Nutrition Education for Kids Is Failing, the Associated Press Reports

After reviewing 57 federally funded nutrition programs aimed at getting children to choose fruits and vegetables over junk food, all but four had more or less failed to change kids’ eating habits, the Associated Press reported.

The programs, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), included measures such as providing children with fresh vegetable snacks, producing dancing fruit videos and developing hundreds of hours of classroom instruction on nutrition, according to the AP.

Incidentally, this is the same USDA whose allocation of billions of dollars in annual farm subsidies favor industrial-size conventional farming operations (whose use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers contribute to environmental degradation) and are largely to blame for the demise of the small family farm, according to the Organic Farmers and Gardeners Union (click on Misallocation of Farm Subsidies tab for more information)—but I digress.

The AP review uncovered that:

• Fifth graders became less willing to eat fruits and vegetables than they were at the beginning of a federal pilot program that provided the produce to school children for free.

• In once instance, children were willing to eat fruits and vegetables in exchange for prizes, but when researchers returned several months later to follow up they found the kids had gone back to eating junk food.

• Even when children reported that their eating and exercise habits had improved, their blood pressure, body size and cholesterol levels usually remained the same.

Despite the more than $1 billion the federal government will spend on nutrition programs in schools this year, those dollars still don’t compare to the effects of parental influence, poverty and advertising in swaying children’s eating habits, according to the AP.

By Karen James for the SUGAR SHOCK! Blog