Philly experiment helps kids learn good nutrition

by Bethany Sanders (Subscribe to Bethany Sanders's posts) Apr 12th 2008 1:00PM

Categories: Teens & tweens, Eating & Nutrition, In The News, Education

Five Philadelphia elementary schools recently underwent an a nutritional makeover as part of an experiment. They eliminated vending machine choices like soda and candy (since when do elementary schools have vending machines anyway?). They limited snacks to those that met a certain, healthier criteria. They taught good nutrition to students and families, and even handed out raffle tickets for making healthy food choices.

The results were significant. New cases of overweight children were cut in half at these five schools, compared to other schools in the district that did not participate. While school leaders are encouraged by these numbers, the fact that 7% of the students in the five schools did become overweight (compared to 15% in peer buildings) is still reason for concern.

When kids pull together for school-wide projects, there tends to be a lot of enthusiasm, so I bet this was a lot of fun. Though schools alone can't be made responsible for stemming childhood obesity, it's clear from this study that they can make significant gains towards teaching kids about good health.

Source

Comments (0)