Students Purchase 400 Calories With $1

categories: Children, Cities, Guest Bloggers, Health & Healthcare, Inequality, News, Research

Published October 15, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT

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)

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Comments (4)

Greg- What is your obession with food? I am going to where Information Flows, not food based conjecture.

Posted by jan Lightfootlane on 10/15/2009 @ 10:28AM PT
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Because I view access to healthy food as a basic human right. Me and you have the same goal, we just have different opinions on how to get there...

Posted by Greg Plotkin on 10/15/2009 @ 10:36AM PT
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The Philadelphia study definitely highlights key facts about the early onset of eating habits that lead to obesity. However, I think the most important point is this: students buy these snacks because they have limited money and need to fill their stomachs. They're choosing cheap, unhealthy options that also tend to carry a high caloric content, which as a result will keep them feeling full afterwards. Instead of convincing parents to spend more money (if they even have it) on after-school snacks or convincing kids to buy healthier snacks (let's face it: parents have little say in convenience-store purchases): increase the focus on providing adequate access to affordable, healthy, and filling breakfasts and lunches, which can be controlled and subsidized within schools. On this point, I'm curious what percentage of the kids making these snack decisions eat breakfast each day, considered both absolutely and relative to those who make better snack decisions or don't buy them at all- of course they'll be hungry before and after school if lunch is their first meal of the day.

Posted by Steve D on 10/15/2009 @ 09:10PM PT
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No people! They buy them because They like them! Not every thing you eat has to be healthy! Leave these kids alone!

Posted by Charlie Reed on 10/21/2009 @ 03:55PM PT
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Author

Greg Plotkin is currently a grant-writer living in Washington, DC. As a two-year AmeriCorps member teaching in DC Public Schools, he saw families struggling with poverty on a daily basis and has become particularly interested in hunger, nutrition and food access issues. He has also viewed poverty through the lens of his work with Habitat for Humanity and Charlie's Place--a DC soup kitchen and homeless support center.