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Anti-obesity programmes in primary schools 'don't work'

Image: torbakhopper, hula hoops galore : san francisco (2013), Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic
Image: torbakhopper, hula hoops galore : san francisco (2013), Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic

A trial of a school anti-obesity programme in the West Midlands, UK, showed no improvements in body mass index, energy expenditure, body fat measurements or activity levels.

The study set up a control where 26 primary schools ran the anti-obesity programme and 28 did not. Pupils in the programme were offered healthy eating and cooking education, the opportunity to do 30 minutes of extra exercise each day and the highlighting of local family physical activities. Follow-ups were done at 15 months and 30 months after the programme started, showing no statistically significant differences between participants and non-participants.

Read more here. See also the Foodsource chapter What can be done to shift eating patterns in healthier, more sustainable directions?

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