IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v25y2008i4p499-511.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

School food environments and the obesity issue: content, structural determinants, and agency in Canadian high schools

Author

Listed:
  • Anthony Winson

Abstract

To understand the phenomenon of the rapidly increasing prevalence of overweight and obese children and youth, it is especially important to examine the school food environment, the role of structural factors in shaping this environment, and the resulting nutrition and health outcomes. The paper examines research on school food environments in the US and Canada. It notes evidence of widespread availability of poor nutrition products in both environments and delineates reasons for the situation, and examines initiatives presently being undertaken in a number of jurisdictions in both countries to encourage healthy eating in schools. Empirical data are presented from a pilot study of high schools in the Canadian province of Ontario. The study documents the extent of student purchasing of nutrient-poor foods and beverages, and the structural factors internal and external to the school that appear responsible for the availability of such products in food environments in this critical institutional sphere. The paper also examines positive local initiatives in high schools that seek to encourage healthy eating in schools. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony Winson, 2008. "School food environments and the obesity issue: content, structural determinants, and agency in Canadian high schools," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(4), pages 499-511, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:25:y:2008:i:4:p:499-511
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-008-9139-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10460-008-9139-8
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10460-008-9139-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. French, S.A. & Story, M. & Fulkerson, J.A. & Hannan, P., 2004. "An environmental intervention to promote lower-fat food choices in secondary schools: Outcomes of the TACOS study," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(9), pages 1507-1512.
    2. Austin, S.B. & Melly, S.J. & Sanchez, B.N. & Patel, A. & Buka, S. & Gortmaker, S.L., 2005. "Clustering of fast-food restaurants around schools: A novel application of spatial statistics to the study of food environments," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(9), pages 1575-1581.
    3. Anthony Winson, 2004. "Bringing political economy into the debate on the obesity epidemic," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 21(4), pages 299-312, January.
    4. Cullen, K.W. & Zakeri, I., 2004. "Fruits, Vegetables, Milk, and Sweetened Beverages Consumption and Access to à la Carte/Snack Bar Meals at School," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(3), pages 463-467.
    5. Kubik, M.Y. & Lytle, L.A. & Hannan, P.J. & Perry, C.L. & Story, M., 2003. "The Association of the School Food Environment with Dietary Behaviors of Young Adolescents," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(7), pages 1168-1173.
    6. Veugelers, P.J. & Fitzgerald, A.L., 2005. "Effectiveness of school programs in preventing childhood obesity: A multilevel comparison," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(3), pages 432-435.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Neha Rathi & Lynn Riddell & Anthony Worsley, 2018. "Parents’ and Teachers’ Views of Food Environments and Policies in Indian Private Secondary Schools," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-14, July.
    2. Kolawole Olanrewaju Ayodele & Rita Nkiruka Ezeokoli & Ogechukwu Emmanuel Okondu, 2019. "Differential Effectiveness of Lifestyle Modification and Nutrition Education in Enhancing Nutritional Knowledge and Healthy Eating Practices Among Pupils, Nigeria," Global Journal of Health Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(11), pages 1-84, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Deda Ogum-Alangea & Richmond N O Aryeetey & Heewon L Gray & Amos K Laar & Richard M K Adanu, 2020. "Basic school pupils’ food purchases during mid-morning break in urban Ghanaian schools," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-13, September.
    2. Choi, Seul Ki & Frongillo, Edward A. & Blake, Christine E. & Thrasher, James F., 2019. "Why are restricted food items still sold after the implementation of the school store policy? the case of South Korea," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 161-169.
