Food Giants Mend Their
Ways to Fight Child Obesity

With American children getting fatter, giant food companies are now promising to offer a healthier alternative to their sugar- and oil-laden products popular with school kids.

On Wednesday, the manufacturer of Frito-Lay potato chips launched a publicity campaign, praising the absence of trans fatty acids in its new products, which it said will "help consumers make informed and healthier snacking choices."

Industry leader Kraft Foods has promised to reduce the number of calories and the size of its products like biscuits, sausages and pizza pies, while McDonald's unveiled several new salads.

However, these efforts do not convince "junk food" critics who point to growing obesity among children in the United States.

About 15 percent of those between six and 19 years old were overweight in 2000, compared to five percent in 1980, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"In the last decade, children increased their calorie intake 150 to 200 calories at a time when physical activity is lessening and they should be reducing how much they are eating," argued Barry Popkin, a professor at the University of North Carolina.

"The Frito-Lay and Pepsi and Cokes of the world have to start to come to grips at the fact that they have a role in this," he observed.

The food industry rejects such charges.

"It's quality food, it's consistent to a balanced style. Our food has the right size," said Lisa Howard, a spokeswoman for McDonald's.

The problem has also been linked to the lack of exercise, standardization of meals, and the bad example given by parents themselves.

But Popkin made clear advertising was also to blame.

"In our country and in a number of European countries, wherever a child moves these days, he or she is inundated with advertisement signs vending machines, TV programs -- everything promoting this kind of foods, high-fat, salty, sugary snacky food."

It is being promoted by pop stars, cartoon characters, in animated films and on cereal boxes.

The snack industry has penetrated every facet of life, including schools. Those collect royalties, often proportional to sales, on vending machines placed in corridors.

School cafeterias make their own contribution by holding, for example, Pizza Hut days, which are very popular with schoolchildren.

But faced with the child obesity phenomenon, school authorities have started to react. California Governor Gray Davis signed a law last week ensuring that "only healthy beverages are sold on elementary, middle and junior high school campuses."

In West Virginia, a state with one of the highest rates of adult obesity, rules regulating food in public schools have been in place since 1970.

"Children purchase the entire meal, they can't buy unitized items," pointed out Mary-Kay Harrison, a state official who supervises school cafeterias. "In many states and in many schools around the country, individual food items are sold out of the cafeteria."

Popkin believes that stricter national regulations are certain to be enacted in about 10 to 20 years.

He says it will probably take that much time for lawsuits brought against food giants to succeed.

This year McDonald's twice dodged complaints by families, claiming that its food had made their children obese.

"I believe the public opinion will turn so much against industry that the jury will turn against them," Popkin said.

Reference Source 102

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