Posted on 02/08/2009 9:25:32 AM PST by artichokegrower
Sixty one percent of the kids at Watsoville High (Watsonville, California) are eligible for free breakfast or lunch provided by the taxpayers but instead head off for the local convenience store or fast food joint. Still it's all our fault that they are fat.
Watsonville faces a growing number of overweight children
By JONDI GUMZ Posted: 02/08/2009 01:30:41 AM PST
WATSONVILLE -- Too often, children in Watsonville are eating food that is not good for them, and it shows.
About 31 percent of Watsonville's children are obese by age 8, and another 23 percent are overweight, a study for the Pajaro Valley Community Health Trust found last year.
Nationally, 15 percent of children are obese and 30 percent are overweight, which makes the local numbers especially troubling. Doctors say being overweight puts children at risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and early puberty, and they are more likely to be obese as adults, increasing their chances for a stroke and cardiovascular disease.
Ironically, these young people are growing up in the Pajaro Valley, a region known worldwide for its strawberries, lettuce and artichokes. Yet fresh fruits and vegetables, which generate $350 million a year for local growers, are too often a tiny part of local children's daily diet.
When the lunch bell rings at Watsonville High School, the school cafeteria serves nutritionally balanced meals. But only a quarter of students eat there. Most head downtown for a quick bite to eat.
On a typical afternoon, they swarm into El Primo Market two blocks from campus. Some girls choose a container of freshly cut fruit, but the most popular choice is a bag of salty chips and a soda, just 99 cents each.
The sale of soda is banned on campus. But it's available at 27 places within five minutes, according to health teacher Rob Cornett.
Farther from campus, fast-food chains line Freedom Boulevard.
It's a buffet of choices: McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Carl's Jr., Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, Foster's Freeze. Eats are cheap: Two tacos for $2, burritos for 89 cents, burgers for 99 cents.
"It's cheaper to eat unhealthy," said Selina Murillo, a grocery clerk in Watsonville.
A taste for sugar
Since 2003, when the U.S. surgeon general declared childhood obesity a crisis of epidemic proportions, researchers, educators and policymakers have been studying the problem intensely.
Doctors formed a nonprofit association to lobby for more research; federal funding has grown from $100 million to more than $400 million.
Watsonville teens themselves are concerned. About 20 students at Watsonville High School have joined a project initiated by United Way to increase their opportunities for healthy eating.
Being overweight generally results from taking in too many calories and doing too little physical activity.
Watsonville's weight problem is caused, in part, by national trends, including the skyrocketing consumption of soda and the increased amount of time watching TV or playing video games. In addition, for decades, a federal policy subsidized dairy and cereal products for low-income mothers and young children but not fresh fruits and vegetables.
Nationally, consumption of soda, fruit drinks and sports drinks -- all sweetened with sugar -- is up significantly compared to a decade ago, according to a study published in Pediatrics last year.
A standard soda used to be 12 ounces but now soda is frequently sold in 20-ounce bottles, a marketing technique called supersizing.
John Ferolito and Don Vultaggio, who started out as Brooklyn beer distributors, became multimillionaires in the mid-1990s with their sweetened tea creation, AriZona, which comes in a jumbo 23-ounce can -- big enough for three servings -- priced at 99 cents.
Once an occasional treat, soft drinks have become the most consumed food in America. It's one of the reasons American consume nearly half a pound of sugar a day.
Study after study has come to the same conclusion: Consumption of sweetened soft drinks is associated with weight gain.
For teens, soda is more popular than milk.
That's problematic because one 12-ounce soda equals 10 teaspoons of sugar, according to Dr. Jonathan Ramprasad and Dr. Jonathan Evans, Florida pediatricians. Children who drink milk tend to reduce their consumption of other calories but they tend to eat as many or more calories while drinking soft drinks, they said.
The average teen boy drinks two 12-ounce sodas per day.
He would have to jog for an hour or walk for more than three hours to burn off those calories.
Marketing drives sales
The fact that Watsonville's population is 75 percent Latino plays a role in its higher than average incidence of obesity.
Consumer research shows Latino teens are heavy soda drinkers, so advertising to Latinos is a way to drive future growth of sales and profits.
