Medical Study Produces Amazing Results – Children That Eat Healthier Have Better Health

Yes It Does Make Sense to Keep Sugary Products Out of School Snacks

This Forum is always amazed when a very expensive research project produces results that any 5^th grader would know.  In the following case it is even more apparent that the 5^th graders would know the results, since they were in part the subject of the study.

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Study Links Healthier Weight in Children With Strict Laws on School Snacks

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

Published: August 13, 2012

 

Adolescents in states with strict laws regulating the sale of snacks and sugary drinks in public schools gained less weight over a three-year period than those living in states with no such laws, a new study has found.

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See some parents, teachers and community leaders really care about the health and well being of the children in the community.  So they have in some places worked to remove access to high calorie sugary snacks in the school system.  You know, replacing candy bars with things like fruit and stuff.  And guess what, that is better for the children, what a surprise.

Students who lived in states with strong laws throughout the entire three-year period gained an average of 0.44 fewer body mass index units, or roughly 2.25 fewer pounds for a 5-foot-tall child, than adolescents in states with no policies.

The study also found that obese fifth graders who lived in states with stronger laws were more likely to reach a healthy weight by the eighth grade than those living in states with no laws. Students exposed to weaker laws, however, had weight gains that were not different from those of students in states with no laws at all.

Critics, those who want children to have unlimited exposure to sweets and candy will probably jump on this aspect of the study, which relied on statistical correlation.

The study stopped short of saying the stronger laws were directly responsible for the better outcomes. It concluded only that such outcomes tended to happen in states with stronger laws, but that the outcomes were not necessarily the result of those laws. However, researchers added that they controlled for a number of factors that would have influenced outcomes.

But to refute the results requires the near total suspension of logic and rational thought.  But of course there are a lot of people capable of doing just that.