A new ad campaign from the dairy industry is stirring up quite a debate. The ads say that without the sugary flavoring in chocolate milk, some kids won’t drink regular milk and won’t get its nutrients. Critics say kids will drink white milk if it’s the only milk offered, and that they already get too much sugar, which is adding to the country’s obesity problem.

Should schools serve chocolate milk? What do you think?

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Earlier this month, a new study showed fewer schools are selling snacks and drinks like candy and soda. Now, a panel recommends the government make healthy changes to school meals, even though it will increase costs. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) says as obesity continues to rise, breakfast and lunch at schools should be lower in calories, and have more fruits, vegetables and whole grains to help kids adapt better eating habits. The IOM says the changes could increase the cost of breakfast by as much as 25 percent and lunch by 9 percent.

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Pleas to get junk food out of schools may be paying off. New research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds fewer schools are selling snacks and drinks like candy and soda. The report shows high schools and middle schools that sold sugary or salty snacks dropped on average from 54 percent to 36 percent from 2006 to 2008. Those that sold soda and artificial fruit drinks decreased from 62 percent to 37 percent.

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The USDA will have the power to regulate all food sold in schools – including vending machine snacks – when Congress renews programs for child nutrition. Senate Agriculture Committee chairman, Tom Harkin says this will ensure nutrition programs are not “undermined” by junk food in vending machines. Earlier this year, Harkin co-sponsored a bill that focuses on setting nutritional standards for food in school vending machines and stores to help fight childhood obesity rates.

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Remember the study a couple of months ago about how fast-food restaurants near schools could lead to fatter kids? Now another study seems to echo those results, saying a fast-food restaurant within about 500 feet of a school may lead to at least a five percent increase in the obesity rate at that school. Researchers from Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley, say a ban on fast foods near schools could greatly reduce obesity rates among students.

Want more News Nuggets? Follow me on Twitter!

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It makes a lot of sense – a new study from the University of California at Irvine finds kids who go to school within a half-mile of a fast-food restaurant are more likely to be overweight or obese than those whose schools are further away. And the research shows they also eat fewer servings of fruits and vegetables and drink more soda.

Want more News Nuggets? Follow me on Twitter!

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• Refuse to Regain winner!

Congrats to FatFighterTV member - ladyspy79 – for winning last week’s contest for the HUGE Healthy Snacks Care Package giveaway. Enjoy! And thanks, Yo Naturals!

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Just in time for the holiday feasting season – a healthy snacks care package giveaway to help you balance things out this month, like maybe something to take to the mall to hold you over so you’re not tempted by the many unhealthy choices at the food court!

All the snacks are natural and organic – a sampling of the kind of products you’d find in the Yo Naturals vending machines. Yo Naturals is fighting junk food in vending machines by trying to get places like schools, hospitals, and office buildings to replace their unhealthy snack and soda machines with natural and organic choices. Cool, huh?

The care package from Yo Naturals includes one of each of the following:

• Horizon Organic Dairy milk: regular, strawberry, chocolate
• Robert’s American Gourmet: Pirate’s Booty and Smart Puffs
• Stacy’s Pita Chips: Parmesan Garlic & Herb and Cinnamon Sugar
• Garden of Eatin’: Red Hot Blue Chips
• Barbara’s Bakery Snickerdoodle Snackimal Cookies,
• Barbara’s Bakery Oats & Honey Crunchy organic granola bar
• Barbara’s Bakery oatmeal mini cookies
• Back to Nature Honey Graham Sticks
• Back to Nature Mini Classic Crème Cookies
• Back to Nature Crispy Cheddar Crackers
• Envirokidz Organic Crispy Rice bar Chocolate
• Clif Bar Banana Nut Bread
• Luna Bar Nutz over Chocolate
• Clif Kid Twisted Fruit: Pineapple
• Late July Cookies Vanilla Bean
• Kashi TLC bar Trail Mix
• Barbara’s Bakery Fruit & Yogurt Bar Strawberry Apple
• Back to Nature Apple Juice

I’d say you’re set for awhile!

