According to the American Heart Association, childhood obesity is now the number one health concern among parents in the United States topping drug abuse and smoking. One way to make this concern among parents vanish is all elementary schools in the United States should change their school lunches to freshly cooked meals in order to prevent childhood obesity. The following paragraphs will cover: the cost and benefits of fresh vs. processed foods, the long and short term effects unhealthy school lunches have on children, and the interest the government takes on providing healthy meals. On the other hand, points will also be raised if parents are at fault for this epidemic, and does it really matter what children are consuming as long as they …show more content…
As convenient as it is for schools to put a Smucker’s Uncrustable pb&j into a brown paper bag with a side of chips and call it “lunch” doesn't necessarily mean it is the most beneficial to a child's health. Why does it matter if elementary school students are choosing baked chicken with veggies over pb&j with chips? To start off, one important benefit which comes from the consumption of fresh whole foods is that it’s linked to improving the ability to learn. Children who are malnourished show more signs of weak immune systems while children who eat healthy tend to be stronger. This is important because the healthier the child is the less likely they are to miss school due to “sick days”. Another study shows children who have high sugar and high processed diets have more behavioral problems and are less likely to be attentive. The Center of Parent Education explains this by stating how simple carbohydrates (processed and high sugar foods) cause our bodies to spike with energy for a short period of time, but after being processed the negative effects begin to take place i.e., trouble cooperating, drowsiness, and a lack of focus. Young children already have small attention spans to begin with, and this is another reason why healthy foods should be a priority. Although processed foods are convenient and cost friendly they are linked to a …show more content…
Not only does childhood obesity have dangerous long term effects, there are also short term effects to consider. According to the CDC,1 out of 5 children are overweight; this number has tripled since 1970. Which means in the average elementary class of 25, 5 of those students suffer from childhood obesity. Why does this matter though? To start off, children who suffer from childhood obesity are more likely to get bullied by peers and have a low self-esteem. It is difficult to perform to full potential standards when the feeling of peer judgement is lingering around youth, especially at younger ages when children are very vulnerable. Secondly, children are in school from kindergarten to 12th grade -- if bad eating habits are developed through poor school lunch choices then long term effects can definitely start to weigh in. Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and joint complications are only a few of the many long term effects of carrying childhood obesity into adult years. These studies show why it is so important to start children off on the right foot. Schools not only provide education, but should also provide lunch options that will set kids up for a long healthy life. Therefore why hasn't it been done? Well, eating whole fresh foods is not on the budget friendly
Conclusion: Childhood obesity is an ongoing battle in the 21st century, but is slowing getting better. If high schools changed their diet plan and made more healthy choice for lunch, it would teach students to make the healthier choice. Having a healthy diet benefits students in all the right ways to feeling good about themselves to being able to focus longer and do better in school. If America wants to have a bright future then the high sodium and fat meals need to be changed in order to have an attentive future. Diet is everything and affects every part of our lives and young student’s lives as well. Changing the diet would be and is worth it. The parents need to talk to their children and teach through example what it means to live a healthy life style so they can follow in their footsteps. Students need to learn the healthy choices to do better in school.
This documentary takes a look at how our school’s lunch programs and government play a role in the spread of obesity across the nation. The film really attempts to drive home the idea that our children are being immorally brainwashed into wanting unhealthy foods. At some points of the film, it appears that the director uses big companies and school lunches as a scapegoat for our nations crisis. It is a valid point that our nation’s children are being
Schools are meant to give our children a healthy and nurturing environment, and yet so much of the lunches in schools are fattening; does this stop schools from achieving the aforementioned goal? Childhood obesity in the United Sates continues to be a growing problem despite so any new programs to help combat it, and new research is showing how schools may be playing a large role in childhood obesity. School lunches are showing to be the problem, they encourage poor nutrition in our nation’s students, and simple reform is proving to not be enough to stop the rise in obesity rates.
“Our Schools need to start teaching kids how to be healthy.”- Unknown. School lunches have created a chronic problem in a school setting, and since it hasn't been fixed, 6-11 year olds have had a 17% increased chance of becoming obese (Centers for Disease control and Prevention). Most school districts don't even bother changing the food restrictions just so they can please their students. Unhealthy school lunches are a huge problem among children in the United States, it can cause obesity, stress, and many other problems.
Childhood Obesity is a child who is overweight, because of high intake of sugar and fat in daily meals and not enough fibre and nutrients, lacking of physical actives in the outdoors, child hood obesity leads to asthma, depression, and asthma and diabetes. childhood obesity leads to further problems in a child 's life not only physically, but mentally, it can change a child 's whole look on life. Also a child who is obese will have to visit a health care provider and dentist more than a child who isn 't, to ensure everything is functioning like it should be, also to ensure white blood cells and red blood cells are normal, as well as sugar level. Obesity is also caused by disorders or syndromes. O
“More than 76 percent of schools sell soft drinks and sweetened fruit drinks, but fewer than half offered bottles water. Fewer than 15 percent sell low-fat or nonfat yogurt, and fewer than one third order skim milk. Only 25 percent of schools say they've reduced fats and oils in recipes.”(Spake, 2). Choices at lunch range from greasy to unidentifiable. Most students eat school lunches five days a week. So most of the food they eat throughout the week comes from the school cafeteria. Although, the schools do tend to offer healthy choices such as salads, subs, skim milk, and unlimited fruits and vegetables. “Each week Phoenix students are served a variety of fruits and vegetables from guava to grapes and jicima to red peppers. School officials hope that by exposing children to fruits and vegetable they may develop a taste for them and request their parents to buy them.”(Bailey, 1). Real meat is becoming an issue in schools. “According to reports issued by the Physicians Committee for responsible Medicine (PCRM) the USDA dumps hundreds of millions of pounds of surplus beef, chicken, cheese, and pork on the National School lunch Program.”(Lord, 42). Chicken isn't whole white meat; some of it doesn't even taste like meat! Let’s move on to unhealthy foods. There are unlimited amounts of un...
