A survey conducted by the University of Illinois at Chicago revealed that district policies and state laws helped reduce the sale of junk food in schools.
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago conducted a survey say that district policies and state laws had an effect on the sale of junk food in schools. They were satisfied to find that such policies and laws did indeed reduce the sale of junk food in schools. More than 1,800 elementary schools in 45 states took part in the survey that was conducted during 2008-2009 and 2010-2011 school years.
Researchers from the university found that in 43.5 percent schools in areas without district policies and state laws sold junk food outside the school meal program while only 32.3 percent of schools in areas that had such laws and policies sold such food items.
According to Jamie Chriqui, lead author of the study and senior research scientist at UIC's Institute for Health Research and Policy, the findings of this new study prove that "policies can improve the elementary school food and beverage environment, and state and district policies are often reinforcing one another."
Only 3.6 percent of schools that had district wide bans sold sugar-sweetened beverages while this percentage rose to 13.1 percent for schools in areas with no bans.
"Given the problems we have with over consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages by children and youth, the fact that unfunded district policies are actually helping to change the availability of sugar sweetened beverages in elementary schools is a really positive sign," said Chriqui.
While policies were found to reduce the sale of junk food in schools, researchers found that all such policies were not being implemented properly. They noted that of a total of 121 surveyed schools that were in states with laws prohibiting sale of sugar-sweetened beverages in elementary schools, 22 schools still sold sugar-sweetened beverages.
