Watch: Are schools to blame for America’s obesity epidemic?


To borrow a line from Kermit the frog, it’s not easy being green — or, eating green, the Huffington Post reports. America is the fattest country in the world, and only ranks second to Greece in the proportion of children who are overweight, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. While obesity rates have slowed or stabled in other countries, larger increases were recorded in the United States, alongside Canada and Ireland. In America, 17 percent — or 12.5 million — of children aged 2-19 are obese, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another 16 percent or so are overweight and at risk of becoming obese. Experts point to a culture of high fat and low quality, low nutrition eating — combined with minimal physical activity — as the main culprit. The OECD has called for a shift in habits and increased education in health and nutrition. But is it where that education is supposed to be occurring — in schools — in part to blame? While schools can’t control what students eat off campus, they can affect what’s being served to children on school grounds, and educate students to prepare them for a lifetime of healthy habits, advocates have said…

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