Study: Kids still buy junk food at school

Despite efforts to serve healthier meals to school children, roughly half of U.S. elementary school kids can buy junk food at school, a new study finds.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago said cookies, cakes and chips are still sold through school vending machines, cafeterias and snack bars even if they are not served at lunch.

"Kids can get junk food at school," said Lindsey Turner, a health psychologist and research scientist at the university's Institute for Health Research and Policy.

"Despite increasing attention to food in schools and childhood obesity, over time there was no change in the availability of food in competitive venues in schools," she said.

"Competitive" foods and beverages are those sold separately from school lunches.

In 2007, the Institute of Medicine said school meal programs should be the primary source of food at school and recommended limiting access to competitive foods and drinks. If competitive foods were available, they should include fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy products, the Institute said.

"Given these recommendations for what are considered healthy practices in schools, a lot of schools are not following them," Turner said. "Where these products are available, kids are consuming more calories and that is a risk factor for obesity," she added.

Nearly 20 percent of elementary school students included in a 2007-2008 national survey were obese, the study authors said. Increasing awareness of the problem helps, but Turner pointed out that without regulation a lot of schools won't change their policies. Under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, the USDA can set standards for all foods sold in schools.

The report was published in the February issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.