Audio (MP3, 16.1 MB)
Transcript of Media Call with Agriculture Secretary Vilsack, Dr. Robert M. Wah of the American Medical Association, Dr. Benard Dreyer of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, Chief Medical Officer for Prevention at the American Heart Association
(Moderator): Hello everyone and thank you for joining the call, our Media call.
We have, along with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, medical experts; they're all calling on Congress to maintain healthy school meal standards.
Reporters if you'd like to ask a question of any of our panel members please let us know by pressing star 1.
On the line we have Secretary Vilsack along with Dr. Robert Wah, President, American Medical Association, Dr. Benard Dreyer, President-elect American Academy of Pediatrics, and Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, Chief Medical Officer for Prevention with the American Heart Association.
Once again if you'd like to ask a question of our panel members, once they've given their opening comments please let us know by pressing star 1 on your touchtone pad.
And now I turn it over to Secretary Vilsack. Hello.
Tom Vilsack: Thank you (Susan). And I apologize for the delay. And certainly appreciate the doctors joining us today. I think this is an important topic and one that we obviously will continue to be talking about throughout the spring and summer.
The other day when I was testifying before the Senate questions were asked about the School Nutrition Program and whether or not it was appropriate or necessary to provide additional flexibility or to potentially take a step back on the commitment we've made to American school children to improve school meals and school snacks.
With one-third of our children being obese and 15.8 million of our children being food insecure now is not the time to take a step back. Now is not the time to walk back away from the progress that we've made to date.
The reality is that these challenges of obesity and food insecurity compromise our children's ability to achieve educationally, will lead to potentially a lifetime of chronic diseases and higher healthcare costs and lower productivity, will damage America's economic competitiveness and make it more difficult for us to meet our national security needs in terms of having enough young people physically fit for military service.
That's why this Administration and the President's direction has taken a comprehensive approach to improving nutrition for children by improving the WIC Package, by expanding SNAP access to fruits and vegetables, by aggressively expanding our Summer Feeding Program and Weekend Feeding Programs for children, partnering with the party's - First Lady's Let's Move Initiative, initiating our Farm to School Program and of course improving the school lunch, breakfast and snack programs.
Ninety-three percent of American schools are now working with the guidelines. Seventy percent of elementary school children have indicated acceptance of the new standards, 63% of children have accepted it at the high school level. We have provided flexibility where it's appropriate and most recently we continued focusing on financial assistance to schools so they can do a better job of providing nutritious meals to children.
That involves not only encouraging states to use all of the implementation money that was originally provided when the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed, yet today there are still millions of dollars unspent. Increasing the reimbursement to schools who do meet the standards, notifying schools of up to $185 million of school equipment grants, focusing on continued granting of resources for our smarter lunchroom program to take advantage of the efforts at Cornell and University of Mississippi in terms of how to make nutritious choices the easy choice for children, and also most recently expanding our Team Up for Success and Nutrition Program which links struggling schools with succeeding schools and creating a mentoring opportunity. We test piloted this project last year and we're now announcing expansion throughout the United States for 2015.
We're joined today by three experts in the medical field who understand and appreciate the consequences of moving forward and the potential adverse consequences of taking steps backward.
I'd like to turn over now to Dr. Wah who's the President of the American Medical Association for his comments. He'll be followed by Dr. Dreyer and then Dr. Sanchez.
Dr. Robert Wah: Thank you Mr. Secretary. I'm Robert Wah, a practicing Reproductive Endocrinologist in McLean, Virginia.
America is looking to improve health outcomes and lower healthcare costs. This means healthy lifestyles and maintaining an appropriate weight are more important than ever.
Good nutrition and healthy eating habits are essential to this effort. Healthy food means healthy kids. But too many children live in households that scramble for their next meal, who don't have access to nutritious foods because they lack the options or resources for healthier options.
So we applaud the USDA Programs that help families gain access to healthy nutritious food. Healthier people go to the doctor less and have fewer medical expenses. They miss fewer days of work and school. And they're better able to serve in their work and armed forces and are generally just happier and more successful overall.
The American Medical Association supports the Administration's efforts to make sure kids receive healthy school meals, as eating habits formed in childhood can last a lifetime. And thereby reduce chronic disease in the future.
