Poor options affect kids' weight gain

Unhealthy options and pressures influence nearly every part of children's daily lives, maintains a study by the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. It asserts that, in most middle and high schools across the nation, contracts with soft drink bottling companies give students easy access to sugary beverages.

Moreover, low- versus high-income neighborhoods have a greater proportion of their restaurants serving fast food and have fewer supermarkets and more convenience stores at which to buy their groceries. In the media, television advertisements steer kids to spend their money on junk food, and minority students get considerably more such exposure, the study claims.

Research scientist Lloyd Johnston and his colleagues found that 67% of middle schools and 83% of high schools have contracts with a soft drink bottling company, giving students access to soft drinks all day long. Estimates of the median annual revenue for soft drink contracts in high schools turn out to be $6,000 ($6.48 per student), while for middle schools, the annual revenue is about $500 (70 cents per student). "The financial benefits of school contracts are modest in relation to the health threat that soft drink promotions entail, and clearly the problem is most serious at the high school level," Johnston contends.

The study also found that physical education is lacking among older students. The average number of minutes kids spend in PE each week drops from 172 in eighth grade to 89 in 12th grade, when just one-third of students even takes a gym class at some time during the school year. In addition, minority students from lower socioeconomic levels attend institutions in which fewer individuals are involved in varsity sports, quite possibly because such institutions have fewer resources available to offer a full range of sports and the exercise that goes with them.

The study asserts that, in the 10% of schools that have the least overweight students, one in 10 students is overweight, on average, whereas in the 10% of all schools with the greatest problem, fully 44% of their students are overweight, on average.

"I think that the role of the environment in bringing about the epidemic of overweight among our children is still not fully appreciated," Johnston concludes. "There are many influences in our schools, communities, and the media that contribute significantly to the problem and that absolutely can be changed for the better. If we don't make those changes, the consequences in terms of the health, longevity, and the health care costs of our newest generations are going to be staggering."

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