Schools
Getting Nutritional Overhaul
Many state governments are taking a major step toward
improving school eating environments
by revising their school nutrition policies.
"Limiting
temptations is essential to make eating healthy easy
for kids,” said Dr. Karen Cullen, a CNRC behavioral
nutrition scientist who works with Houston-area schools.
Some new policies states are adopting include:
- Limiting snack-bar, vending-machine, and school-stores
snack food packages to specific sizes. For example,
limiting regular chips to 1-ounce packages, baked chips
to 1.5 ounces, cookies to 2 ounces, bakery items to
3 ounces and sweetened beverages to 12 ounces.
- Setting limits for the amount of fat and added
sugars per package of snack foods available in school.
- Limiting serving sizes of French fries or other
fried potato products to three ounces and availability
to three times per week. Limiting student purchases
to one serving at a time.
- Requiring that low-fat milk, bottled water, and
fruit and/or vegetables be made available where ever
competitive foods* are sold.
- Prohibiting a la cart, snack bar, and vending machine
sales of individual foods in elementary schools.
- Prohibiting the sale and service of competitive
foods during meal periods.
“Improving the school eating
environment to make it easier for kids to eat
healthy sends a powerful message about the
importance of good nutrition,” she said. 
Additional Resources::
Team
Nutrition – Healthy
School Nutrition Environment(USDA)
http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/Healthy/index.htm
CNRC Healthy Eating Poster
Gallery for Schools
http://www.kidsnutrition.org
|