Schools take aim at better nutrition

By BETH QUIMBY, Staff Writer

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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Students headed to the cafeteria in Topsham schools this fall face a culinary revolution: White bread, whole milk and sugary snacks are out; whole-wheat breads, skim milk and fruits are in.

On top of that, the kids will spend at least 12 minutes every day moving around, not counting the time they spend in recess and gym class.

''This is changing a culture,'' said Mary Booth, health coordinator for Topsham schools.

The change is due to the school district's new ''wellness'' policy. School districts like Topsham that receive federal money for their breakfast and lunch programs were required to adopt policies by July 1 to promote student health and reduce obesity and disease by providing healthy foods, nutrition education and increased physical activity.

Maine public school children, who head back to school this week and next, will notice changes at their schools as a result. Cities and towns have greeted the wellness policies with varying levels of enthusiasm in Maine, where 30 percent of children ages 10 to 17 are considered overweight or obese, the highest rate in New England and 25th nationwide.

Some communities, such as Topsham, have used the federal requirement to adopt detailed policy statements and launch new initiatives to try and improve student health. Others, such as York, have taken more low-key approaches. In York, the school district adopted a statement in support of nutritious food and physical education but made no specific changes.

The country's soaring obesity rates have become a national obsession. Forty-four states are considering bills that would increase or reform physical education programs. Maine's Legislature has taken a middle-of-the road approach. It banned soda and candy in the schools last year but rejected a measure to set statewide minimum physical education requirements, along with other sweeping changes supported by the Commission to Study Public Health.

Some Maine communities have forged ahead with some of the recommendations rejected by the Legislature, such as conducting body mass index assessments on students.

Lynn Brown, school health coordinator in Houlton, said teachers noticed that students seemed to be growing heavier. ''We decided to check it instead of guessing,'' she said.

The analysis showed that 27 percent of the kindergarten class was overweight. By grade six, more than 40 percent were overweight.

''It was pretty shocking,'' Brown said.

The analysis spurred the district to make changes in the lunchroom to provide healthy meals, adding whole-wheat breads and fruit.

Some school districts have been tweaking their menus with an eye on health for years. Portland schoolchildren are heading back to nearly sugar-free schools for the third straight year.

Food services director Bill Verrill said it has been a long, gradual weaning process. Ten years ago, about 1,000 pounds of sugar were consumed every two months by children in Portland school cafeterias. Today they consume about that much all year. Portland schools stopped serving cakes and cookies two years ago and offered fruit instead. School food sales remained unchanged.

''We didn't lose our kids,'' Verrill said.

He said the trick is to bring about gradual improvement and allow some high-fat foods in moderation. He started out substituting 25 percent of the white flour used in breads and other baked goods with whole wheat. Today, 75 percent of the flour is whole wheat.

''You have to work with your recipes and don't go 100 percent,'' he said.

Verrill started ordering bite-sized pieces of apple and orange slices, which children are more willing to eat than biting into a whole piece of fruit. Potato chips are occasionally served, but the bags have been downsized to half-ounces, or about four chips a bag.

''Most people want a little something'' like that, he said.

Verrill said he is more concerned about calcium than fat and sugar at this point. So this year he increased the size of low-fat milk containers at the middle and high schools to the 10-ounce plastic containers preferred by older children.

Some students prefer the healthy food. Two members of the boy's soccer team at Portland's Deering High School said they rarely drink soda and prefer whole-wheat bread to white. Tony Yeboah, 16, a junior, said he would like the lunchroom to go even leaner.

''More Italians, and veggies and ham and cheese,'' Yeboah said.

''We want yogurts,'' said his teammate Kuba Rucinski, 17.

Some school districts are turning to local farmers to add more fresh fruits and vegetables to their cafeterias.

David Leighton, food services director for Newport schools, buys all of the district's apples from a local orchard. The orchard's owner has even planted peach and plum trees to supply the district with those fruits in coming years.

Leighton also buys tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, onions and peppers as long as supplies last.

''We are saving a little bit of money and adding more nutrition,'' he said.

Whether increasing physical education classes or taking away sugary treats in schools will improve student health remains to be seen. There are no definitive studies that show such measures work.

That does not concern Tina Pettingill, a Scarborough parent who serves on her school district's wellness advisory board. She said the new policies may not have an immediate impact but will eventually bring about change.

''We look to our schools to be a model for the rest of the community. We hold schools to a higher standard,'' she said.

Kathryn Thompson, professor of nutrition and biochemistry in the College of Osteopathic Medicine at the University of New England in Biddeford, said making schools more healthy can bring about societal changes.

''Little kids in particular will go home and say things that will influence their family's food-buying decisions,'' she said.

Katherine Musgrave, professor emeritus of foods and nutrition at the University of Maine in Orono, said the formula for bringing about a drop in obesity rates is quite simple: increasing physical activity and decreasing consumption and role modeling.

''I don't think the adults in this country have been perfect,'' she said. ''Adults need to look at their own diets and know that children are going to mimic them.''

Staff Writer Beth Quimby can be contacted at 791-6363 or at: