Majority of parents support healthier school nutrition standards

From the American Heart Association: 

A majority of parents favor strong national nutrition standards for food and drink sold at schools, according to a poll released Monday by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the American Heart Association.

In addition, the poll found that parents would also like to see salt limited in school foods and more fruits and vegetables served.

The poll, which was conducted in June among 1,112 parents, said that 80 percent of the parents said they were concerned about their children’s health. Seventy-four percent said they were concerned about childhood obesity, a major risk factor for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar and cardiovascular disease later in life. Currently, more than one third of children and adolescents are clinically overweight or obese. Among children ages six to 11, obesity rates rose from 7 percent in 1980 to 18 percent in 2012. The rates increased from 5 percent to 21 percent during that same period for youth ages 12 to 19.

To read the full blog post, visit the American Heart Association's website.