Obesity soars in poorer schools

Children in poor schools are not just poor - they're also more likely to be overweight and obese than their counterparts in rich schools.

Data from 125 schools gathered for the Waikato District Health Board's "Project Energize" has found that boys and girls are more than twice as likely to be obese at the age of 10 if they attend schools in the poorest three income deciles than if they go to schools in the richest three deciles.

The project has found that an "alarming" two out of every five 10-year-olds in the poorest schools are overweight.

One in every six boys in those schools, and one in every seven girls, are officially obese.

But in the richest schools, significantly fewer girls and less than half as many boys are overweight, and only about one in every 20 is obese.

Paediatrician Dr Dave Graham, who is leading the research, said the figures showed that poor families could not afford to buy their children healthy food.

Their children were more likely to suffer tooth decay, high blood pressure, asthma and eventually diabetes and heart problems.

Waipareira Health clinical director Dr Nikki Turner told a post-Budget breakfast in Auckland yesterday the $76 million anti-obesity campaign unveiled in the Budget would not tackle the problem unless the root causes of child poverty were addressed.

Prime Minister Helen Clark told another post-Budget event that today's children could be the first generation to die at an earlier age than their parents unless obesity was beaten.

Project Energize, which started early last year, is testing the effects of changing children's diet and exercise in 62 Waikato primary schools, compared with 63 "control" schools that do not receive the programme.

Project workers are organising "walking school buses", teaching children to ride bikes to school, and running seminars for parents on healthy food, playing with their children and giving children outside play time.

All pupils in the 11 schools in the poorest decile 1 are getting a free piece of fruit a day through the Government's Fruit in Schools scheme, and 5- and 6-year-olds in those schools are getting free milk from Fonterra.

Children in decile 2 to 4 schools are getting a free apple a day through the winter months, thanks to Hamilton orchardist Bob Christey and the Perry Foundation.

Although the first report on the results is not due until next January, Dr Graham said the attitudes of both schools and communities "appear to be changing for the better".

He said a trial in Auckland last year found that many children in low-decile schools did not recognise common fruits because their parents had never been able to buy them.

"I support the observation that the most impoverished among us are also likely to be the least healthy, because of access to resources and to healthy, nutritious food," he said.

"If Coke is less expensive than milk, what are you going to drink? When you can get a cheap loaf of bread for $1, what are you going to eat?"

Dr Turner said poor people were more likely to fill up on "poor-quality, high-density" foods such as white bread and jam, rather than eating healthier but dearer foods such as fruit and vegetables.

"We are not going to solve obesity until we address the issue of children in poverty," she said.

"There is no new income in this Budget for children whose parents are on benefits. Why are those children marginalised because they have the misfortune to have been born in a family whose parents are on a benefit?"

She called on the Government to provide free, nutritious breakfasts to all children in decile 1 and 2 schools.