COOS BAY - Realizing there's more than just french fries and pizza to eat, hundreds of area kids learn how good fruits and vegetables can be for them.

About 425 third and fourth graders from Madison Elementary School were taught lessons on healthy eating Friday morning, as part of the school district's "Farm to Market" educational program.

Funded by the food service contractor, Sodexo, it features a virtual farm environment with experts who teach the kids all about the importance of having proper nutrition.

"The society we live in today is predominately a fast food society," says Food Service Director Sid Hall. "We are familiar with that, but sometimes, the fast food is not as nutritious for the kids. We might think that it is. It does fill them up, but they need to have some really good brain food to do good in school."

To help hit the message home, students also got a chance to eat from a healthy salad bar for lunch. But not your ordinary salad bar, as this one contained fruits and vegetables from every letter of the alphabet.

"It kinda helps the students to see what those vegetables are," says Hall. "The vegetables are labeled on the salad bar. Eating these vegetables helps the educational process."

The program runs twice a year, targeted to Kindergarten to 4th graders at various schools in the district. In the Fall, it will be held at Bunker Hill Elementary.

Canada has become the first country to announce a ban on baby bottles made with Bisphenol-A, a controversial synthetic chemical linked to some forms of cancer.

Bisphenol-A is a compound found in some hard, clear plastics and resins such as baby and water bottles, drink containers, and the liners in metal cans.

Some studies have found that even at low doses the chemical can increase breast and ovarian cancer cell growth, as well as some prostate cancer cells in animals.

The Federal Health Department began reassessing Bisphenol-A last November, after research showed the chemical is leaching from products such as baby bottles.

The Health Minister says for the now the ban will include the import and sale of baby bottles containing the chemical, since infants are more sensitive to its effects.

Major retailers including Wal-Mart, Sears and London Drugs say they will rid their stores of the products.

Jenny O'Dea of the University of Sydney has found approaches used in many of the nation's schools are inappropriate and potentially harmful.

Associate Professor O'Dea interviewed 8950 students in 57 schools for a study of body image and obesity issues in 2006 and published the results and recommendations in her recent book Everybody's Different.

"Our approach for dealing with these problems in children should always be 'First, do no harm,"' she told a conference of teachers at the university.

Dr O'Dea's study found that rather than encouraging healthier habits, such as daily physical activity and eating more fruit and vegetables, some teachers were mistakenly placing all the focus on weight loss and were unintentionally damaging their students' self-esteem.

In one high school a teacher started a diet club for overweight girls and encouraged them to seek sponsorship for losing weight. The money they earned was sent to starving children in Ethiopia.

In another all-girls school in northern Sydney, a physical education teacher forced girls to be weighed in front of their class. He told a girl from his class that her weight was "not good", despite being well within the healthy weight range for girls of her height and development level. The girl went on to develop bulimia, Dr O'Dea said.

In a third case study, a food technology teacher at an all-boys school repeatedly pointed out the chubby students as examples of the effects of eating "nasty food". Some of the boys targeted stopped eating regular meals, while another started bingeing.

Dr O'Dea warned against teachers trying to make health diagnoses. "It's not a teacher's job to make clinical diagnoses, design diets or exercise regimes. The best thing they can do is work to make the school a healthy environment."

Dr O'Dea said teachers who adopted a positive approach to exercise and healthy eating had observed improved self-esteem among students and increased participation in physical education classes.

One physical education teacher at the conference, Jane Duck, of James Fallon High School, Albury, said she had succeeded in increasing participation in her classes by placing the focus on activity rather than competition. "Our big push is have a go and try."

Children must meet the special needs for growth, development and daily activity by eating a healthy diet. It is important for children to eat a variety of healthy foods to meet these special needs.

Children have unique nutritional needs. Not only must they meet their requirements for daily activity, but they must also meet the special needs of growth and development. It essential that children receive all the nutrients they need to ensure that they both grow and develop normally. It is difficult to make up later, for poor nutrition in childhood.

The Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents are designed to help children choose foods that will promote healthy growth and development. The guidelines are:

Encourage and support breastfeeding.

Children and adolescents need sufficient nutritious foods to grow and develop normally.