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School Lunches Making Kids Fat?

Aired June 25, 2003 - 15:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, what is school lunch without macaroni and cheese? Well, the kids in New York can soon find out. The city's schools are pledging to cut out fat as part of a crackdown on obesity. No more donuts in the vending machine or soda pop either. Plus, slim down versions of popular favorites like chicken nuggets and pizza.
This all coincides with studies blaming school cafeterias for the growing problem of youth obesity. Joining us now to talk about this is registered dietitian Jennifer Buechner of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Thanks so much for being with us.

JENNIFER BUECHNER, CHILDREN'S HEALTHCARE: Hi, Kyra. Nice to be here.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's great to have you. Let's talk about what New York is doing. What do you think, is it a little sketchy?

BUECHNER: Well, it's only a piece of the puzzle. The child obesity problem is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) . And food -- besides the school lunches, food is just a piece of the puzzle. Increasing physical activity and decreasing sedentary behavior, as well as changing healthy lifestyles at home are also very important. So that's just one piece that needs to be looked at.

PHILLIPS: That's right, because they're cutting out exercise programs and then saying, well, OK, yes, we don't have P.E.. Now let's move towards the food. So is it a matter of getting them exercising more and then they can eat what they serve in the cafeterias?

BUECHNER: Well, kids definitely need to exercise more. And P.E. has been cut from school curriculums. And kids need to be active in school at least 30 minutes every day, besides needing to be active outside of school. And there's all sorts of ways that schools can boost kids' activity besides in P.E. There are curricular programs that integrate movement with curriculum like math or science.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's get back to the food for a minute. Is the theory true that if you don't have sweets at home, if your parent just don't give you the Twinkies or the fattening foods -- I mean I would get the fruit roll, I wouldn't get the Twinkies. So I sort of developed a certain taste and even now I really don't crave sweets. Is that true or is it just a myth?

BUECHNER: Well, one thing we know is that restricting kids' access to high sweets, high fat foods increases their desire to have them. It may have worked for you, but overall the literature shows us that when parent restrict kids get it and they eat more of it than they ever would have if they had not been restricted. It really backfires on the parents.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. Well, we've been receiving a number of e-mails. As a matter of fact, this one here.

You know everyone has their least favorite school lunch flashback. And we've been asking viewers to write in and tell us what it is. And this first e-mail said "The all-time worst school lunch for me was the baloney hat, which consisted of one slice of baloney, one scoop of mashed potatoes, topped with a slice of American cheese. Yuk."

Is this healthy? Is this what our kids should be eating at school? I mean it really hasn't changed that much in some places.

BUECHNER: Well, it's not what I had in school. I don't remember it being on the menus with my children when they were eating school lunches either.

PHILLIPS: So that's not pretty good. All right. Well, we'll continue to follow and see what happens in New York. Maybe you should head out there and advice them on what to do.

BUECHNER: I'm sure they have some talented people working on it.

PHILLIPS: Jennifer Buechner, thank you so much.

BUECHNER: Thank you, Kyra.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired June 25, 2003 - 15:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, what is school lunch without macaroni and cheese? Well, the kids in New York can soon find out. The city's schools are pledging to cut out fat as part of a crackdown on obesity. No more donuts in the vending machine or soda pop either. Plus, slim down versions of popular favorites like chicken nuggets and pizza.
This all coincides with studies blaming school cafeterias for the growing problem of youth obesity. Joining us now to talk about this is registered dietitian Jennifer Buechner of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Thanks so much for being with us.

JENNIFER BUECHNER, CHILDREN'S HEALTHCARE: Hi, Kyra. Nice to be here.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's great to have you. Let's talk about what New York is doing. What do you think, is it a little sketchy?

BUECHNER: Well, it's only a piece of the puzzle. The child obesity problem is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) . And food -- besides the school lunches, food is just a piece of the puzzle. Increasing physical activity and decreasing sedentary behavior, as well as changing healthy lifestyles at home are also very important. So that's just one piece that needs to be looked at.

PHILLIPS: That's right, because they're cutting out exercise programs and then saying, well, OK, yes, we don't have P.E.. Now let's move towards the food. So is it a matter of getting them exercising more and then they can eat what they serve in the cafeterias?

BUECHNER: Well, kids definitely need to exercise more. And P.E. has been cut from school curriculums. And kids need to be active in school at least 30 minutes every day, besides needing to be active outside of school. And there's all sorts of ways that schools can boost kids' activity besides in P.E. There are curricular programs that integrate movement with curriculum like math or science.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's get back to the food for a minute. Is the theory true that if you don't have sweets at home, if your parent just don't give you the Twinkies or the fattening foods -- I mean I would get the fruit roll, I wouldn't get the Twinkies. So I sort of developed a certain taste and even now I really don't crave sweets. Is that true or is it just a myth?

BUECHNER: Well, one thing we know is that restricting kids' access to high sweets, high fat foods increases their desire to have them. It may have worked for you, but overall the literature shows us that when parent restrict kids get it and they eat more of it than they ever would have if they had not been restricted. It really backfires on the parents.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. Well, we've been receiving a number of e-mails. As a matter of fact, this one here.

You know everyone has their least favorite school lunch flashback. And we've been asking viewers to write in and tell us what it is. And this first e-mail said "The all-time worst school lunch for me was the baloney hat, which consisted of one slice of baloney, one scoop of mashed potatoes, topped with a slice of American cheese. Yuk."

Is this healthy? Is this what our kids should be eating at school? I mean it really hasn't changed that much in some places.

BUECHNER: Well, it's not what I had in school. I don't remember it being on the menus with my children when they were eating school lunches either.

PHILLIPS: So that's not pretty good. All right. Well, we'll continue to follow and see what happens in New York. Maybe you should head out there and advice them on what to do.

BUECHNER: I'm sure they have some talented people working on it.

PHILLIPS: Jennifer Buechner, thank you so much.

BUECHNER: Thank you, Kyra.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com