Healthful snacks urged for schools

PROVO — A baker's dozen of Brigham Young University health students met with lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to lobby for less sweets in Utah schools.

Their message: Children are becoming what they eat — too much fat.

The college students told members of Congress too many children are gaining weight in large part because they don't get enough physical activity and they eat snacks bought from the school vending machines instead of a sack lunch or a meal from the school cafeteria.

"Obesity is as big a health threat as heart disease and cancer, if not bigger," said BYU graduate student Paul Perrin, one of the 13 BYU students able to make the trip.

The group paid for the visit to the nation's capital with a BYU Mentoring Environments Grant, which covered the $800-per-student cost of the trip.

The grants, sponsored by the university's Office of Research and Creative Activities, funds projects in which students and professors work side by side.

Professors Michael Barnes and Sue Hill accompanied the students.

The trip was made at the same time reports surfaced over national concerns with eating habits at school, including a report in The New England Journal of Medicine that said children today could lose an average of two to five years of life expectancy because of obesity.

While in Washington last week, the students also attended the eighth annual Health Education Advocacy Summit. They spent two days learning about about specific health programs before making the visits to their elected officials.

The preponderance of junk food on school campuses, mental health services available to children and other, related health issues were discussed at the summit.

"Many states have cut their (physical education and health) programs significantly," said BYU student Emily McIntyre.

While the graduate students' goal wasn't to reinstate health and PE programs, they did urge political leaders to increase funding of health-related issues.

Teachers, too, should set the example for their students by their health choices, McIntyre said.

BYU students from Utah met with Sens. Orin Hatch and Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Reps. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah.

BYU students from California met with aides for Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Rep. John T. Doolittle, R-Calif.

While in Washington the group also met with former Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt, now Health and Human Services secretary in the Bush administration.

"You can't be nearsighted with public health, you have to change behaviors now to prevent them from becoming health problems later. Simple interventions now will reduce public health care costs later," said public health graduate student Whitney Johnson from Clovis, Calif.

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