Lower BMI in kids across income levels: The effects of the federal law on children’s general physical ill-health, and what it tells us about nutrition
There are previous studies that show weight-related effects of the federal law on children. The new study is the first to find lower BMI in kids across all income levels.
The program is not certain whether the program has begun to turn the tide for the whole country or not. About 30 million children in the US are given school lunches each day.
“You have the potential to really impact their excess weight gain over the course of their entire childhood,” said Dr. Aruna Chandran, a social epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study was published in the journal.
It found that children’s body mass index fell in the year after the law took effect. About 25 percent of one BMI unit a year is what Chandran said. There was a slight decline in kids who were overweight or obese, too, the study showed.
One way to think of the change is that for a 10-year-old boy with an elevated body-mass index, the decline would amount to a 1-pound weight loss, noted Dr. Lauren Fiechtner, director of nutrition at MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study.
She said that it’s important as the body mass index is likely to be important. Holding kids’ weight steady as they grow can help keep obesity in check.
But some researchers cautioned against interpreting the study’s findings too broadly. Some of the children included in the study might not have been enrolled in school meals programs, or their district may not have fully implemented the nutrition requirements, said Kendrin Sonneville, associate professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
She said that the health, well-being, concerns related to food security of children participating in the school breakfast or lunch program did not improve as a result of a slight reduction in those measures.
Researchers surveyed the parents of more than 18,000 kids ages 1 to 5 in 2021, asking them how many times the child ate fruit, the number of vegetables eaten and the number of sugar-sweetened beverages consumed in the preceding week.
Children ages 2 or 3 should have at least a cup of fruit and a cup of vegetables every day while kids ages 4 to 8 should have 1.5 cups of each every day, according to nutrition guidelines from the CDC and USDA.
“This is the first time we’ve had state-level estimates on these behaviors,” Hamner said. It is good time to consider the programs and policies that states have in place so that they can continue to improve the nutrition environment for young children.
The report states that 70% of parents of children of black descent report that their child drank a sugar-sweetened beverage in the preceding week.
White parents were more likely to say that their children did not eat a daily fruit or vegetable than the Black parents.
Early Life Behaviors in Children with Additive Suppressed SUSY: The Role of a Variety of Fruits and Vegetables
“Limiting or reducing foods and beverages higher in added sugars, including sugar-sweetened beverages, is important because added sugars are associated with increased risk of obesity, dental caries, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease,” the report said.
She said that it can take up to 10 times for a child to try a new food. “Continuing to try and expose young children to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables is an important piece.”
The early lifestyle behaviors are very important, said Hamner. It is at this point where the foundation for some of those eating behaviors are laid and we need to make sure that we create those healthy eating habits as they get older.