Tuesday, June 5, 2007

New York Times: Albany Discovers Obesity

Children learn a lot at school, not all of it for the better. As the Institute of Medicine reported in April, too many children pick up very bad eating habits, habits that can eventually kill them. Part of the problem is what the institute calls “competitive foods.” Instead of choosing the standard lunch, students choose junk food, much of it loaded with sugar, fat and salt — the fuel for future diabetes or heart disease.

Armed with mounting data on these dangers, lawmakers in Albany have finally started looking seriously at new guidelines for what young people eat or drink on public school property. Gov. Eliot Spitzer, the Assembly Democrats and the State Senate have each come up with proposals this year for better fare for students.

It is very good news that somebody is at least bringing attention to the issue. But there are problems with the proposals. One is that the governor and Assembly seem to be encouraging the use of sports drinks in schools. As the Center for Science in the Public Interest has noted, most sports drinks are heavy with sugar and salts. A better option would simply be plain old water.

Moreover, Mr. Spitzer’s bill, which is probably too detailed to be workable, would require students to exercise for an hour before they could buy something like Gatorade. Huh? Some schools don’t even have proper gyms and offer little opportunity for students to work out 30 minutes a day, much less an hour. Furthermore, sports drinks are designed for marathoners or football players, not the middle school dance class.

The Senate bill offers little more than goals and guidelines. The Assembly version would allow state health and education officials to set guidelines for better nutrition in schools, which makes sense. But the Assembly bill also makes trouble. It would allow a la carte items with too much fat, sugar or salt as long as the rest of the food offered at the cafeteria is acceptable.

The Institute of Medicine has recommended that only low-fat and nonfat dairy products be sold in schools. All of these bills sidestep that issue, particularly the Assembly’s, which boots the decision down the chain of command to local school districts. Finally, somebody should figure out how to keep bake sales during school hours from becoming the place where students can gorge on goodies that are forbidden elsewhere.

In earlier sessions, when the loudest voice against obesity was Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, who wanted to tax high-fat food, the whole idea of legislating against obesity was seen as a sideshow. Since then, the data has steadily become more alarming, with obesity rates tripling in adolescents since 1980. And those young people grow into sickly adults — almost one-third of America’s adults are obese.

Albany is right to focus on the problem in the early years. But legislators must listen to the health experts and not the lobbyists for the food, drink and dairy businesses. That means banning sodas, candy, sports drinks and high-fat dairy products.

It’s not what is good for business that counts here, it is what is good for New York’s 2.8 million public school children.