NUTRITION, EXERCISE PLAY INCREASING ROLE AT SCHOOL.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

Schools have banned sodas, phased out fatty snacks, built professional- quality gyms and taught low-fat cooking in class as educators battle the trend toward overweight, out-of-shape kids.

``We have a responsibility to control what we can,'' said Marlene Canter, the Los Angeles Unified School District board member who led the charge to ban sodas on campuses. ``We can't control what children eat outside of school, but we can certainly control what they eat and drink when they are at school.''

Schools also take an interest because improving students' health and fitness will ultimately help their education, said Nonnie Korten, who heads the LAUSD's Nutrition Network.

``Kids who are overweight or not physically fit or aren't eating well just don't perform well in school. They are less energetic, they're grumpy, they have less energy for intellectual challenges and they often complain about feeling ill.''

Some students say nutrition and exercise are afterthoughts both in and outside the classroom.

``Yeah I want to be healthy, but I don't really think about my nutrition or exercise,'' said Veronica Garcia, a senior at Owensmouth High School in Canoga Park. And she said she hasn't received much helpful education on fitness or healthy eating from the school.

In the past few years, the LAUSD has focused on improving children's eating habits, through programs such as the Nutrition Network, which gives grants to local schools to develop gardens and salad bars on campus.

The network has allowed Sepulveda Middle School teacher Wende Fitzpatrick to bring fresh fruits and vegetables for her students to taste. In a separate program, Monroe High School in North Hills won a state grant to develop nutritious lunch fare and so far has switched to baked french fries and begun offering a yogurt salad.

The district's food services division is looking at healthier menus with sushi or low-fat pizzas, Canter said.

But the other component of health is exercise and many say Los Angeles schools are failing to provide adequate physical-fitness education. Under state law, elementary-school children must have at least 3.3 hours of physical education every two weeks. At the middle and high school levels, students must have 6.6 hours per two weeks.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who pushed for the county to establish a task force on nutrition, argues that the decline of physical education in schools is one big reason for the increase in overweight children.

``The only place (children) are going to get serious valuable exercise is in physical education,'' he said. ``One or two generations in California have missed out on education in exercise'' because of the few hours of PE required by the state.

But educators say it's tough to fit PE into the school day, given the state's emphasis on academics. The district is looking at ways to make sure students are getting the most out of their PE classes, such as giving students pedometers to measure how many steps or how much movement they are making during class.

Jean-A Ramirez, a physical-education instructor at Sepulveda Middle School, has his students wear heart-rate monitors during running exercises so they can learn to work out at their most-efficient level.

But educators know they alone can't teach children healthy eating and exercise habits. It takes parents being conscious of what they feed their children and how they eat and exercise themselves. It also takes safe communities where children can securely exercise and play.

``It's not going to happen overnight,'' said Fitzpatrick, the Sepulveda Middle School teacher. ``It's not going to happen until parents buy into it.''

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Photo:

Feng Li, a senior at Reseda High, enjoys a salad during lunch time on campus. In the past few years, Los Angeles Unified has focused on improving children's eating habits, through programs such as the Nutrition Network.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer