SENATE APPROVES PRO-HEALTH, PRO-NUTRITION BILLS
(AUSTIN) — Texans would be better informed about nutritional choices, and medical professionals will receive more training in diet and nutrition under legislation passed unanimously by the Senate on Wednesday. America spends more on healthcare than any other country, but we don’t see commensurate outcomes, said Brenham Senator Lois Kolkhorst. Data bears this out; federal figures show that the US spends $4.3 trillion annually on healthcare, more than any other nation, but ranks 48th - behind Panama, Albania, and Oman - in life expectancy. She attributes this to the increasing number of Americans with chronic diseases, up from single digits in the 1960s to more than two-thirds of all Americans today. Her bill, SB 25, would make a number of changes, starting in public education, that she believes will have a profound effect on public health in Texas and allows Texans to make informed choices about their diet, exercise, and lifestyle. “We are going to step up and make real changes so Texas can be a national leader in keeping our population healthy,” said Kolkhorst.
Brenham Senator Lois W. Kolkhorst wants to give Texans the information they need to make smart nutritional choices.
As chair of the Health and Human Service Committee, Kolkhorst led an interim study on the impacts of chronic disease on the state of public health in Texas, and what she found astonished her. One-fifth of Texas’ children are obese, she said, and nearly three-fourths of adults are overweight. Type 1 diabetes rates have doubled in the last 40 years, and cancer rates associated with excess body mass are on the rise. San Antonio Senator José Menéndez said that his region has some of the highest rates of obesity, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes in the nation. “Because of that, we have some of the highest numbers of per capita renal failure,” he said. “It starts with hypertension and diabetes and it ends up with them being on dialysis. Their lives are stolen from them…it is the most ridiculous thing that is preventable; that’s the worst part about it.”
The bill, said Kolkhorst, isn’t about making the state “the food police”, but instead giving Texans the information they need to make better nutritional choices. It would require that by 2027, any food product that contains a chemical or preservative that is banned in Canada or the EU, but not the US, be labeled as such. It would require additional training about metabolic health for medical students, and require nutritional instruction be included in continuing education requirements for doctors, nurses, and physician assistants. For children, the bill would make five days a week of physical education mandatory and require that lessons about nutrition and metabolic health be taught as part of the regular curriculum. Finally, it creates an advisory group to study issues relating to nutrition and chronic disease and make regular recommendations about nutrition policy. Kolkhorst believes that her bill will lead to significant improvement in public health outcomes. “This is going to make a difference in millions of Texans’ lives,” she said.
The Senate also approved a bill that would seek to keep certain chemicals off the plates of children who receive free and reduced lunches at public schools. “For many of our children back home, that might be the only hot meal that they have,” said Mineola Senator Bryan Hughes. “When we look at where the school lunch program is today, we have to acknowledge that in so many ways, the government has committed malpractice if the goal is to provide healthy, nutritious meals for those kids.” His bill, SB 314, would ban ingredients that are linked to severe harm to human health, chemicals like brominated vegetable oil, propylparaben, and a number of artificial food dyes, from meals served via the free and reduced lunch program, if there is an alternative available. Hughes said the bill will affect more than three million public school children in Texas.
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