    3. Rhona M. Hanning & Henry Luan & Taryn A. Orava & Renata F. Valaitis & James K. H. Jung & Rashid Ahmed, 2019. "Exploring Student Food Behaviour in Relation to Food Retail over the Time of Implementing Ontario’s School Food and Beverage Policy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-11, July.
    4. Michelle M. Vine & Julianne Vermeer & Leonardo Romano & Daniel W. Harrington & Alexandra E. Butler & Karen A. Patte & Katelyn M. Godin & Scott T. Leatherdale, 2021. "Secondary School Nutrition Policy Compliance in Ontario and Alberta, Canada: A Follow-Up Study Examining Vending Machine Data from the COMPASS Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-12, April.
    5. Laura Seliske & William Pickett & Andrei Rosu & Ian Janssen, 2012. "Identification of the Appropriate Boundary Size to Use When Measuring the Food Retail Environment Surrounding Schools," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-13, July.
    6. Krølner, Rikke & Due, Pernille & Rasmussen, Mette & Damsgaard, Mogens Trab & Holstein, Bjørn E. & Klepp, Knut-Inge & Lynch, John, 2009. "Does school environment affect 11-year-olds' fruit and vegetable intake in Denmark?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(8), pages 1416-1424, April.
    7. Borovoy, Amy & Roberto, Christina A., 2015. "Japanese and American public health approaches to preventing population weight gain: A role for paternalism?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 62-70.
    8. Ishdorj, Ariun & Crepinsek, Mary Kay & Jensen, Helen H., 2012. "Children’s Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables: Do School Environment and Policies Affect Choice in School Meals?," 2012 AAEA/EAAE Food Environment Symposium 123534, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Ariun Ishdorj & Mary Kay Crepinsek & Helen H. Jensen, 2013. "Children's Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables: Do School Environment and Policies Affect Choices at School and Away from School?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 35(2), pages 341-359.
    10. Ching-Jung Yu & Jung-Chieh Du & Hsien-Chih Chiou & Chun-Cheng Feng & Ming-Yi Chung & Winnie Yang & Ying-Sheue Chen & Ling-Chu Chien & Betau Hwang & Mei-Lien Chen, 2016. "Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption Is Adversely Associated with Childhood Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-18, July.
    11. Shi, Yishao & Tao, Tianhui & Cao, Xiangyang & Pei, Xiaowen, 2021. "The association between spatial attributes and neighborhood characteristics based on Meituan take-out data: Evidence from shanghai business circles," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    12. Asirvatham, Jebaraj & Thomsen, Michael R. & Nayga, Rodolfo M. & Goudie, Anthony, 2019. "Do fast food restaurants surrounding schools affect childhood obesity?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 124-133.
    13. Patricia M. Anderson & Kristin F. Butcher, 2004. "Reading, writing, and raisinets: are school finances contributing to children’s obesity?," Working Paper Series WP-04-16, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    14. Vallgårda, Signild, 2012. "Nudge—A new and better way to improve health?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 200-203.
    15. Lin Lin & Xueming (Jimmy) Chen & Anne Vernez Moudon, 2021. "Measuring the Urban Forms of Shanghai’s City Center and Its New Districts: A Neighborhood-Level Comparative Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-18, July.
    16. Stephen Matthews & Daniel M. Parker, 2013. "Progress in Spatial Demography," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 28(10), pages 271-312.
    17. Mengfei Chen & Mohamed Kharbeche & Mohamed Haouari & Weihong Grace Guo, 2024. "A simulation-optimization framework for food supply chain network design to ensure food accessibility under uncertainty," Papers 2406.04439, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    18. Brent Berry & Taralyn McMullen, 2008. "Visual communication to children in the supermarket context: Health protective or exploitive?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(3), pages 333-348, September.
    19. Christian E. Vazquez & Megan J. McBride & Katherine E. Hess & Catherine Cubbin & Sarah Kate Bearman & Esther J. Calzada, 2022. "Examining School and Neighborhood Effects of Socioeconomic Status on Childhood Obesity in the U.S," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-12, May.
    20. Carolin V. Zorell, 2022. "Central Persons in Sustainable (Food) Consumption," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-17, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:25:y:2008:i:4:p:499-511. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.