Here’s an excerpt from the New York Times today, April 27, 2009 on the editorial page (click the title for the full article). This is one facet of the problem. How about reinstating mandatory daily physical education that is physical and educational. We need to teach our children how to exercise, when to exercise and what to do.
The federal school lunch program, which subsidizes meals for 30 million low-income children, was created more than half a century ago to combat malnutrition. A breakfast program was added during the 1960s, and both were retooled a decade ago in an attempt to improve the nutritional value of food served at school.
More must now be done to fight the childhood obesity epidemic, which has triggered a frightening spike in weight-related disorders like diabetes, high-blood pressure and heart disease among young people. And the place to start is the schools, where junk foods sold outside the federal meals programs – through snack bars, vending machines and à la carte food lines – has pretty much canceled out the benefits of all those healthy lunches and breakfasts.
Discuss entry