Child nutrition strategy to cut future health bills
children and to help reduce heavy healthcare bills by launching a
new nutrition policy for state schools.
Introduced last week by the state's agriculture commissioner Susan Combs, the 'Texas Public School Nutrition Policy' - to be implemented from August this year - limits the number of grams of fat and sugar Texas schoolchildren can consume each week.
"This policy is the result of months of collaboration with experts and interested individuals around the state who consider children's health and education a top priority," said Combs.
States across the US are having to come to terms with the financial and health burden of obesity. Tackling the problem in the young could be an effective strategy to curb obesity in later life.
According to a recent study carried out by the nonprofit group RTI International and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity-related US medical costs reached $75 billion in 2003 with taxpayers paying up to $175 annually to foot the bill.
The study found that the US public pays $39 billion a year through Medicare and Medicaid programs, which cover sicknesses caused by obesity including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, gallbladder disease and several types of cancer.
"Obesity has become a crucial health problem for our nation, and these findings show that the medical costs alone reflect the significance of the challenge," said secretary for the department of health and human services Tommy Thompson, at the time.
It also suggested that states spend about one-twentieth of their medical costs on obesity, from a low of 4 per cent in Arizona to a high of 6.7 per cent in Alaska.
California was found to spend the most on health care for the obese - $7.7 billion - with Wyoming spending the least, a figure of $87 million.
Dr Eduardo Sanchez, commissioner for the Texas department of health, said this week : "Childhood obesity and obesity-related problems are reaching epidemic levels in Texas. If we don't act now to tackle these problems, both individual Texans and the state will be faced with a healthcare crisis of enormous proportions."
José Montemayor, commissioner at the Texas department of insurance, agreed :"Future healthcare costs for obesity and related diseases are expected to increase dramatically, having a direct impact on insurance premiums paid by individuals and Texas businesses."
The Texas child nutrition program will aim to ensure that foods served in schools are 'nutritious and balanced'. Not only limiting fat and sugar in schools, a phase-in period will eliminate deep-fat frying in food preparation for meals, a la carte and snack items.
In addition, portion sizes for food items such as chips, cookies, bakery items and frozen desserts at elementary, middle and high schools are limited.
The policy will also restrict the sale of foods that compete with a school's operation of the breakfast, lunch or after school snack programs. A school can lose up to $1.20 at breakfast and $2.19 at lunch in federal reimbursements for each meal lost to a competitive food sale.
"We realize it will take time for schools and the food industry to make the necessary changes to products and recipes, so we want to use this policy to phase in better nutritional guidelines," added Combs.
Senator Eddie Lucio Jr supported the move claiming Combs was "the first state official to actively support my legislative efforts of curbing obesity among our public school children through proper nutrition".
