Too Fat to Fight, a recent publication from an organization of retired senior military officials, reported that “nine million 17- to 24-year-olds in the United States are too fat to serve in the military” and expressed concerns about the ramifications of this for national security. The organization is encouraging Congress to make modifications in the Child Nutrition Act so children are consuming less junk food.
Among the sources cited were the CDC’s obesity statistics. This information is available on the CDC’s U.S. Obesity Trends website.
There are currently several bills in Congress that attempt to remedy this situation. Some of them are:
- H.R.1324 / S.934, Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act of 2009. It “amends the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish science-based nutrition standards for foods served in schools other than foods served under the school lunch or breakfast programs.”
- H.R.4053, Healthy Kids Act (Official title: To establish the Office of Childhood Overweight and Obesity Prevention and Treatment within the Office of Public Health and Science of the Department of Health and Human Services, and for other purposes). Among other provisions, it “amends the Children’s Television Act of 1990 to direct the FTC to revise its regulations with respect to children’s television programming to limit the amount of time devoted to advertising foods and beverages of low nutritional value” and “amends the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to require the Secretary to prescribe regulations for identifying healthy and unhealthy foods and beverages for children in schools and service institutions
- S.1500, A bill to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to prohibit schools that participate in the Federal school meal programs from serving foods that contain trans fats derived from partially hydrogenated oils. It “amends the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to prohibit schools and service institutions that participate in the School Lunch program or the School Breakfast program, under the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, from serving food that contains trans fats.”
One can view the full text and status of these bills by searching Thomas.