In not-at-all-surprising news, a food industry-funded elementary school curriculum focuses on physical activity and explicitly states “there are no good foods or bad foods.” How convenient!
Mother Jones has the details.
Highlights:
- “The class is part of a program called Together Counts. That program is wholly funded by a group called the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation—which is in turn run and bankrolled by junk food corporations. Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, is the chair of the board, and directors include the CEOs of Kellogg, Hershey, Nestlé USA, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Smucker, and General Mills. The organization’s mission, according to tax filings, is “to help families and schools reduce obesity—especially childhood obesity.”
Note that the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation lists the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics as a “partner”.
- “In addition to schools, the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, which has an annual budget of about $10 million, funds energy balance programs for a wide variety of organizations, including the Girl Scouts, the National Parent Teacher Association, and the National Head Start Association.”
- “Again and again, the HWCF lesson plans drive home a single message: All foods can be good sources of energy—as long as you exercise enough. In the first of four lessons in Energy Balance 101, elementary school students play a game matching up calories in foods with activities (e.g. “chocolate/nut candy bar” = playing soccer for an hour and a half), and learn that 21 carrots and a chocolate-chip cookie have the same number of calories, though cookies have fewer nutrients.”
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