Mexico City /
The Ministry of Public Education presented the new guidelines and actions for Healthy Living in schools, in order to promote nutritious, sufficient and quality nutrition in educational establishments for girls, boys, adolescents and young people.
The head of the agency, Mario Delgado, participated in the morning conference of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, where he recalled that on September 30, the Secretariats of Public Education (SEP) and Health, published the General Guidelines to which they must adhere. the preparation, distribution and sale of prepared, processed and bulk foods and beverages, as well as the promotion of healthy lifestyles in nutrition, within every school of the National Educational System (SEN).
“What are these products? Well, very easy, those that have the seals that we all know, the seals that are established in Standard 051. No product that has these seals can be sold within schools, it’s that easy, because childhoods, adolescents, can make decisions healthy if they have healthy foods within their reach,” highlighted the secretary.
When will the guidelines come into effect?
He stated that these guidelines will come into force 180 days after their publication, that is, starting next March 29, 2025; and will be mandatory in all schools of the three educational types of the SEN: Basic, Higher Secondary and Higher, so the 258 thousand 689 that exist in the country must comply with them.
He explained that these guidelines were given because, according to monitoring carried out during the 2023-2024 school year, in 10,533 schools it was detected that junk food was sold in 98 percent; 95 percent sugary drinks; 79 percent soft drinks; In 77 percent there was external sale of junk food, and in 25 percent there was junk food advertising.
In addition, he added, the Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSATU) 2020-2023 revealed that 5.7 million students between the ages of five and 11 have obesity, while 10.4 million students between the ages of 12 and 19 suffer from this disease. Also, seven out of 10 schoolchildren and five out of 10 adolescents do not do any physical activity.
What are the guidelines?
For this reason, he explained, the new guidelines establish eight priority actions:
- Prevent the sale of ultra-processed foods with low nutritional value in school spaces.
- Promote the consumption of natural water in schools. Mothers and fathers will be guided so that through La Escuela es Nuestra (LEN), they decide to place drinking fountains on the campuses.
- Train the authorities and personnel responsible for school cooperatives to prioritize the consumption of local and seasonal foods. Tell them what can and cannot be sold.
- Issue a Communication Strategy for teachers, parents, directors, for girls and boys, which includes the production of educational materials on healthy eating, recipe books on healthy and economical eating, as well as guidance guides for good eating. .
- Strengthen the articulating axis of Healthy Living in the New Mexican School (NEM), with the formulation of content in Free Textbooks (LTG) that promote healthy lifestyles and health education.
- Create courses and diplomas for teachers.
- Promote sports activity and practice.
- Establish a Healthy Living monitoring and evaluation system.
Finally, Mario Delgado commented that secondary schools throughout the country continue to be visited to inform about the new Rita Cetina Gutiérrez Universal Scholarship, which will begin to be awarded in 2025.
Healthy living seeks to implement better habits: SEP
Liliana Bahena, coordinator of My Healthy School at El Poder del Consumidor, assured that the Healthy Life in SEP schools program aims to “reduce public health problems and create community strategies to revalue our food culture.”
“The main idea of these new guidelines, which is already a decree, is to prohibit all ultra-processed products that not only harm health but also the planet due to all the garbage and to look at the country’s gastronomic offer,” he said.
In interview for MILLENNIUM Television with Josué Becerra, the coordinator pointed out that the difference of this program with respect to the measures that were taken in previous administrations is that “they were regulations with legal loopholes and benefits for industries that could not be implemented. Instead, this program addresses the entire national educational system, from preschool to universities.”
Bahena stated that this program is made up of training and monitoring of school authorities, and that it is “an intersectoral work with the SEP, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and the National System for the Comprehensive Development of the Family ( DIF). The educational structure must implement better habits in students.”
He explained that “we are seeking to modify the environment, and the food industry may or may not be present with healthy foods. The food industry is not liking it at all, during the previous 15 years no promotion guidelines were implemented due to an industry strategy that delayed and damaged the public health of girls, boys and adolescents.”
Likewise, he said that the sanctions for non-compliance with this program that will come into force in March 2025 They would not be for businesses outside of schools but for school authorities and cooperatives within educational institutions.
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