Our children’s weight continues to rise and it’s hard to understand why this is still happening.
It may be in part due to the lack of physical activity. If you drive through a residential area you don’t see many children outside playing or even a mother or father taking their child for a walk. If you haven’t noticed lately, there aren’t many sidewalks anymore.
It may also be due to the portion sizes that we now eat. Many of them providing easily between 500 to 1,000 calories. Way too many for a child.
And what about the vending machines in our children’s schools. These vending machines have caught the attention of some of our members of Congress and they have introduced legislation that will update the school nutrition standards to include vending machines and school stores hopefully by August 2009.
But in the mean time, one more step we can take to help stop the increasing weight of our children is to take a closer look at the vending machines in our schools. If you’re not happy with the snack choices, speak up. Remember, bottom line profit is why those machines are there.
