DR. VICTORIA Rogers McEvoy raises important issues in her Jan. 14 commentary "Doctors alone can't be expected to solve kids' weight problems" (Health/ Science). But she overlooks one critical element: the poor quality of school food that children eat every day.
Most of us know that a breakfast that features frosted breakfast pastry, or a lunch that serves up hot dogs with a side of chips, is hardly what the doctor ordered. Yet this type of highly processed, sugary, salty food is the norm in school cafeterias; fresh vegetables and whole grains are the exception.
And for low-income children, who depend on school food for more than half of their daily calories, every calorie counts. For these children, the opposite of hungry isn't full, the opposite of hungry is healthy.
School food used to be a joke, but now the punch line is out of date.
ELLEN PARKER
Executive director
Project Bread
East Boston
KUDOS TO McEvoy for acknowledging that pediatricians are only part of the solution to the increase in unhealthy weights in children. The food environment in which we are raising our children challenges everyone, especially families. However, I do take issue with her suggestion that a nutritionist's role is to help children "understand nutrients." If it were only that easy. If we are to reverse this disturbing trend, attention must be given to what a child eats, how a child eats, when a child eats, and why a child eats. This is the role of the nutritionist.
JANET SCHWARTZ
Framingham
The writer is professor of food and nutrition at Framingham State College, where she chairs the department of consumer sciences.
