September 2, 2008 Competitive Foods and Beverages Still Widely Available in Secondary Schools A recent analysis of data from the School Health Profiles survey, including data from secondary schools in 36 states and 13 major urban school districts, found little change in the availability of competitive foods during the school day when comparing data from 2004 to 2006. Unlike foods sold through the USDA-administered school meals program administered, competitive foods are not subject to nutritional guidelines and are increasingly the target of policy changes to combat childhood obesity. Though some schools have restricted the sale of competitive foods at various points during the school day, 83.3% of schools across the 36 states and 79.2% of schools in major school districts still allow students to purchase competitive foods or beverages at some point during the day. Furthermore, the offering of more nutritious foods for sale still lags behind the availability of candy, salty snacks, soda and sports drinks. One notable decrease in types of food sold was the median percentage of schools across states allowing students to purchase chocolate candy (from 52.3% in 2004 to 43.1% 2006) and salty snacks that are not low in fat (from 63.5% to 47.4%) on school grounds. For more information, please view the report summary at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5734a2.htm?s_cid=mm5734a2_e |
