Being healthier begins at school

Healthier school meals and active day lowers diabetes risk

Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine has added to evidence that school can have a positive impact on children’s health. Through encouraging healthy eating and improving physical education classes, levels of obesity can be reduced. Obesity is a key risk factor for type 2 diabetes, and this study focused particularly on whether the risk factors for the condition could be reduced.

The study was carried out by UC Irvine, focused on schools with at-risk, high-ethnic-minority populations, as type 2 affects minorities and those on a low-income disproportionally. Out of the 42 schools involved in the research, half were chosen at random to undertake the study’s programme of longer PE classes and access to more nutritional food, as well as separate education and awareness campaigns that encouraged healthy behaviour. At the start of the study, almost half of the children in the intervention group were overweight or obese, 16 per cent had high blood glucose levels, and nearly 7 per cent had elevated fasting insulin levels, all of which are risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes. At the end, the children who had been identified as being at risk had a 21 per cent lower rate of obesity than children in the control schools. The children on the programme also had lower average levels of fasting insulin.

Source: Diabetes.co.uk, 30 June 2010.

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