Fill Your Vending Machines With Veggies and Milk
April 25, 2007 — -- It's time for an afternoon snack. Instead of picking up a candy bar or cola drink, soon grade school through high school students may have only healthy snacks, like low-fat milk or baby carrots, to choose from while at school.
With approximately $2.2 billion spent on junk food at schools nationwide in 2003 alone, a report released today on nutrition standards in schools recommends that they stop selling unhealthy snacks.
Written by the prestigious Institute of Medicine, the report states that 98 percent of high schools have vending machines, school stores or snack bars that sell junk food. Though school lunches and breakfasts are regulated, what's sold outside the cafeteria is virtually unregulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Today's report provides recommendations to promote healthy eating habits at school and to reduce the risk of childhood obesity, which can cause other medical problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure and early cardiovascular disease.
The nutritional value that school and afterschool snacks should have is outlined in the report. The snacks should be low fat, low sugar and low in salt. They should have no trans fats and no more than 200 calories. Individual fruits, like apples and pears, low-salt whole grain crackers and 100 percent whole-grain minibagels would all pass the test.
As for beverages, the report recommends all caffeinated and sweetened beverages be pulled from schools. Caffeine can lead to dependency and result in withdrawal symptoms like headache, moodiness and shakiness.
Though beverages with artificial sweeteners, such as Equal or Splenda, have fewer calories, the report suggests not selling them in grade schools and middle schools because the effect of the sweeteners on childhood development is still unknown. Artificially sweetened drinks could be made available to high school students, however, although it is not as highly recommended as other drinks like water or milk.
Even sports drinks, like Gatorade, are considered to have too much sugar and according to the report should be available to student-athletes only if they've been vigorously exercising for more than one hour.
