In an effort to combat child obesity, former President Bill Clinton and the American Heart Association allied with several major food companies — including Campbell Soup Company, Kraft Foods, Mars and PepsiCo, and Dannon — to make the snack options available to students at Boston schools healthier, according to an Oct. 6 AHA press release.
Clinton and the AHA previously came together in 2005 to form the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.
According to the press release, the alliance with food manufacturers has created the first ever “voluntary guidelines” for snack items sold in schools.
The guidelines encourage eating fruits and vegetables, whole grains, “nutrient-rich foods, fat-free and low fat dairy foods” and place limits on calories from fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sugar and sodium, according to the release.
According to Juli Mandel Sloves, a spokeswoman from Campbell Soup Company, the foods that will follow the voluntary guidelines include products that are sold “a la carte, through fundraisers, vending machines and school stores.”
Sloves said the guidelines are all based on scientific research conducted by the AHA and on the national dietary guidelines.
“There are certain products that will no longer be available in schools,” Sloves said. “The food manufacturers [in the agreement] who are supplying these foods are then going to help the schools understand the guidelines.”
“There’s a commitment on the part of the food companies involved to meet the guidelines,” she continued.
Sloves added Campbell is very proud to already have a “number of products that meet the criteria.”
“Being involved in a program like this is consistent with our corporate vision, which is ‘Nourishing people’s lives, everywhere everyday,'” Sloves said. “Part of the way that we realized that vision is by offering products that help people to lead a healthier lifestyle.”
Sloves added the alliance is just one of many ways that Campbell is working to help American kids. They have several other programs geared toward promoting the health of American kids, like Labels for Education on certain food products.
Michael Neuwirth, spokesman for Dannon, said the fat content in the food items is only one component of the dietary guidelines. He said the vast majority of all Dannon products are already compliant with all of the guidelines.
“We believe that products that meet the guidelines should be sold in schools, so it was a good decision for us to sign,” Neuwirth said. “Going above and beyond these guidelines, Dannon will reduce the sugar content of our Danimals yogurt cups by 25 percent.”
Neuwirth said Dannon will continue to look for other ways to educate people about healthier food choices.
According to Paula Quatromoni, an AHA spokeswoman and a professor at Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, the Alliance has been working toward this agreement for a long time.
“It’s all part of a mission for child health,” Quatromoni said in an email. “They are trying to do it without going the route of legislation. What I think is really terrific about this is that it’s voluntary. It really makes it huge that it’s voluntary without it being legislated on them.”
“Fifty-four million children attend nearly 123,000 schools nationwide,” she continued. “That’s a tremendous captive audience! This agreement with the snack industry will improve the nutritional quality of foods available for sale before, during and after school, on school grounds and at school-sponsored events.”
Quatromoni said students are currently not getting their nutrition from the right kinds of foods.
“School-age kids consume 10 to 20 percent or more of their total calories from snack foods,” she said. “Getting healthy foods into schools helps to role model healthy eating. It helps to build the bridge that connects with the health education they learn in class about good nutrition. It also helps to make a connection to healthy eating at home and away from school.”
Quatromoni said healthy eating takes some effort and knowledge about food ingredients, and finding access to the healthy ones.
“It takes access to healthy food choices and affordability,” she said. “It relies on sensible portion control. It demands that healthy foods taste good, otherwise the benefit is lost if people won’t chose them because they don’t enjoy them.”
Quatromoni said while the program could prove effective for kids, exercise is always necessary to remaining healthy.
“Anything that gets kids moving and keeps them physically active will have a great impact on child health and well being,” she added.
Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert — a nonprofit organization working to fight childhood obesity — said the agreement is not enforceable.
“There are no enforcements, the companies can back out and the standards are very weak,” he said. “It may even encourage more junk food in schools. First the Clinton foundation and the AHA have legitimized and endorsed the sale of junk food to school children.”
“The news coverage is going to make some public health advocates think that all the junk foods are going out of schools, so they are going to stop their battle of bringing it out of schools,” he said. “It was a very effective [public relations] stunt.”
Clinton, who once struggled with his weight and underwent quadruple bypass surgery in 2004, said in an Oct. 6 The Boston Globe article the obesity problem is becoming damaging to the economy by “contributing to high healthcare costs.”
Most foods served at the sample schools will not be allowed to consist of more than 35 percent of their calories from fat and more than 10 percent from saturated fat, according to the Globe article.