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Dairy Council Digest Archives
Taking Action to Improve Children's Nutrition & Fitness: The Role of Schools
The Healthy Schools Summit
Our nation's children are facing a health crisis. Many children are overweight, physically inactive, and have poor eating habits, thereby increasing their risk for major chronic diseases (1-7). More than15% of children aged 6 through 19 are overweight (1). Further, overweight among children has doubled over the past 20 to 30 years and its prevalence continues to increase, especially among Mexican-American and non-Hispanic black adolescents (1,2). Overweight children are at risk for high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol levels, and type 2 diabetes, the latter previously considered to be an adult disease (8).
Much of the increase in childhood overweight is attributed to decreased physical activity and poor eating habits (5,9,10). Today's children are less physically active than recommended and their activity tends to decline as they reach adolescence (3,4). A high proportion of children's energy intake comes from the tip of the Food Guide Pyramid (i.e., fats, oils, and sweets) (11). This reflects a poor dietary pattern resulting in nutrient shortcomings (6,7,12).
Only 2% of children meet the minimum number of servings from all five major food groups in USDA's Food Guide Pyramid and only 40% or fewer consume the recommended number of Milk Group servings each day (11,13). Declining milk consumption among children has adverse nutritional and health consequences. Milk, a nutrient dense food, is a major source of calcium and a leading source of other essential nutrients in the diet (14). A recent analysis indicates that nearly all females aged 9 to 18 have average calcium intakes below100% of current dietary calcium recommendations (12). Studies indicate that inadequate consumption of milk and other dairy foods is associated with low calcium intakes and poor bone health in childhood (15-18), as well as increased risk of fractures in later life (19).
The Healthy Schools Summit was an outcome of a groundbreaking collaboration of more than 35 national education, health, physical activity, and nutrition organizations working to take action toward better health for our nation’s children.
Schools, by supporting sound nutrition and physical activity, can play a critical role in helping to produce healthy students who are better able to develop and learn (2,3,20-26). In recent years, government, educational, and health professional organizations have made efforts to improve the nutritional quality of foods available in schools, promote physical activity, and help students adopt lifelong healthy habits (25,27-31).
To build on and extend these previous efforts, the Healthy Schools Summit was held in October 2002 in Washington, D.C. (32). This Summit was the result of a groundbreaking collaboration of more than 35 national education, physical activity, health, and nutrition organizations working to take action toward better health for the nation's children. The Summit , with help from partner organizations, launched Action for Healthy Kids State Teams. Each state team has developed state-specific plans to implement actions at state and district levels that will promote sound nutrition and physical activity in schools.
In an effort to improve children's nutrition in schools, the School Milk Pilot Test was recently conducted (33). This test evaluated how enhancements to school milk (e.g., better packaging, more flavor variety, colder temperatures, better merchandising) could help increase students' selection and consumption of milk and their participation in school meal programs (33).
This Digest provides a brief overview of the Healthy Schools Summit . More information on this Summit can be found by logging onto www.actionforhealthykids.org . Also discussed are how enhancements to milk available in schools can be part of the solution to improving children's nutrition, as implicated by findings from the School Milk Pilot Test.
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