Topics Education Three Sticks: Childhood Obesity Gets Hot As Summer Approaches.

It makes a lot of sense–processed food is cheap so those lower income families eat more of it  — and summer time it can be worse because families can’t rely on the schools to handle some of the daily meals. It’s a vicious cycle — short term the save money – longer term they damage their health – causing them to have to spend the money addressing that.  No easy solution found.

Parents and caregivers must play an active role in their children’s food and lifestyle choices, of course. It’s important to remember, however, that such a role is easier for some parents than others. More than 30 million school age youth receive 1-2 meals per day (at least lunch and breakfast for many) that are either free or subsidized through the National School Lunch Program.

Once school ends for the year, parents must add 5-10 meals (per child!) to their food budgets each week school is out. And the simple truth is that crappy, highly processed food is cheaper than fresh fruits, vegetables and other whole foods.