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Obesity is on the rise in children. Four years ago 14 percent of children were dangerously overweight. This week, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that now 18 percent of boys and 16 percent of girls are obese.
Exercise won't solve the problem.
Margo Wootan, director of nutrition at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, who worked closely with Congress on the legislation, says no amount of physical activity can counter the effects of junk food.
AX 1 - WOOTAN
"It would take a child about an hour and 15 minutes of biking to burn off the calories in just one 20 ounce coke. We're never going to have PE for more than an hour every single day. "
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The problem is junk food, according to Kathleen Keller, a research fellow at the New York Obesity Research Center.
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"So everything about the current environment, the accessibility of fast foods, parental environment, certainly vending machines in the schools. Everything that makes fast foods and sugary snacks and sodas easier for children to get can certainly contribute to obesity."
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About 99 per cent of US high schools and 83 percent of elementary schools have vending machines. The bill would force vending machines to contain healthier foods.
Maureen Knightly, press secretary for Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who has been pushing such a bill since 1994, says that the federal nutritional guidelines for schools are out of date.
AX 3 - KNIGHTLY
"Many kids are eating at school for sometimes two meals a day and instead of a nutritious school breakfast and school lunch in the cafeteria, they're instead enticed to eating cheetos and snickers bars from vending machines in the hallway and that's just not right."
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If the bill passes, the new rules would take effect at the beginning of the following school year.
Tamara Rosenberg, Columbia Radio News.