“There is enormous potential for environmental change through policy reform,” Harold Goldstein, Dr.P.H., told members of the IOM’s Committee on Prevention of Obesity in Children and Youth.

Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, suggested that publicly available statistics on obesity at the city ward level or nationally may prod local politicians into working for school nutrition reforms like the recent decision by the Los Angeles Unified School District to ban all soda sales by 2004.

“Most of them have never seen data related to a health issue specific to their district,” he said.

Alex Molnar, Ph.D., of Arizona State University, presented data showing that commercialism in schools, including education materials sponsored by food companies, advertisements and exclusive vending contracts, has increased since 1990.

Both Molnar and Goldstein noted that schools often do not make as much money from these commercial contracts as some have suggested. They likened the arrangement to a “lottery with negative consequences,” where students end up paying for the same products that are supposed to bring money into the school and risking their health as well.

To read more about the IOM committee’s work, go to here.