Athletic Leagues Subvert Schools' Anti-Obesity Efforts - WashPost

Despite Their Fiduciary Duty, Officials Accept "Sin Money" to Fatten Their Coffers
 
WASHINGTON - Nov. 18, 2015 - PRLog -- WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 18,  2015): The food giants primarily responsible for the U.S.'s $200 billion a year obesity epidemic are spending millions each year to subvert efforts by schools to keep children from surcoming, but officials are more than willing to accept what they themselves call "sin money" to help fatten their coffers, notes public interest law professor John Banzhaf, who helped prepare a major expose appearing in the Washington Post.

        The piece, entitled "Schools Are Trying to Curb Obesity. Why Are Their Sports Leagues Promoting Fast Food?" exposed how fast food companies, sugary soft drink bottlers, and junk food manufacturers have been so successful in getting teachers, principals, and coaches to undermine anti-obesity and healthy-eating programs at schools solely because it brings in so much money, even though they claim that they carefully select only appropriate sponsors.

        This occurs although "As Banzhaf sees it, school officials have a fiduciary duty to protect the health of students. Allowing advertisements for fast food and sugary drinks - whether through vending machines or Wendy’s banners - exposes a vulnerable demographic to harmful and potentially addictive products, not all that different from cigarettes. 'So why should it be in schools at all?' Banzhaf said. 'Why are they there in the first place?'”

        As the article notes, the companies want to do more than simply promote the consumption of massive amounts of unnecessary calories at school-sponsored athletic events and at schools themselves.

        “'The companies are very, very clever,' said John Banzhaf, a legal activist who pushed cigarette advertising off television and radio in 1970 and has since focused his efforts on the obesity epidemic. 'They want to show that eating fast food and drinking sugary fast drinks are not inconsistent with being healthy.'”

        The Washington Post documents how officials are all too willing to accept what they themselves admit is "sin money" from corporations which profit from making children fat and starting them on the path to being obese adults, and then tries to explain why they would do such a harmful thing.

        "The thinking goes that, 'Well it isn’t illegal and we need the money,' Banzhaf said. That rationale has allowed Wendy’s, Pepsi, Gatorade, McDonald’s, Coca Cola and Powerade to carve their places around the tracks, courts and fields of high schools across the nation. With no better alternatives, state associations continue accepting whatever assistance they can get - even when such deals undermine the missions they support."

        Accepting money for something they know is wrong is called “prostitution,” notes Banzhaf.

        Yes, schools and their programs do need money, but would they accept sponsorship from Hustler magazine, Smith and Wesson, or the KKK, just because “it isn’t illegal,” asks Banzhaf.

JOHN F. BANZHAF III, B.S.E.E., J.D., Sc.D.
Professor of Public Interest Law
George Washington University Law School,
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor,
Fellow, World Technology Network,
Founder, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2000 H Street, NW, Wash, DC 20052, USA
(202) 994-7229 // (703) 527-8418
http://banzhaf.net/  jbanzhaf@law.gwu.edu  @profbanzhaf

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