them to gain weight and damaged their health. The spokesman said that the girls' conditions could not be linked to McDonald's food, saying it was nutritious and good for you.

"I thought, well, if it's nutritious and good for you, then I could eat it for 30 days with no ill effects," Spurlock said. "I could live the great American dream of overeating and not exercising."

In the month Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald's food, he gained 25 pounds, saw his cholesterol and blood pressure levels skyrocket, and the fat levels in his liver soar. He also said he felt depressed, tired, and had difficulty concentrating.

While initially dismissing the claim of the girls' lawsuit, the more he looked into industry practices, such as how advertising targets children, and companies are not forthcoming about nutritional information, the more he thought they could have a point, according to Spurlock.

McDonald's was the subject of the film because it is the largest and most pervasive of the fast-food companies, Spurlock explained. "This could have happened to me with anything [other types of fast food.]"

Article by Ellen R. Delisio
Education World®
Copyright © 2006 Education World

Originally published 02/17/2005;
Updated 02/27/2006