Students Purchase 400 Calories With $1

by Greg Plotkin · 2009-10-15 06:00:00 UTC
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It's one thing when parents and teachers can monitor what children eat on a daily basis, but it's quite another when kids get to choose what to fill their own stomachs with.

Researchers in Philadelphia have found that when children choose their own before- and after-school snacks, the most popular choices are high-fat products like sugary fruit drinks, Sour Patch Kids and potato chips.  The majority of the children studied were from low-income communities.

However, the most surprising part of the study was not how many calories the children purchased, but how cheap they were.  With only a little over one dollar in their pockets, children were able to purchase a whopping 356 calories on average per day.

With childhood obesity such a strong indicator of obesity in adulthood, it is important to educate children not only about how their food choices affect their lives now, but how they can potentially affect their lives in the future.

This is especially true in impoverished minority communities where the prevalence of obesity is much more widespread than in wealthier, non-minority communities.

Although I think restricting what the "under five" pre-school crowd is allowed to chomp down on may be a little extreme (I know plenty of adults who dined on Ecto-Cooler and Lunchables as kids), parents should help their children understand that making healthy food choices is an investment in themselves and their future health.

(Photo credit: idovermani on Flickr)

Greg Plotkin currently works for Flying Pigs Farm in Shushan, NY. He is dedicated to eliminating inequalities in who has access to healthy food and alleviating hunger.
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