Taking on childhood obesity

In healthcare, the word innovation usually brings up images of fancy new gadgets or breakthrough drugs. But innovation, meaning the application of new ideas, goods, services or practices intended to be useful (source of definition: Wikipedia), can apply to the positive change happening in public schools today, namely the squeezing out of fatty foods and high-calorie drinks from the cafeteria.

Just yesterday, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Cadbury Schweppes (the owner of Dr. Pepper) announced they would remove soft drinks, iced teas & juices from cafeterias and vending machines. Why? Largely it's "in response to the growing threat of lawsuits and state legislation," according to the May 4, 2006 NY Times article "Bottlers Agree to a School Ban on Sweet Drinks."

Under an agreement between beverage makers and health advocates, students in elementary school would be served only bottled water, low-fat and nonfat milk, and 100 percent fruit juice in servings no bigger than eight ounces. Serving sizes would increase to 10 ounces in middle school. In high school, low-calorie juice drinks, sports drinks and diet sodas would be permitted; serving sizes would be limited to 12 ounces.

The agreement, which includes parochial and private schools contracts, is voluntary, and the beverage industry said its school sales would not be affected because it expected to replace sugary drinks with other ones.

...

Still, about 35 million public school children would be affected by the agreement, which would apply to extended school functions like band practice but would not apply to events likely to be attended by parents, like evening plays or interscholastic sports. An additional 15 million students attend schools that operate under stricter regulations, where the guidelines would not apply.

It looks like the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a joint project between President Bill Clinton's foundation and the American Heart Assocation, brokered the deal. He said, "We've been talking to them for months and months, and they may have liked the way we were working with them, not just singling them out... I'm glad we did it without litigation and could accelerate the process."

During the news conference for the announcement, Pres. Clinton -- who has become active with Governor Huckabee of Arkansas in promoting healthier lifestyles to fight obesity, put a good spin on the companies' joint action, calling it courageous. But:

Later in the day, Mr. Clinton said it was more than the threat of lawsuits that spurred the agreement.

Regardless of why, it is the what that matters: by 2009 most schools will no longer be serving soda in schools. This is part of a broader movement by activist legislators, policy groups & progressive schools sweeping the nation, the main aim of which is to ban all fatty foods & drinks from public schools.

This is important because child psychologists have shown that habits formed in childhood and pre-adolescence hold the strongest grip into adulthood. And so the thinking goes if kids eat junk food because that is all that's available, they will do so into adulthood, promoting chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes. And if kids eat healthy food because that is what's available, then they will keep those habits and be healthy as adults.

Switching gears a bit, what's sad about the NY Times article is that it didn't mention the pioneering work of Susan Combs, Agriculture Commissioner of Texas.

Here is the

Time story on her from December 2004. And at the Time's Obesity Summit earlier earlier that year, Ms. Combs' efforts were acknowledged.

We heard about extraordinary nutritional overhauls going on in the schools of Texas, a state with a very high obesity rate, and those changes reflect the effort of one government official: state agricultural commissioner Susan Combs. She has shown what strong government leadership can do.

In summary, using executive powers in new ways (as Ms. Combs had done) and legislatures becoming oriented around preventative healthcare (e.g., NYC, which banned sodas from schools, fears the huge costs associated with caring for chronically diseased citizens, which it foresaw unless it acted drastically) is "innovative healthcare." And the strongarming by Pres. Clinton and like-minded leaders & organizations of corporations to encourage healthiet habits, even using the threat of lawsuit, is just the latest salvo in this important battle.

Hope they keep fighting the good fight.

P.S. I wrote Ms. Combs a month ago to commend her for her great foresight and for standing up to corporate giants for the sake of both young Texans kids and the state's future fiscal health. Here's the letter she wrote me back with. I thought it was pretty cool of her to write back.