Province lagging behind with childhood nutrition
ALBERTA MAKING PROGRESS BUT MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE
An annual report that looks into nutrition for Alberta has given a lukewarm grade to the province for 2017.
The Alberta 2017 Nutrition Report Card on Food Environments for Children and Youth provides information on how Alberta’s food environments and nutrition policies support or create barriers to improving children’s eating behaviours and body weights.
This year, one thing is clear: Although Alberta is making progress on healthier food and nutrition environments for young people, there is much more to be done.
Professor Kim Raine, Associate Dean at the University of Alberta School of Public Health, spoke at the Lethbridge Public Library on Thursday about the study, Alberta’s grade and some recommendations that have been made. She said municipalities could look at zoning around schools and consider how easy access to fast food or convenience stores might affect children’s health — adding 70 per cent of schools in Calgary and Edmonton have easy access to these businesses.
“These are things we could potentially look at when schools are being built, or when development applications come in,” she said.
Lisa Campkin, senior co-ordinator, Health Promotions, for Alberta Nunavut, Northwest Territories Heart and Stroke Foundation, said her organization is part of a coalition of groups working to restrict marketing to children 16 years of age and younger.
“Twenty-five million food and beverage ads are seen by children every year on their favourite websites,” she said. “And 90 per cent of those ads are for unhealthy foods and beverages.”
She said the concern is that reinforcement of these messages could be leading to a number of health issues, such as chronic disease rates, obesity in children.
She also said how these unhealthy foods are marketed to children is an issue.
“It’s somewhat insidious,” she said. “How unhealthy products can be made to seem like they make you cooler and increase social standing, and that it’s a fun item, and you’re made to seem like you are part of a good group or having a party.
She said past efforts by the industry to regulate itself have been unsuccessful, and that they are seeking stronger regulations by the government on the matter.
“We would like to use (information found in the report card) to incite people to make change toward action,” she said.
Lisa McLaughlin, program manager with Communities ChooseWell, said it is important for communities to consider the need for healthy food environments in and around recreation centres.
She said interest has been growing since the issue started being looked into in 2013.
“I think, generally speaking, there isn’t a lot of disagreement that it’s the right thing to do, and that it makes sense, because recreations are supposed to be places of wellness,” she said. “They support that really well on the physical activity side of things. But when it comes to food, it’s the opposite. It’s counter-intuitive.
Raine said the report also had some good news for Alberta.
“We’re one of the few provinces that actually has guidelines for schools, recreation facilities and daycares around healthy food for kids,” she said. ”They are called the Alberta Nutrition Guidelines for Children and Youth. They’ve been in place since 2008.
“We gave an ‘A’ for having that, but what we need to do is mandate those guidelines.”