Study on healthier foods at school released

And...

"Five Philadelphia elementary schools replaced sodas with fruit juice.

They scaled back snacks and banished candy. They handed out raffle tickets for wise food choices. They spent hours teaching kids, their parents and teachers about good nutrition.

What have they got to show for it?

The number of kids who got fat during the two-year experiment was half the number of kids who got fat in schools that didn't make those efforts...

The bad news: There were still plenty of new overweight kids in the five schools — over 7 percent of them became overweight compared to the 15 percent in the schools that didn't make changes."

The point?

"For the study, changes were made to the food in vending machines or the cafeteria in five of the schools. Juice, water and low-fat milk replaced sodas."

It is not and never will be about "healthy" foods.

It is and always will be about Calories in vs. Calories out.

"She said the children were also urged to exercise at activity stations during recess. They were measured and weighed periodically and surveyed about food and exercise."

And even with all the efforts obesity did not change.

"There was no difference between school groups in new obese students (6 percent) or the overall number of obese (about 25 percent). Obese children probably benefit more from individually targeted efforts, Foster said."

Incidentally, the report of this "study" did not state many important things like whether there was weight loss (the kids who got fat number was provided; this is different), what happens after 2 years (unknowable from this study) and what the relative contributions to this likely illusory victory were from increased physical activity vs. the food.

Too early to do any back-slapping.

But they did, anyway.