Monday, October 30, 2006

Big Food Quobesity

Here's a doozy. In fact, it's such a doozy, it'll take up two quotes.

They're from the Director of Public Affairs for Refreshments Canada and they took place this past September in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia during a meeting of the Select Standing Committee on Health. The meeting of course was to discuss the issue of the growing rate of childhood obesity in Canada.

The Director was painting a rosy picture of the refreshments offered to school children. There's water, juice, milk, sports drinks, diet beverages, juice drinks (read sugar drinks), and was also bragging that the serving sizes were capped at 355ml....one serving of which of course would exceed the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations on juice consumption by 27%.

Anyhow, here's why it's a good idea to have larger servings and non-nutritional beverages in our schools,

We believe that offering students a variety of beverages, while encouraging the shift toward nutritious and low-calorie options, will help them develop positive attitudes toward healthy eating.
AND

Dietitians we consulted supported the expanded choices in the high schools, saying that high school students need the opportunity to use more sophisticated critical-thinking skills. They also told us that high school students need to develop an awareness of how their food and other health choices may impact health later in life.
So come on everyone, they're just trying to help our children with their critical thinking!

They're good people.