Prevent Childhood Obesity: Drink Water?

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Marion Nestle

Saturday, August 15, 2009

I can hardly believe it but just having drinking fountains in schools (and no sugary drinks) seems to be enough to reduce the risk of obesity in kids by 31%.

This astonishing result is reported in the latest issue of Pediatrics. Investigators arranged to have drinking fountains installed in about half of 32 elementary schools in “socially deprived” areas of Germany. They also prepared lesson plans encouraging water consumption. Kids in the intervention schools drank more water and reported consuming less juice.

Could we try this here? The barriers are formidible. First, the water fountain problem. Water fountains must (a) be present, (b) be usable, (c) be clean and sanitary, and (d) produce water that is free of harmful chemicals and bacteria. All of these are problematic. I once tried to find out whether the water in school drinking fountains in New York City had been tested and was known to be safe to drink. I had to file a FOIA (freedom of information act) request to get testing data. This came from only a few schools and from water going into the fountains, not coming out of them.

And then there is the soda problem. Schools in Germany do not have vending machines all over the place and kids do not have access to sodas, juice drinks, and other such things all day long. Ours do.

But doesn’t this study suggest that if we got rid of vending machines and junk foods in schools - and made sure water fountains worked, were clean, and distributed clean water - that we could make a little progress on preventing childhood obesity? Worth a try, no?

Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health (the department she chaired from 1988-2003) and Professor of Sociology at New York University. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley.

(This was originally posted on Marion's blog, Food Politics.)

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of Healthy Child Healthy Child.

Posted by Cindy on 08/27/2009 at 02:17 AM

That is really good solution to child obesity.. thanks a million..

Posted by smilinggreenmom on 08/15/2009 at 05:10 AM

As a total germ-a-phobe mommy (LOL) I am not sure that I want to know what bacteria is growing all over my kids drinking fountains. Ugh. Really- I do worry about this and always make sure they are not touching the fountain with their mouths. Ewww. I agree though that this just seems like a “no brainer” to me. Why is it necessary to put vending machines into schools? Seriously- it seems to me that it is someone’s way of making a buck off our kids. If healthy choices were the only things available…of course our kids would choose them! Our children love healthy foods! That is all we buy really…we just don’t stock up on junk and I only buy juices for special occasions….and they are fine with this because it is all they know! Our son has suffered from severe food allergies and Eczema and since he has become dramatically better from his kids chewable probiotic from Vidazorb, our family has changed too. We read all labels, we eat more whole foods and avoid processed foods- and drink LOTS of water! Thanks for bring this topic up. It is so important! How do we change this in our schools???

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