Despite efforts to help kids make healthier eating choices and reducing their access to junk foods at school, a report says eating behavior among children is largely unchanged. Surveys from 2006 to 2010 found approximately 50 percent of public and private schools had vending machines or other avenues that offered unhealthy snacks, according to the Associated Press.
Here is some of the key information from the study.
* The study was conducted through the auspices of the University of Illinois at Chicago's Institute for Health Research and Policy.
* According to the study, the availability of junk foods in schools followed some regional trends. In the South, where childhood obesity is highest, junk food was more readily available. In the West, where childhood obesity is lower, junk food was not as common in the schools.
* It is estimated as many as 20 percent of the nation's children are obese.
* The study concluded healthier snacking options were increasingly being offered but they often coexist alongside junk food selections.
* The survey was conducted among 1,205 private elementary schools and 2,247 public elementary schools, according to the official report in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
* The study found half of all of schools had junk food available in at least one of what researchers referred to as "competitive venues." Competitive venues include snack bars, vending machines, a la carte lines and school stores.
* The Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, which was enacted in 2010, gave the Department of Agriculture the power to dictate what kinds of food and beverages can be offered in school buildings. The organization is widely rumored to be putting together new guidelines covering what kind of foods can be offered in competitive venues by the end of the year, according to CNN.
* Technically, "competitive foods" are those not offered by schools as part of their individual school lunch programs, according to US News' Health Day. The USDA regulates school lunches separately.
* The study also found unhealthy snacks were more readily available in suburban schools than city schools, by a ratio of approximately 53 percent to 44 percent. Rural schools on average also had a high degree of junk food availability, at 54 percent.
* The study's authors have maintained that access to junk food and a child's preference for it is unlikely to change without new regulations.
Vanessa Evans is a musician and freelance writer based in Michigan, with a lifelong interest in health and nutrition issues.
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