A child who is obese is automatically more likely to be exposed to a variety of health hazards throughout his or her life. It is estimated that “15 percent of children between six and nineteen suffer from obesity” (Lee and Sprague). A person who is deemed obese, is someone who has “a body fat percentage of more than 25 percent in boys and 32 percent in girls” (Lee and Sprague). Being severely overweight exposes you to more diseases than someone who is not overweight. Obese people “are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes . . . [from] being overweight” (Lee and Sprague). Some health issues, such as hypertension, heart attacks, and cancer can be obtained from being obese. There is also a great risk of “heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and other chronic illnesses” when you are obese (“Hope”). high cholesterol as well as high blood pressure. Being obes...
Christopher Magryta it asserts in his article about all the cases of the obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes cases in North Carolina, and also any other place in world. (Magryta, Christopher J., 352) Nutrition all starts at home and parents need to learn the right nutrition before they can teach their children about nutrition. As a reader many would agree with this because parents and home is where it all starts at and home is where everything is most influenced. Some of the leading cause of childhood obesity can start from poor eating, little activity, and, many other distractions involving not being active. Schools in this community of North Carolina and also many other places in the world explain how the schools are providing all junk food in their meals, “In our local schools, a daily choice of a pizza, hamburger, French fries, and other low-nutrient quality foods are being offered to our children.” (Magryta, Christopher J.,
Some people fail to see the true impact childhood obesity can have on a child's life. Children tending to overeat; they don’t understand that something that tastes so yummy could actually be bad for them. And with the cheaper pre-processed food usually being unhealthier calorie choices, people are unwilling to buy the more expensive fruits or vegetables that are required to build a good nutritional foundation. Plus, every generation has something that rubs off on the next generation; obesity is something that repeats through multiple generations, making the problems worse. “Parental attitudes to food, along with the kind of eating and leisure activities engaged in as a family and the level of support, are prim...
Dawn Harsley presents her stance in this hot topic. She states that because sugars and sweets are much cheaper, most parents will feed their children those unhealthy options due to the fact that they are less costly (April 2014). Expense is certainly no excuse to not feeding children the best options available to them. Parents could easily find other options, however, it will not be an easy
According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years,” meaning that America’s children need to start eating healthier, including healthier school lunches. The National School Lunch Act is a fairly recent addition to American society. For, as the world waged war a second time, the United States began to worry about the strength and health of the country’s soldiers. However, in the beginning, selling excess agricultural goods was more important than building a healthy, well-balanced meal for students. Unfortunately, many children coming from poorer families could not afford well-balanced school lunches, so in order to compensate, the School Lunch Program changed its focus to help these students. This program, however, decreased schools’ lunch budgets, and schools had a hard time keeping up with the amount of free meals they had to provide, so they came up with some extra ways to increase revenue. However, in a small town in Massachusetts, one chef makes a difference in the health of the school lunch students eat each day, and proves that hiring a trained chef to cook real, healthy meals can increase profit. Unfortunately, that is not the case in most schools across the nation. The quality of health of the food being served in school lunches is extremely poor and was allowed to decline even more with a new set of rule changes. However, there are some improvements currently being made to increase the quality of health of the food being served to students, including teaching them all about food and its nutritional information, both good and bad. In order for students to eat healthier lunches at school, the USDA needs to implement healthier ...
First of all, an increasing amount of kids are becoming overweight because their schools pressure them to eat sugary, fatty, and high-calorie foods. Not only do many schools promote consumption of harmful foods, many schools also actively serve them in school lunches. In 1963, 4% of kids were obese; currently, approximately 17% of kids are obese. Some might argue that kids themselves are the reason for the increase, because school lunches also provide healthier foods. Unfortunately, most kids do not have much of a choice - healthier foods are priced much higher than their unhealthy counterpart, consequently many parents do not want their kids to buy the more expensive, yet healthier product. In my 3½ years ...
This could lead to depression, low self-esteem and they can then become socially withdrawn. Obesity can have many consequences that can affect the growth and development of children. Obesity is looked at as a contagious disease instead of just being different. Society is helping promote that something is wrong with obese people. More focus needs to not be on children being different but what educators and parents can do.
Childhood obesity that is due to food insecurity has great influence over children’s health and future. The consequences of childhood obesity include diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, poor academic performance, behavioral problems, school absenteeism, and greater risk of obesity as an adult (O’Connor).
It causes heart diseases from high cholesterol and high blood pressure, asthma, and type 2 diabetes, and other health conditions. Obese children can have weight related health problems all the way into adulthood. This is something we need to resolve not only does it because physical pains but also psychological issues. Obese children tend to have low self-esteem and other social problems because of their weight. This is caused from the discrimination that overweight children and adults can face in their life.