Healthy children, pre-K and diabetes

Isupport the Pre-K for Santa Fe initiative (“City Council rift emerges over timing of sugary-drinks tax vote,” Feb. 24). There is no shortage of research and anecdotal information about the value of quality pre-K programs.

The challenges for young people who are never exposed to pre-K programs and services also are well-documented. The biggest challenge for a community is how to fund them. In my view, the proposal for a local tax on sugar-loaded drinks is perfect for the physical and social health of our community. My view is informed by my work as a birth educator, by my service on the Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education and through personal experience.

I conducted birth preparation classes for teenagers at Santa Fe High School in the 1980s. At that time, locally and nationally, it was a given that pregnant teens would have a bout with toxemia and then give birth prematurely to low-birth-weight babies. My students had heard all the stories from their friends who were mothers about having to spend the first six months at the neonatal intensive care unit. They were starved for information that would help them give birth to a healthy baby and avoid toxemia. After learning about protein and calcium, my students had zero toxemia, zero premature births and only one low-birth-weight baby, and that baby was just under 5 pounds. My belief in healthy eating was confirmed. More importantly, I learned that all people want the best for themselves and their families, but they don’t always know how to get there.

During my service on the Board of Education, we were considering whether or not to put bottled water in the vending machines at the high schools. Some board members argued that students only wanted sugar-loaded drinks, not water. We conducted a survey at the high schools, and the results showed overwhelmingly that students wanted water.

We also heard stories about students who arrived at kindergarten without even knowing how to hold a crayon. The other stories that were hard to hear were about kindergarten students who did not have any life experiences you would normally expect them to have (no trips to parks or libraries, no vacations).

These are students that spend their first years being baby-sat by a family member and a TV screen while parents and grandparents work two or three jobs to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. These students never catch up.

There is an epidemic of diabetes in this country because of the massive amount of sugar injected into almost everything we eat and because of our sedentary lifestyle. My own partner in life, Michael Vigil, was diagnosed with Type II diabetes in his early 40s. Michael was the champion of managing his diabetes. He cut out all sugar, he exercised and he did everything else the doctors recommended. Diabetes is a progressive disease, so in spite of Michael’s dedication, diabetes destroyed his kidneys. He recently underwent kidney transplant surgery.

I have no problem taxing sugar-loaded drinks. Sugar-loaded drinks are a poison. They are not a necessity in anyone’s diet. A local tax on sugar-loaded drinks that directly supports pre-K for Santa Fe is a good way to get to a healthier community, both physically and socially.

Carla Lopez is a former member of both the Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education and the State Public Education Commission. Lopez serves on the city’s Community Development Commission and as chairwoman of Pre-K for Santa Fe. She is the wife of former state District Judge Michael Vigil of Santa Fe.