I wish we could say that ASBJ got the scoop, but it’s actually a good thing that child nutrition and the obesity epidemic are hot topics.

Just as we ASBJ editors were admiring our hot-off-the-presses June issue, which examines the challenges of running food services programs in schools, the Washington Post came out with a week-long investigative series on the childhood obesity crisis that’s truly a must-read.

Several of the articles criticize schools for not offering healthier options in their cafeterias and vending machines and for relying on contracts with soft-drink companies and vending operators for supplemental funds.

But the series also looks at the crisis through the perspective of pediatricians and health care providers, who are seeing big increases in the number of cases of high blood pressure, gallstones, displaced joints, and diabetes in overweight children. If you have any questions on how excess fat destroys organs, from the brain to the pancreas, here’s a handy chart.

We don’t yet have a grasp on what this will cost the nation in terms of health care dollars or lives cut short. Simply put, the generation of kids in your schools today may be the first that will not live as long as their parents’ and grandparents’ generations. Instances of Type 2 diabetes—once an extremely rare affliction for children—are rapidly increasing, according to the report, and one doctor notes that patients often only live about 20 years after their diagnosis. So without a major medical breakthrough, the teenagers now being diagnosed with the disease may not live past their mid-30’s.

While low-income children remain most at risk because they often don’t have access to healthy foods, the issue is also evident in affluent suburban areas, where parents rely on fast food and quick options when they don’t have time to cook. Hispanic children are considered the most at-risk subgroup.

Schools play a critical role in helping to curb this crisis by offering only healthy foods in their cafeterias and vending machines, and educating students and their parents on the risks of obesity. Of course, given the rising costs of food and budget shortfalls, this is becoming a bigger challenge. But once you’ve read the heart-wrenching stories in the Post, check out this month’s ASBJ for some advice on how your schools’ food services can help reverse the trend.

Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor