Breathe
By Liliana Bahena
Secretary of Public Education:
It is unacceptable that it is normal for everyone to see that inside schools each student consumes more than 550 calories daily from junk products and sugary drinks (cookies, spicy potatoes, any kind of candy and juices full of dyes and sugars). Undoubtedly, educational spaces are part of the new epidemics: obesity and diabetes.
Why have we reached this point? One of the main reasons is the invasion of junk food and sugary drinks in every space where we live, accompanied by a wave of suffocating advertising: streets, parks, fairs, movie theaters, transportation, digital spaces and even schools (yes, just as you read: schools, a space that should protect children and youth). Each citizen of our country consumes an average of 214 kilograms of junk products and sugary drinks every year and the main consumers are students. Therefore, it is no coincidence that childhood obesity has increased 120% in the last three decades, expressing the most serious malnutrition crisis in children and youth:
- 1 in 4 live with obesity,
- 50% will develop diabetes in adulthood,
- 4 years less life expectancy compared to their parents.
The Secretary of Public Education is also complicit in the plundering and kidnapping of students' health by pretending to regulate school food environments, because:
Protects the interests of the food industry over the health of students. Fourteen years ago, the first guidelines were created to regulate school food environments, but due to industry interference, they presented serious legal loopholes in their design that make it impossible to put them into practice, in addition to allowing the sale and consumption of mini junk food. What children eat in schools affects their health and well-being, not only while they are young, but also for the rest of their lives.
Normalizes schools as another space for commercialization. Currently, 9 out of 10 schools in the country sell sugary drinks, candy, sweets, fried foods and ice cream every day of the week, which promotes bad eating habits. The school, on the contrary, should be a place where food health is promoted; everything that is sold and consumed there must contribute to food literacy and avoid the large amounts of garbage left behind by the packaging and wrappers of ultra-processed products.
It violates and disregards the legal and ethical mandates that demand the protection of the best interests of children. In December 2023, the reform to the General Education Law regarding healthy school environments was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation, which mandates updating and publishing the new guidelines and provisions in the Law. The SEP is not complying with the legal deadline to publish them.
They can't wait another five, ten or fifteen years to protect the health and nutrition of our children and teenagers in school settings. THEIR FUTURE IS TODAY!
*Activist and advocate for social justice and human rights aimed at eradicating social inequalities in health and nutrition.
Soccer and coffee lover.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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