Well-Intentioned Food Police May Create Havoc With Children’s Diets
By Harriet Brown
This essay in the May 30, 2006 New York Times raises concerns about the extent to which schools intervene in the lives of their students in hopes of improving health.
In the past, such efforts have included discrete and intermittent interventions (e.g., vaccinations and immunizations, either provided by or required by the schools), ongoing programs integrated into the school structure (exercise programs and health education), and auxiliary programs that had an impact on the students’ general health (e.g., hot lunches). Today, these elements seem to be accepted by all except religious sects that disallow certain medical measures, some conservative political groups alarmed by the intrusiveness of government, and a few others with concerns about the safety of specific medical procedures.
Ms Brown’s essay addresses the currently popular battle on obesity which is being carried out in the schools, by local initiatives and via legislation, such as the Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act now before Congress, which would, in effect, set standards on food served at school cafeterias and vending machines.
While the article focuses on the wisdom of taking such actions based on unproven or oversimplified correlations between obesity and specific disease states, the ethical issues of using public authority, in this case the schools and legislation affecting schools, to intervene in the lives of individuals in hopes of improving health are even messier. Reading news stories, for example, of Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s personal 100 pound weight loss and his consequent enthusiasm for enacting regulations to halt obesity causes one to wonder about the justification for those who are in positions of power pushing their own passions, however well-intended, onto others. Motives are even less clear in other situations since coming out in favor of improved school nutrition would seem a particularly safe, politically advantageous position.
Similar ethical conflicts (e.g., physicians advising Vs. coercing patients to follow a medication regimen) are not, of course, unusual in the field of medical compliance, but the school arena does merit special attention given that children are affected and the reasoning behind these decisions is unclear.
