KEYSTONE - In an attempt to find solutions to the growing problem of obesity in America, 40 of the country's brightest and best high school students converged at the Keystone Center this week to participate in the third-annual Youth Policy Summit.

Each student arrived in Summit County with an assigned role as stakeholder in the ongoing debate about school nutrition. Some students represented food industry companies, such as Coca-Cola and McDonald's, while others represented government agencies, nonprofit groups or educational associations. The students, selected from 10 science and technology-focused high schools from nine states, were charged with finding effective compromise solutions to childhood obesity.

"The goal is they'll present these (solutions) to schools and decision-makers in their community," Keystone Science School co-director Aaron Murray said. Murray added that participants were given free rein to come up with whatever creative answers they could find. "We don't push them to it," he said.

The challenges of reaching acceptable compromise among the disparate stakeholders was brought into sharp relief when representatives from the "real world" came to the Keystone Center on Tuesday.

As part of the fact-finding process, actual stakeholders in the ongoing national school nutrition conversation presented a panel to the kids. Speakers from the National Institutes of Health, the Coca-Cola Company, international food conglomerate the Compass Group, the National Association of School Boards of Education, and several others answered questions and gave their perspectives on what some have called a national epidemic.

"I think it's wrong to say it's personal choice," Dianne Newmark-Sztainer, professor of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, said. Newmark-Sztainer emphasized the role of environmental exposure on children's food decisions.

Food industry representatives begged to differ.

"Playing big brother is not going to do it," Coca-Cola chief regulatory officer Rhona Applebaum told the students, referring to greater governmental regulation of foods and beverages offered to school students.

The Cargill representative emphasized food technology, a practicing physician focused on the importance of balancing exercise with food intake and the participant from the National Association of School Boards of Education explained the budget restraints felt by school systems.

Vidur Tangri, a student at The Science and Mathematics Academy at Aberdeen in Aberdeen, Md., said most of the young participants at the forum shared his opinion that school nutrition should not be left up to the free market.

"It should be more of a policy thing," he said. "All children should be served basically the same diet. And there needs to be more education. Kids need to know that the chicken nuggets they're eating can actually harm them."

Nicholas Herrman, from Lakeshore High School Mathematics and Science Center in Stevensville, Mich., said his experience preparing for the forum gave him new insight into all the varying points of view.

"I hated health class in school," he said. "But now that I think about it, it seems like a good idea."

The opinions expressed by the individual students, much like those of the professional panel, tended to reflect the position of the role they were assigned to play. Aberdeen student Michelle Gunet, representing a director of the Food and Drug Administration, acknowledged the importance of both policy and individual choice and emphasized the necessity of having a safe food supply.

Michigan student Emily Bailey played the role of the president of Kraft Foods and defended the record of corporations.

"Some people assume companies are all about money," she said. "But they do a lot to support health."

Regardless of their conclusions about the importance of policy restrictions, only 10 or so of the youthful crowd raised their hands when a panelist asked if they think vending machines should be removed from schools.

Although he never eats lunch at school, Tangri agreed that he enjoys chips and candy just like the next kid.

The prevalence of school vending machines is just one major change in school nutrition that's occurred during the last two decades. Panelist Bertrand Weber, a professional chef and director of food services for a Minnesota school district, said that attempts to provide more nutritional meals for students need to overcome modern ideas about how to feed schoolchildren.

"Because of convenience, cooking equipment has been removed from schools," he said. "Schools have lost the ability to cook." Weber went on to say that changes in children's eating habits won't happen overnight. Unexpected problems have come up in his district's move from frozen to freshly prepared food.

"Kids would go from (chicken) nuggets to baked chicken, although they didn't know what it was," he said. "They've been fed so much finger food, they didn't know how to use a fork."

The childhood obesity epidemic

The increasing number of obese children and youth throughout the U.S. has led policy makers to rank it as a critical public health threat. Since the 1970s, the prevalence (or percentage) of obesity has more than doubled for preschool children aged 2 to 5 years and adolescents aged 12 to 19 years, and it has more than tripled for children aged 6 to 11 years. At present, approximately 9 million children over six years of age are obese.

Childhood obesity involves significant risks to physical and emotional health. In 2000, it was estimated that 30 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls born in the U.S. are at risk for being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at some point in their lives.

Obesity-associated annual hospital costs for children and youth more than tripled over two decades, rising from $35 million in 1979-1981 to $127 million in 1997-1999. After adjusting for inflation and converting to 2004 dollars, the national healthcare expenditures related to obesity in adults alone range from $98 billion to $129 billion annually.

Source: National Institute of Medicine



Harriet Hamilton can be reached at (970) 668-4628, or at hhamilton@summitdaily.com.