…there is no clear evidence that schools are contributing to the growth in obesity.the obesity-related complaints about school lunches, vending machines, and physical education are based largely on the assumption that these factors are causing our kids to get fat.yet, i find little evidence to support this claim.for example, in looking at survey data on the health behavior of middle and high school students, the factor i found that best predicted whether or not a kid was obese was tooth brushing .more important than how much junk food they ate, soda they drank, or physical education they received was whether or not they brushed their teeth.among fourteen- to seventeen-year-olds, only 16 percent of kids who brushed their teeth more than once a day were overweight compared to 24 percent who brushed less than once a day.of course, other factors were important as well — teenagers who play more computer games, eat more fast-food, and drink less whole milk were also more likely to be obese — but these factors were tiny in comparison with tooth brushing.meanwhile school policies, such as whether the kid was in physical education or ate school lunches, had no predictive power for whether or not a child was obese.
沒有證據(jù)顯示學校是導(dǎo)致肥胖增長的罪魁禍首。我們將大部分導(dǎo)致孩子變胖的假定原因推到學?;锸?、自動售貨機和體育鍛煉上,因而出現(xiàn)了和肥胖有關(guān)的諸多抱怨。然而,我覺得這樣的說法毫無根據(jù)。譬如說,在觀察了一份有關(guān)中學生和大學生健康行為的調(diào)查后,我發(fā)現(xiàn)一個孩子是否肥胖的最佳預(yù)知方法是看刷牙。比他們吃了多少垃圾食品,喝了多少蘇打飲料,進行了多少體育鍛煉更為重要的是他們是否刷牙。14到17歲間每天刷牙超過一次的孩子中,僅有16%得了肥胖癥,而刷牙次數(shù)每天少于一次的孩子,肥胖率為24%。當然,其他因素也很重要——玩電腦次數(shù)過多,吃過多的快餐食品,喝牛奶太少的孩子也很可能得肥胖癥, 但是這些因素和刷牙比起來,微不足道。同時,學校政策,比如孩子是否接受體育鍛煉,是否在學校吃午餐不能成為他是否會得肥胖癥的預(yù)兆。