School meal standards should be based upon the best available science. And we're supportive of the recommendations form the Institutes of Medicine that the USDA took into account when shaping these standards.
Importantly, good nutrition helps reduce the incidence of obesity. Obesity rates have unfortunately doubled among adults in the last 20 years and tripled among children in a single generation. Obesity is associated with conditions including Type 2 Diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.
Think about this. Disease linked to obesity kills more Americans every year than AIDS, accidents and cancer combined.
Looking at the looming tool of Type 2 Diabetes alone 86 million Americans live with pre-diabetes and nearly 90% of them don't know it. And obviously don't know the dangers either.
What is pre-diabetes? It's higher than normal blood glucose levels but not high enough yet to be considered Type 2 Diabetes.
Research shows that 15% to 30% of overweight people with pre-diabetes will develop Type 2 Diabetes within five years unless they lose weight through healthy eating and more physical activity.
So the AMA has launched an initiative focused on reducing Type 2 Diabetes and helping improve health outcomes from those suffering from it. As part of that effort last Thursday we launched an initiative with the Centers for Disease Control, CDC, called Prevent Diabetes STAT which stands for Screen Test Act Today.
This multiyear initiative expands on work to reach more Americans with pre-diabetes and stop the progression to Type 2 Diabetes. American needs frontline physicians and other healthcare professionals to join with employers, insurers and community organizations to forge stronger links among the Delivery Care System and our communities and our patients.
Already the AMA and the CDC have devised a toolkit to guide physicians and other healthcare providers on ways to screen and refer high risk patients to Diabetes Prevention Programs in their local communities.
A toolkit and more information are online free of charge at preventdiabetesstat.org.
The AMA has a Continuing Medical Education Course called Promoting Healthy Families to help physicians, help patients promote healthy eating and physical activity for themselves and their children.
Of course we've worked in other ways to encourage better eating habits among our patients and to benefit public health. We've been a national strategic partner of the USDA's My Plate Initiative since the launch of this new nutrition icon. And the AMA has official policy on healthy eating including evidence-based nutrition standards for all food served and sold in K-12 schools including ala carte, snack bar and vending machine offerings, promoting vegetables, fruits, legumes, grains, vegetarian foods and healthy beverages in school lunch programs and fewer salty, fatty foods.
And improve nutritional quality and nutritional information on menus and menu boards in chain restaurants. We want the healthy choice to be the easy choice for our kids. So health and nutrition can enhance their life without the burden of chronic disease.
Thank you for this opportunity to join you today and help advance the cause for better nutrition and healthier lifestyles.
Tom Vilsack: Thanks doctor. Dr. Dreyer.
Dr. Benard Dreyer: Thank you Secretary Vilsack. My name is Benard Dreyer. And I'm a Pediatrician and the incoming President of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
I spent my career caring for children whose families live in poverty. And it's from that perspective that I speak today.
I'm honored to join you today to discuss why a solid foundation of strong nutrition is so crucial to support children's health and how it can help to lift children out of poverty.
Children families are currently experiencing an unprecedented nutritional crisis resulting from the triple threat of food and security, obesity and malnutrition.
Children who are hungry and live in households where food is scarce which accounts for 1-in-5 U.S. children have difficulty learning and are more likely to experience educational, health and behavioral problems as a results.
And of course hunger and food insecurity are much more common in low income households affecting almost 40% or almost 1-in-2 U.S. low income children.
This is why preserving access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP formerly known as food stamps is so important. More than 44% of SNAP recipients are children keeping children set at home. It's also essential to their physical health and their academic success. Imagine trying to concentrate on a complicated algebra equation if you haven't had enough to eat? It just can't be done.
Our children deserve the best possible chance of success and that means having access to healthy meals while they're in and outside the classroom. More than 14 million children live in poverty in this country and the highest rates of obesity are found in people with the lowest incomes.
The challenge for low income families in today's modern food environment is not just obtaining enough food but rather having dependable access to high quality food.
The picture of food and security is increasingly an overweight or obese child consuming a poor quality diet. Obese children as you've heard are at an increased risk for health complications like high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and Type 2 Diabetes.
But these problems are not just limited to childhood. They persist throughout the lifespan and often lead to more complications as they progress into adulthood.
If we are to invest in the health of our nation we must start with its children. Making sure that school meals are nutritionally sound is one crucial part of that equation. And the earlier we start the better.
