The eyes of Texas are upon you and your appetite

Texas is getting serious about childhood obesity and taking their interest to new heights, or lows; you can decide.

Using a two million dollar grant from the Department of Agriculture, the schools in San Antonio are installing surveillance cameras in their lunchrooms to snap shots of loaded food trays in the cafeteria line, analyze the contents, and then by matching bar codes installed in trays at the disposal drop off, learn what children are really eating and leaving behind.

“We’re going to snap a picture of the food tray at the cashier and we will know what has been served,” said Dr. Roberto Trevino of the San Antonio-based Social and Health Research Center. This pilot program is being incorporated into five schools with high rates of childhood obesity and high numbers of children living in poverty.

The cameras will measure leftovers at the disposal window when the kids drop their trays off. The goal of the program is to collect data which will help parents and the school community cut down on obesity and waste.

“We will be able to determine whether current programs that are aimed at preventing obesity work, and whether they are really changing students’ behavior,” Trevino continued. They will do this by collecting calorie counts on what children are actually eating. Not only that, buy total monounsaturated fatty acids, soluble dietary fiber, and 100 other specific dietary measurements. Pretty impressive for a spy cam.

They promise the children’s individual identity will be protected. It’s just his or her stomach that’s under the microscope.

Source: Reuters