Don't Blame School Food For Obesity

Don't blame the on-campus sale of snacks for making kids fat. So says a study of 19,000 middle-schoolers. Shouldn't it be clear by now that good health starts at home? It's time to chill out about the Cheetos, if these or similar guilty pleasures are being sold at your kids school. It's not that they're nutritious. It's just that they're not the dangerous fat bombs that many dietary activists have made them out to be. And another thing: Don't expect school to teach your children how to eat. That's up to you, Mom and Dad. A newly published study by researchers at Penn State, using data on 19,450 children from fifth to eighth grade, found no link between weight gain and the availability of so-called "competitive foods." That label covers food such as soft drinks, candy bars and chips sold in vending machines or snack bars and not required to meet federal nutrition guidelines for school meals — in short, junk food. Most middle schools covered in the study sell it, often to raise money for athletics and other student activities. It's also a fat target for those who blame the food industry — rather than the choices people make with regard to diet and exercise — for the nation's obesity epidemic...more