Nearly 1-in-3 school aged children and adolescence is overweight or obese and each day more than 32 million children are served lunch through the National School Lunch Program.
Children typically consume up to half of their daily calories in school. And for some children the only food they eat each day comes from the Federal School Meals Program. We owe it to these children and their families to make school meals as healthy as possible.
Updated school lunch standards ensure that children have access to healthy school meals with more servings of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. As you've heard more than 93% of schools currently comply with these new standards and our school food service personnel deserve tremendous credit for this success.
This demonstrates that school meals, nutritional standards are working for schools and for students plain and simple. Keeping children healthy is not a political issue. It's a moral imperative.
Political ideologies from some on Capitol Hill should not prevent a pregnant woman from receiving adequate nutrition to help support a healthy baby or a child from tasting a new fruit or vegetable for the first time.
Good nutrition in childhood sets the stage for lifelong healthy eating. Just like we vaccinate to protect against the flu so to we can provide children with healthy meal options to protect against obesity, food insecurity and malnutrition.
Thank you for this opportunity to talk about this critically important issue.
Tom Vilsack: Appreciate it doctor. Thank you very much, and Dr. Sanchez.
Dr. Eduardo Sanchez: Good afternoon. My name is Eduardo Sanchez. I'm the American Heart Association's Chief Medical Officer for Prevention.
The AHA thanks Secretary Vilsack for the opportunity to join the discussion today on school meal standards.
My brief remarks today will complement those of Secretary Vilsack, Dr. Wah and Dr. Dreyer and will focus on how school meal standards help America's children live free of heart disease and stroke.
I'm a family physician by training and a public health physician by experience.
I'm going to be making four points. One, nutrition school meals are a huge win for children's health. As they make their way through the cafeteria line students can make food choices that help them perform better, stay fit and live longer.
Under the nation's School Meal Program children are eating foods with less fat, less sugar and less salt and they are learning lifelong eating habits now that will reduce their risk for heart disease and stroke in the future.
We must protect the tremendous progress we've made in serving healthier foods in schools. If we weaken any of these nutrition standards it really would be a significant setback for kid's health particularly when it comes to the standard for sodium reduction.
Two, the research is clear that the amount of salt in school foods needs to be decreased. Some members of Congress are taking aim at the next phase of sodium reduction for school foods that are scheduled to go into effect 2017. They suggest that there isn't enough research to make this change. They are wrong. The science exists.
The 2010 Institute of Medicine Report clearly laid out overwhelming evidence in support of the sodium standard. The dietary guidelines released that same year and the preliminary 2015 guidelines reaffirm the need for all Americans to reduce their salt intake.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC says that 9-in-10 children eat too much salt which puts them at risk for developing high blood pressure that can lead to heart disease and stroke before they even become adults.
Three, the next phase of sodium reduction, Tier 2, lowers the level by an average of 300 milligrams about the same as the amount of salt in one pickle. The average school lunch today provides nearly enough sodium for the entire day.
Both the food industry and schools are working hard to cut salt in school foods to meet this next phase. It's also important to note that sodium - that lower sodium foods are already available. Product lines from several major food companies offer soups, spaghetti sauces, chicken and even pizza. These products can help schools meet the sodium standard.
We believe these efforts should be rewarded rather than wasting time and resources on legislation that rolls back sodium decreases. We should focus on providing technical assistance to help schools meet the sodium requirement instead of weakening or eliminating those requirements.
And four, while the Tier 2 target is a step in the right direction it is still a far cry from what we view as a healthy daily amount of salt for children. Under the Tier 2 decrease the sodium in school breakfast and lunches would be about equal to the maximum daily value.
And this doesn't even take into account salt that children get from their dinner or snacks. Without this reduction more children will develop high blood pressure which again could lead to heart disease and stroke before they even reach adulthood.
Fourteen percent of children ages 12 to 19 have elevated blood pressure or hypertension. In 2010 less than 1% of children in the U.S. ages 12 to 19 were eating an ideal healthy diet based on the Association's standards.
So in conclusion healthy food matters, the nation's School Meals Program is a success and we would urge Congress to leave the current nutrition standards intact.
Tom Vilsack: Well that was terrific. I want to thank all three of the doctors that are with us today.
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