August is. 2012
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Page s
H ealth
A student purchases a brown sugar Pop-Tart from a vending machine in the hallway outside the
school cafeteria, in Wichita, Kan. A new study says that laws governing the sale o f ju n k food
and drinks in public schools may help curb childhood obesity.
Junk Food Bans in Schools Working
Regulations
improving
childhood
weights
more likely to reach a healthy weight the nutrition center at Children's ing fifth grade and soon to enter outside of mealtime. Laws were con
by eighth grade if they lived in states Hospital of Philadelphia. Stallings middle school, and in 2007, during sidered strong if they included spe
with the strongest laws.
chaired an Institute of Medicine panel the spring of eighth grade.
cific nutrition requirements, such as
The effects weren't huge, and the that urged standards for making snack
The researchers also examined limits on sugar and fats. Laws were
study isn't proof that the laws influ foods and drinks sold in schools several databases of state laws on rated weak if the requirements were
enced kids' weight. But the results more healthful but was not involved school nutrition during the same time. vague and merely urged sales of
raised optimism among obesity re in the new research.
The states were not identified in the "healthy" food without specifics.
searchers and public health experts
The authors of the study, re study because of database license
The results show that for these
(AP) — Laws strictly curbing who generally applaud strong laws leased online Monday in the journal restrictions that protect the students' laws to be effective, they need to be
school sales of junk food and sweet to get junk food out of schools.
Pediatrics, analyzed data on 6,300 confidentiality, the authors said.
consistently strong in all grades,
ened drinks may play a role in slow
"This is the first real evidence that students in 40 states. Their heights
The laws governed food and said lead author Daniel Taber, a
ing childhood obesity, according to the laws are likely to have an impact," and weights were m easured in drinks sold in public school vend health policy researcher at the Uni
a study that seems to offer the first said Dr. Virginia Stallings, director of spring 2004, when they were finish ing machines and school stores. versity of Illinois at Chicago.
evidence such efforts could pay off.
The results come from the first
large national look at the effective
ness of the state laws over time.
They are not a slam-dunk, and even
obesity experts who praised the
A CENTER OF
study acknowledge the measures
EXCELLENCE FOR
are a political hot potato, smacking
WOMEN THROUGHOUT
of a "nanny state" and opposed by
ALL STAGES OF LIFE.
industry and cash-strapped schools
relying on food processors' money.
But if the laws have even a tiny
effect, "what are the downsides of
improving the food environment for
children today?" asked Dr. David
Ludwig, an obesity specialist at
Harvard Medical School and Bos
ton Children's Hospital. "You can’t
get much worse than it already is."
Children in the study gained less
weight from fifth through eighth
grades if they lived in states with
strong, consistent laws versus no
laws governing snacks available in
schools. For example, kids who were
WOMEN’S HEALTHCARE
ASSOCIATES lu :
5 feet tall and 100 pounds gained on
RACK ROW IAMFSF STFMPFt. MD | USA K JOHNSON MO | GREGORY M FILERS.MD| SIDNEY J PRESCOTT, JR ,M D | LISA L DIEPENHORST, MO
average 2.2 fewer pounds if they
w w w .w h a llc .c o n i
FRONTROW AMY I SCHMtTKF M l) i R if HARO N HAMILTON MO | THOMAS O H A T H M D ,M O |JA IM £ E .KFA N M D
lived in states with strong laws in
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the three years studied.
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