Commentary; Posted: 8/4/04

Obesity with kids has become a major health problem

By Don Heinzman

The problem of obese and overweight children in Minnesota is serious. In 10 years, the number of kids who are over weight has doubled. Whatís alarming, the trend is going up. Obesity in the state has risen from 10.6 percent in 1991 to 22.4 percent in 2002 and 15.3 percent of children ages 6-11 years are obese.

At the State Department of Health, strategies are being developed and put on line to enable communities and particularly school districts to attack the problem of overweight kids. Counties are zeroing in on this key health issue by meeting with various groups, studying surveys and data and looking for money to launch an information campaign to develop better nutrition and exercise programs in communities.

The longer kids are overweight and into adulthood, the greater the risk for chronic diseases and long-term health problems. One disturbing finding is that elementary and high school students are getting diabetes, once thought to be an adult disease.

One place for a community to zero in on overweight kids is the schools, where contrary to popular belief, the federal school lunch and breakfast program is not the problem.

The problem in the schools is the ala carte food items that are offered as an alternate selection for the school lunches. Those ala carte items sell for more and help subsidize a school lunch program already straining from budget cuts.

A particular target is food and beverages offered in school vending machines. Calorie-loaded soda pop and snack foods purchased in vending machines add to the calories a student consumes each day.

Those machines will be hard to get rid of, because they are money-makers for the schools. They help finance extra activities no longer affordable from the regular school budgets, suffering from lack of state and local funding.

In fact some vendors offer appealing contracts where the schools get a good deal and even get some bonuses.

Kids are having fewer chances to exercise, because schools, faced with reduced revenues, are actually eliminating after-school activities or charging so much students canít afford them. Moreover, communities and school districts need to be more concerned about the kids who donít play varsity sports after school.

Short of not having a gym to play in, they go home and watch television and gain weight.

Some school districts, notably in Rochester, have analyzed the pop-and-snack problem and are making changes in foods and drinks offered in vending machines. For example, they are offering food and dairy products.

Minneapolis North High School is the ìposter childî for changing vending machines from pop to water. Committees are looking at having smaller portions, smaller cans of pop, fewer calories in snacks.

In 2006, the federal government will require nutrition and physical health policy committees in schools that have the school lunch and breakfast programs.

For some schools, a policy on having healthy foods and daily exercise during or after school, could come before the school boards.

In Anoka County where studies show obesity to be a major health problem on a par with smoking, a collaboration of school, health, college and medical people is determining ways to inform community residents about this health problem.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota Department of Health has a Web site for school and community leaders to pick up strategies on what might be tried to keep kids at their required weights. That site is www.health.state.mn.us.

For more specific information, contact Pam York supervisor for nutrition and physical activity unit at the Minnesota Department of Health: pam.york@health.state.mn.us.

Top of Page