Where there are fast-food restaurants, you will likely find obese people. And that’s just as true for kids who have them close to their schools. If logic isn’t enough, a study has confirmed it.
A new report has found there to be an increased obesity rate of at least 5.2 percent among teenagers at schools where fast-food outlets were a tenth of a mile or less away. That’s only about one city block, so it’s believable that the kids would partake in a little take-out.
Eric N. Gioia, a city councilman from Queens, New York. wants to stop fast-food restaurants from opening so close to the city’s schools.
“With the proliferation of fast-food restaurants directly around schools, it’s a clear and present danger to our children’s health,” says Gioia, who proposed the ban at a news conference.
Under Mr. Gioia’s proposal, new fast-food restaurants would not be prohibited within a tenth of a mile of schools (about a city block), with existing restaurants being exempt. It sounds like a flawed proposal. Look for new fast-food restaurants two blocks from New York City schools.
Even though Mr. Gioia says that the ban should be accompanied by other adjustments, being in a free society, it will be hard to legislate away bad food choices.
(via: New York Times)
April 24th, 2009
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(Page 1 of 1, 1 total comments)Nicole Kim
Very good.
posted Sep 4th, 2009 3:07 pm