Add healthful eating on back-to-school checklist

A new school year is about to start. New clothes? Check. Supplies? Check. Class schedule and bus routes plotted? Check. Healthy lunches and snacks bought? Hmmm. Not on the to-do list? If not, that's a mistake.

In fact, parents not only should be encouraging healthy eating, they should be keeping a close watch as to what is available to eat and drink at school. Some state and federal rules are in place or changing, but this is one subject parents need to make sure their children and the schools they attend don't flunk.

An Associated Press story on our Page 1 last week on the national trend toward healthy eating, even from vending machines, quoted a former California principal who stated the issue succinctly.

"I can't say enough for what it does for the kids to have the junk out of the machines. It was not an easy task. It was a re-education process."

We assume that means re-educating not only the students, but the adults as well.

A quick check of our suburban schools shows good progress in the battle against sweets and salty products.

Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 requires vending machines to have at least 50 percent healthy choices, with a goal to increase that percentage over time. Naperville Unit District 203 schools don't sell beverages with high fructose corn syrup, like soda, during the school day. Mundelein High School removed soda and candy, replacing them with flavored water and granola. And Northwest Suburban High School District 214 highlights the healthy choices in its vending machines with the color green - and the bad choices get a red.

These are good steps. But they need to go further. Why offer bad choices at all? Why allow soda to be sold after school?

Why turn vending machines off during lunch periods, like in Indian Prairie Unit District 204, but still allow students to buy unhealthy snacks at other times?

The obesity rates of American children have more than tripled in the last 30 years, making it even more important that schools be a safe haven from poor choices. And it's vital for parents to model good eating behavior for their children at home.

As The Associated Press story noted, kids will eat what's available - even fresh fruit.

"They will eat it if it's available and you don't have the bad stuff," said that former principal. "Kids get hungry. They're going to eat one way or the other."

First Lady Michelle Obama is leading a national effort against childhood obesity. And the Senate passed one part of her campaign last week when it voted to create new standards for all foods in schools, including vending machine items. We applaud those efforts and encourage our schools to do as much as they can, with parents' help, to keep our kids fit, active and eating healthy.