How do you win? Just tell me in the comments below what your favorite healthy snack is from the list above. Mine is the Luna Bar Nutz over Chocolate – Yum! I’d love to find these natural and organic snacks in more vending machines!

A few contest details: It ends at midnight EST this Friday, December 5… you have to have a U.S. mailing address to enter… and a random number generator will pick the winner.

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Question: How do you get 10,000 kindergartners to find out how fun exercise can be? Answer: Give each one of them a free jump rope, of course! That’s one way the non-profit Seattle group, Treeswing is fighting childhood obesity. With its new Jump Up! program, the goal is to get those 10,000 jump ropes into the hands of every kindergartner in the city this fall.

Treeswing is all about reversing childhood obesity and bringing back the healthy habits of yesteryear. The name refers to “‘the good old days’ when children soared on the tree swing in the backyard or biked to a neighbor’s to play.” Executive director, Tracy Bennett tells FatFighterTV how we can have those good old days once again and how Treeswing is Making a Healthy Difference.

Man-Made Mess
“We created this situation. We have created an environment for this generation of children that is heavily focused on fast food, on video games, and screen time. Kids don’t ride their bikes to school any longer. Families don’t sit down to dinner together any longer. The result is a generation of kids that are increasingly overweight. It’s up to us – those of us who have gotten us to this point over the last 25-30 years – to do something about it.”

Sad Stats
“This generation of kids will be the first to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. That hit me like a ton of bricks.”

Fight Obesity Like We Tackled Tobacco
“For quite awhile, the effort where tobacco was concerned was focused on the individual -˜Well, you just need to quit smoking.’ And it wasn’t until the other 75% of the population said, ‘Wait a minute. We’re going to make it harder for you. We’re going to restrict advertising on television, and we’re going to come down on the sale of cigarettes to minors, and we’re not going to let you smoke in public areas.’ That was when you began to see things happen.

And I think that’s very similar here. We can no longer look at people or children who are overweight and say, ‘Gee, they should do something about it.’ We need to change the environment in which they’re making choices.”

It Can Be Done
“We’re beginning to see those dents – whether it’s getting soda machines out of schools or nutritional labeling in restaurants. But we’ve got a long way to go, no question about it.”

Why Jump Ropes?
“To impress upon kids at a very early age – five and six years old – as they enter school and they enter kindergarten, that it’s very important to be physically active every day in some fashion. Jump roping, in particular for that age, is a very easy thing to do – you can do it inside, outside, with a friend, by yourself, sing songs with it, you don’t need special equipment, you don’t have to travel somewhere.”

Getting Through To Parents
“Enclosed with the jump ropes is an education piece aimed at parents that tells them more about the benefits of regular physical activity, and also about the chronic diseases associated with obesity.”

Jump Up! – A Springboard
“I hope at the very least it will make a dent with parents because that is the key to this issue – kids watch their parents and to the extent that parents can model physical activity, that parents can make healthier choices available to their kids – whether that’s on the dinner table or how they spend Saturday afternoon or what they do when they come home from school – that’s where you’re really going to be able to make an impact.”

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Treeswing and its partners will launch the Jump Up! school campaign September 30. The program includes a calendar for kids to track their jumping and prizes to keep them motivated to use their jump ropes. Go here for more information on Treeswing and Jump Up!

Thanks, Treeswing for Making a Healthy Difference.

Check out all of FFTV’s Making a Healthy Difference honorees here.

If you know of someone you think we should profile, we want to hear from you. Just send us an email at sahar [at] fatfightertv [dot]com

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It’s how New York will track obesity levels in some schools – as students start the school year, some of them will have to weigh in first. A new law requires public schools outside of New York City to get students’ weights and body mass indexes as part of an effort to fight childhood obesity.

The information will help health officials to evaluate obesity levels based on where the kids live. The data will be confidential and gathered as students start second, fourth, seventh and 10th grades.

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