In the markets along Watsonville's Main Street, cases of soda greet shoppers entering the store and at the end of aisles.
For Latino shoppers on a budget, the price is right. An 8-pack is $2.99, a 24-pack is $6.99.
At convenience stores, milk is more expensive and gets less shelf space than Tampico and Sunny Delight, popular juice drinks that contain as much sugar per serving as soda.
Complicating the search for a solution is that Latina mothers often view young children who are overweight as healthy; a thin child is considered to be in poor health. Many believe young children will outgrow being overweight or that weight is determined by genetics.
"We're fighting a losing battle," said Dr. Michelle Simon, 62, a pediatrician in Watsonville who has participated in countless meetings on the topic of overweight children over the past eight years.
She's seen her patients at the market with their children, their shopping carts "stuffed with all the wrong food."
"These things are marketed to kids -- they fall for the advertising," she said. "How can we compete with McDonald's? It's impossible to counter without the community involved."
Feed them to the hungry kids. Win-Win. ;)
What’s with this leaving school during the school day? How about keeping them IN school where they belong!
“How about keeping them IN school where they belong!”
What? And hurt their widdow self-esteems by denying them their soda and candy bars for lunch? ;)
I wonder why there is no Harvard in Tijuana?
How is the Mexican space program coming?
I guess despite billions of wasted dollars, you cannot fund IQ with gub’mint programs.
1) Closed campus.
2) Don't serve mystery meat and mushy veggies.
3) Offer kids a variety of recognizable and tasty entrees.
4) Clean the mold out of the tea and ice machines.
I remember back in high school that our lunch ladies cooked real food and to this day there's many who still long for one of their homemade hot buttered rolls, a homemade peanut butter cookie, or a crispy piece of lemon chicken, yummmmm!
Because schools already feel enough like prisons.
You gonna wait too, fat boy,
Fat boy, wait til tomorrow,
You gonna wait too, fat boy,
Fat boy, wait til tomorrow,
If you are Hispanic or Black in CA you automatically get free school lunch and after school day care..no questions ask. Also busing to a better school if you want it.
Free lunch program also triggers other state and federal aid.
I grew up in Kansas in the 50’s. There was no free lunch and you ate what you brought or dined in the cafeteria. My folks would take us to a fast food joint maybe once a month or so. It was a treat.
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Journalist Jondi sits on my local school board and was recently a "voice of reason" compared to the other tax-and-spend moonbats thereon.
That said, she's still a Cruzio Moonbat.
As an Army Brat, I never saw fast food until I moved out at 18.
Our physical education classes in junior high and high school ran out butts off for at least 40 minutes each day. I got a reprieve from running in standard PE clothes during marching season for the band. That was replaced with an hour of marching before school and 3 hours after school. Practice for field shows was added in the evenings. It was an exercise in organization to find time for school work, practicing the trumpet, covering all the band practices and doing my chores around the house. There was little "free" time for anything else. When I traded band for chemistry, I had time to work at Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour to earn money for my senior year activities. Even so, I missed on on many of them due to work obligations.
My comments were harsh. I didn’t mean to insinuate anything about the nation of Mexico, other than assimiliation is not encouraged, and thus, continued destructive behavior keeps happening en masse. (npi)
“About 31 percent of Watsonville’s children are obese by age 8, and another 23 percent are overweight,”
nobama’s future shock troops. They’ll be sent onto the battlefield packing defibrillators and popping anti-stroke pills. It will be the first time in history that the battlecry “Let’s roll!” will take on a literal meaning.
I should include that we had an open campus but most would still eat in the lunchroom because is was darned good food. Several would wander across the street to the convenience store but mainly to hang out and watch everyone else in their pickups making the drag.
I had the same experience! I enjoy fast food now, but I try to go there only occaisonally. If you have any common sense, you try to eat a balance diet with fruits and veggies. If you care about your kids, you want to TEACH them about eating healthy, and you don't want to aid them in being obese.
You are correct about Obama’s future shock troops. This is Watsonville High’s publicly funded official web site. Check the direct links to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
btw... Welcome to FR...
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