School food in Mexican children.

OBJECTIVE: To establish the school eating habits of Mexican children, who are prone to obesity and later to high rates of adult chronic diseases. DESIGN: Questionnaires for students and parents with staff questionnaires and interviews. SETTING: Randomly sampled schools in a socio-economically representative district of Mexico City. SUBJECTS: Subjects were 1504 adolescents aged 10-19 years attending schools in Mexico City, 27 teachers and seven headmasters, sampled from both public and private schools and from the full range of socio-economic groups. RESULTS: Foods brought from home were of a higher nutritional quality than those purchased at school, where purchases were dominated by crisps, soft drinks and other items with high energy density. Girls were more inclined to purchase inappropriately; those from poorer homes purchased less. Private-school students irrespective of socio-economic grade brought more food from home and purchased more expensive food at school. School policies allowed food and drink vendors to market any products within the schools, which benefited financially from these activities. CONCLUSIONS: Current school food policies are conducive to amplifying the current epidemic of obesity and related adult chronic diseases, and need to change.

Salt: its goodness and perversities.

Salt (sodium chloride) exists in nature in scattered form and has had social, economic and physiological influence in man's life. At present its consumption is a quotidian fact in the individual, since it exist a universal appetite of this element in the diet. Nevertheless, since relatively a short time ago it was begun to be recognized that salt is an important component for public health since an excessive intake of this element has been related to the development of hypertension. This disease affects a billion people and it is an important cause of morbidity in both industrialized and developing countries. This paper presents a review of the main historical, clinical and therapeutic aspects of salt as well as the quantitative intakes in Mexico and other societies.

[Deficient education in health and nutrition in Mexican schools: the topic of salt]. / Educación deficiente en salud y nutrición en escuelas de México: el tema de la sal.

OBJECTIVE: Given the rapidly increasing rates of adult chronic diseases in Mexico there is a need to assess the knowledge and understanding of these sufferings in relation to an inadequate diet. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In a randomly selected sample of primary, secondary and high schools in a region of Mexico City, the knowledge of the dietary contributors to chronic disease was assessed by taking the specific example of salt and the knowledge of its importance. Participation encompassed: 1504 students, 890 parents and 27 teachers. An analysis was made of the curricular contribution of the school to nutritional and health knowledge. RESULTS: Forty five percent of students showed knowledge about the role of salt in health as well as 64.7% and 70% of parents and teachers respectively. Knowledge increased along with age: high school students showed a greater number of correct answers (74.3%) than those from secondary (48.8%) and primary (55.2%) (p < 0.0001). More girls (30.3%) (p < 0.001) answered rightly that industrialized foods contain more salt. No formal lessons are given on any aspects of nutrition or health, but one subject dealing with sexual education. CONCLUSION: There is little health education and no nutritional teaching in the studied schools despite the wide ranging of nutritional deficiencies and the national epidemic of chronic diseases in Mexico. A change in the scholastic curriculum in schools, that includes subjects on nutrition and health, is urgently required.