Life Time picks Deephaven school for nutrition overhaul

Life Time Fitness picked Minnetonka's Deephaven Elementary School as the test site for its efforts to improve student nutrition and exercise. The Chanhassen company, which operates 90 fitness clubs, chose Deephaven out of 25 interested schools because 53% of its students indicated they would support a revised school lunch menu and improve their diets at home. (Well, make that 53% of parents signed documents saying they would support the new menu and try to have their kids eat better and exercise.)

Life Time announced this initiative last year, hoping to prove that it could cost-effectively turn around the health of one school and transform that successful model to others across the nation. It even made a compelling money-back guarantee that it would cover any additional costs caused by its initiative at the first test school.

I raised the question at the time of whether this model -- which is being tested at a suburban school of largely affluent families -- could succeed at urban schools with higher levels of poverty and obesity. I suppose it makes sense to start with somewhat of a stacked deck, testing the approach at higher-income schools first and then figuring out how it could work in more challenging environments.

According to the announcement, Life Time and Deephaven Elementary are conducting a "comprehensive review of current lunch menus, exercise curricula, and baseline data from parents and students" at the school. High on Life Time's agenda is the elimination of foods that contain "bleached flour, processed sugar, food coloring, high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, Trans fats, antibiotics and hormones currently in the food children consume."