California policymakers have begun to combat obesity, giving final approval Tuesday to legislation written by Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier) that bans the sale of sodas and sets requirements for food sold on school campuses during school hours.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is sponsoring a Sept. 15 summit in Sacramento to address childhood health and nutrition, has vowed to sign the measure.
Local school officials were among the first to react, with the Los Angeles and San Francisco public schools setting restrictions on vending machine sales.
"At LAUSD, we've adopted a centralized contract for healthy beverages with Pepsi, and we're looking to them to help us re-brand the way children eat," said school board President Marlene Canter.
"Some kids have been raised on fast food since they were little, and they don't know any difference between what's healthy and unhealthy."
Canter said the district is developing programs to promote healthful eating, including health fairs, cooking classes aimed at different cultures and farmers markets on high school campuses.
"Everybody says: 'You are going to be taking choice away from kids,' but it's not that. They will learn, if they eat a bag of potato chips, it's like eating a vat of fat," Canter said.
"We want children at an early age to become knowledgeable so that when they're in their 50s and 60s they're not at risk for chronic disease."
Although many experts agree that more children are overweight, there is debate over the reasons and the best ways to tackle the problem.
Dan Mindus, a senior analyst at the Center for Consumer Freedom in Washington, said he had no quarrel with the report's findings, but he cited other recent studies that show tremendous drops in the level of children's physical activity and no evidence of higher caloric intake.
"Kids aren't running around outside with their friends like they used to. They're spending all their time with computer games and on the Internet," he said. "And meanwhile, recess and gym class are withering on the vine with only 25% of high school students enrolled in PE at any time."
He acknowledged that his group receives some funding from food and beverage companies, but said the organization is nonprofit, nonpartisan and independent.
"In case after case, we see evidence kids aren't eating any more than they used to, but exercising less," he said. "It's almost too easy to blame snacks in school when it's more difficult to try to get kids moving again."
