Better food for school kids? Not so hard to swallow…

 

Here’s some sweet news: A survey by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirms that salty, fat-filled snacks and soft drinks bubbling with sugar and empty calories no longer are available in an increasing number of public secondary schools across the United States.

The latest CDC School Health Profiles Survey, conducted every two years since 1994 to assess national school health practices, shows that from 2002-2008, the number of schools in which candy and salty, fatty snacks were not available to students increased in 37 of 40 reporting states. In the two-year period ending in 2008, the median percentage of schools not offering those kinds of snack foods increased from 46 percent to 64 percent.

During that same two-year span, the number of schools where soda pop or fruit drinks featuring less than 100 percent juice weren’t available increased in all 34 participating states. The median percentage of schools not offering such drinks rose from 38 percent to 63 percent.

In New York, 59.4 percent of 352 schools participating in the 2008 survey reported that students couldn’t buy candy or salty snacks from vending machines, school stores, canteens or snack bars. That number was up from 35.6 percent in 2004. New York figures for 2006 weren’t available.

The survey urges district officials and educators to boost their efforts to eliminate the availability of less nutritious foods and beverages at schools, a position supported by the American Heart Association. In response to the CDC survey, association president Dr. Clyde Yancy told USA Today:  “What kids do in school in large measure dictates what they do away from school.”