DENVER – The nation’s leanest state is taking aim at junk food in school cafeterias as it considers the nation’s toughest school trans-fat ban.
A Colorado House committee was scheduled to hear a bill Thursday to forbid any trans-fat in school food — not just the food served through regular cafeteria lunches.
That would mean vending machines, after-school bake sales and popular “a la carte” items on lunch lines such as ice creams or pizza would have to be produced without artery-clogging trans fats.
Several states already limit trans-fat in school cafeterias, but none has a trans-fat ban that extends before and after school. Delaware and California, for example, both ban school food with trans-fat, but not at all after-school activities.
Colorado has the nation’s lowest obesity rate, but young people are becoming fatter along with their counterparts in other states. In 2007, Colorado’s childhood obesity rate was the nation’s third-best. By 2010 it ranked 23rd according to the Colorado Health Foundation, a change researchers attribute to sedentary behavior and a growing childhood poverty rate.
Lawmakers who sponsored the trans-fat ban — a Republican and a Democrat — said Colorado needs to step up healthy eating among children to hang onto its prized leanest-state title.
“Colorado
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